I.D.I.'s 100% Hard Hat Policy

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees:  I just wanted to shoot out a reminder to all regarding our 100% hard hat policy.  We have recently had to issue several written safety warnings due to employees not wearing their hard hats while working.  This policy has been in place for many years and we are confident that all employees know the policy.  The policy is also gone over with all new hires during safety orientation.

We need for all employees to be wearing their hard hats for several reasons.  The #1 reason is for your safety.  Other reasons are that it is good for public relations with our clients, it is required by most of our clients and hard hats are an OSHA requirement based on most of the tasks we perform.

There are no excuses for not wearing your hard hat.  Our Safety Director & Superintendents are required to enforce this policy for your safety.  We have also trained our Safety Coordinators on enforcing our safety policies.  If a Safety Coordinator or any employee at I.D.I. advises you to put on your hard hat, they are doing you a favor. Our Safety Coordinators also have the authority to issue written safety warnings to employees not following our 100% hard hat policy.

Please keep in mind that the hard hat is not only required while you are performing a task. The hard hat is required at all times during your work shift except for during your break periods such as lunch.  Please keep in mind that if you are taking a break for lunch, etc., and then you are going to roam the job site such as to use the restroom, you are also required to wear your hard hat while roaming the job site as other trades may still be working.

If you have any questions regarding our 100% hard hat policy, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

From the "I Caught You" Series!

Below are 4 employees who were recently caught working safely.

Great job gentlemen!

Julian "Chano" Nunez working safely on a scaffold.
Great job with the scaffold plan & set up - Mark!

Miguel Rodriguez & Jose Rodriguez using safe lifting
mechanics & lifting in unison to prevent a back or
joint injury - Great job fellas!

Acoustic carpenter, Chris Frankowski working on stilts.
Great job Chris on ensuring your floor is clean and broom swept!

Injury-Free July Goal (Final Update)

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees:  I just wanted to provide everyone with a final update regarding our final results of how we did in July as far as going injury-free.  As we reported previously, we did have one minor injury on 7/18/12 which involved debris in the eye.  This was a no-lost time injury.  That was our only July incident that required medical care.  The following shows our past 3 years of how many injuries we had during the month of July:  2011 = 3, 2010 = 2, 2009 = 5.  So with that being said, we did have a successful reduction in our injury frequency during the month of July for 2012 being that we had one minor incident involving medical care.

Great job everyone on coming together as a team and reducing our July injury frequency rate as compared to recent history.  We have 3 months to go in our current insurance policy year which ends on 10/31/12.  We are currently in the midst of having one of our best years over the past 13 years.  As most of you know, we have a safety goal regarding our injury costs.  Our goal is to be at $0.50 cents injury cost per man hours worked.  As we speak, we are currently at $0.22 cents injury cost per man hours worked.  If we can finish out the next 3 months with going injury-free, we will have completed our safety year worked as a company over the past 13 years. 

What does all of this mean to you?  It means that you are working for a safe company that cares about you. It means that our insurance premium will go down and this will give us a more competitive advantage on our future bids to obtain work.  This in turn means that we would have more projects that we need to man with employees meaning more people employed and able to provide for their families.  

Please continue to do your part and do everything in your power to not sustain an injury. Everyone in the company benefits when there are no injuries, especially you and your loved ones!

Have a Safe Day!

Next Quarterly Safety Meeting: 9/8/12 on Fall Protection

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees:  All employees are invited to attend our 3rd quarterly safety meeting for 2012 which will be held on Saturday, September 8th from 7:00am to about 9:00am.  The safety training topic will be on Fall Protection.  The meeting will be held at our office location in the warehouse at 28059 W. Commercial Ave., Barrington, IL 60010.  We last trained on fall protection at our August 2010 quarterly safety meeting so it's time for a refresher for our tenured employees and maybe some new safety training for the new hires.

We will provide more information to everyone as we get closer to the meeting.  For now, we just want to get the word out to everyone with the date so you can mark this on your calendars.

We encourage everyone to attend for several reasons of which the most important reason is for your safety.  We look forward to seeing you on September 8th.  Should you have any questions regarding this upcoming safety meeting, please call our Safety Director, Peter Graham at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Injury Free July Goal - Update (1 minor Injury)

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees:  As you know, we have been promoting going injury free in July as July happens to be our highest injury frequency month for the past 5 years.  I wanted to provide an update to everyone as we recently had an injury on 7/18/12. Fortunately for the injured worker and for I.D.I., the injury was a no lost-time injury.  The injury involved a drywall hanger who was fastening drywall when a drywall screw that he was fastening with broke and the drywall hanger got a piece of debris in his right eye.  The drywall hanger and lead supervisor believe that a piece of the screw struck the right eye.  They cleaned the eye out with eye wash and the drywall hanger then continued working.  His eye felt fine the rest of the day other than some minor irritation.  The next morning when he woke up, his eye was bloodshot and irritated.  The injured worker sought medical care.  The doctor flushed his eye out and did not find any metal in the eye, however, the doctor advised that his eye was irritated and the doctor gave the injured worker eye drops and some pain medication to help with the irritation.  The injured worker was released to full duty work and he has a follow up appointment on Monday.  This turned out to be a minor injury in the big scheme of things.  The injured worker was wearing safety glasses when the incident occurred.  Our company is looking into the fastener screws that were being used to see if there is a problem with them.

So, all that being said, we won't be going injury-free this July, however, we can still have a good safe month by not having more injuries on top of this one.  The goal remains the same.  Let's work together as a team to do whatever we can to help prevent any more occurrences.  At least in this case, the injured worker was wearing eye protection so there wasn't much more that he could have done to prevent this.  Thank goodness this eye injury wasn't any more serious than it was.

We will keep you updated as July moves along.

Have a Safe Day!

Injury-free July After 2 Weeks!

Below is a flyer that was inserted into everyone's paycheck envelope two weeks ago as July historically happens to be our highest injury frequency month.  After 2 weeks completed in July; so far, so good. We have had ZERO INJURIES - great job everyone on coming together as a team and making this happen. We still have 17 days to go in July so lets not let our guard down on the battle against injuries. Make everyday count and do whatever you can to help prevent yourself or a co-worker from being injured.  

I also need to mention how awesome we are currently doing on our injury cost goal. One of our safety goals is to be at $0.50 injury cost per man hours worked or better. We are currently at $0.25 injury cost per man hours worked which is terrific.  Keep in mind that we still have 3 1/2 months left in our current year, however, we are in position to have our safest year over the past 15 years.  

July historically happens to be our highest injury frequency month.  For the past 5 years, July has lead in this category.  This trend is most likely due to several factors.  Some of those factors are that we do get busier in July, extreme summer heat leading to fatigue and employees not focused on the task at hand due to their minds being on summer activities, family fun, etc.  

What can we do to combat this and reverse the trend?  As far as summer heat, I encourage you to read the article posted on our safety blog dated June 19^th, 2012.  The safety blog address is www.safetypete.blogspot.com.  As far as I.D.I. getting busier in July; that is true, we are very busy this month with several school projects, tenant work, etc., which means we have an increased work force working more hours which increases our injury risk.  To combat this, that means each individual should take it upon himself to focus on the task at hand and pre-plan safety into your task.  We are challenging everyone in the company to help us to reverse this negative trend and to help us reach our short term safety goal of having ZERO INJURIES IN JULY.  To reach this goal, we need your help.  Safety Coordinators play a big role in this effort.  Let's not just go through the motions in July in performing our toolbox talks.  Let's get the crews together and get serious about our Monday morning toolbox talk training.  Pick a topic that pertains to the type of task, equipment, job site conditions or hazards you are facing and read the toolbox talk to the crew. Then have a discussion about the topic so that everyone has a clear understanding and focus on safety. You can make a difference.  

If you need safety assistance at your project, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day & Safe July!

Red Tape on All 3-Pronged Electrical Tools & Extension Cords!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees:  All Safety Coordinators should have been provided a roll of red electrical tape.  We began a new quarter on 7/1/12 for our Assured Grounding Program.  You are to inspect, test and color-code with red tape all 3 pronged electrical tools and extension cords.  All electrical tools and cords need to be visually inspected.  If you see any defects in the cords such as bare wires, severe kinks, missing or damaged ground prong, the cord pulling away from the plug end housing, etc., then that tool or cord would need to be immediately removed from service and reported to the lead person.  If your tool/cord passes the visual inspection, your next step is to test the cord with a receptacle tester.  First, you should test the oulet that you will be plugging your cord into to ensure that it is properly wired.  You should see 2 yellow lights lit up on your tester and the red light should be off.  This means the outlet is working appropriately.  Next, plug your cord into the outlet and then test the cord with the receptacle tester.  Again, you should see the same light pattern as mentioned above and this would mean the cord passed the test and it is good and safe to use.  Any other light pattern means that there is a problem with the cord and the cord needs to be removed from service and reported to your lead person.  If the cord passes the visual inspection and the cord tester test, you should then remove the previous quarter's green electrical tape and install the red electrical tape about 1" down from both plug ends.  Your cord is now in compliance with our 3rd quarter's Assured Ground Program.  The red tape shall remain in place from 7/1/12 through 9/30/12.  You are not quite done yet!  You now need to visually inspect all electrical cords and tools on a daily basis and if any defects are found, the cord needs to be immediately removed from service.  Thank you for taking the time to ensure your electrical tools and cords are in safe working order.  Your actions may prevent one of our family members from sustaining an electrical shock type injury or worse yet and electrocution.  If you have any questions regarding our Assured Grounding Program, please call our Safety Director, Peter Graham, at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!