Kaiser Electric President: If You Can’t Work Safe, You Can’t Work at Kaiser
Fenton, MO – Steve Giacin, president of Kaiser Electric, has made safety the number one priority at his company, telling his workers that safety is not negotiable, and if they don’t want to work safe, then Kaiser is not the company for them.
The awards case in Kaiser Electric’s front lobby is a testament to the company’s commitment to safety. Kaiser Electric was awarded a Work Safety Excellence Award at the American Subcontractors Association (ASA) – Midwest Council’s 20th Anniversary Awards Gala on April 13. In fact, Kaiser has qualified or received an ASA safety award 10 times out of the last 14 years. The criteria for the ASA Midwest Safety Awards is a rigorous process that evaluates a company’s complete commitment to the overall workplace safety and health environment for their employees. Factors considered are recordable injuries, days away lost time incident rates, ongoing safety training, a clear management commitment for safety, and employee participation in the safety process.
Giacin says he tirelessly promotes safety as a company culture and recently revamped Kaiser’s safety program to require that workers wear safety glasses and gloves at all times when on a job site. He has even provided workers with four different glove options for performing different tasks and implemented a safety inspection project form that project managers must complete each time they arrive on a job site.
Giacin also holds monthly meetings with his supervisors and bi-monthly meetings with his project management staff with safety always the first item on the agenda for every meeting.
“From management, to the supervisors to the actual field installers, we don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk,” Giacin said. “Creating a company culture for safety needs to start at the top, from my office, with me.”
Workers in violation of Kaiser’s tough safety standards are first given a verbal warning, followed by a written warning and suspension for not complying a second time. Giacin proudly boasts that his tough safety standards have resulted in an Experience Modification Rate (EMR) as low as .72 for the company. EMR is a number used by insurance companies to gauge both past cost of injuries and future chances of risk. The lower the EMR of a business, the lower its worker compensation insurance premiums will be. An EMR of 1.0 is considered the industry average.
About Kaiser Electric
Kaiser Electric has been providing electrical contracting and engineering services to the St. Louis metro area for more than 60 years. The company focuses primarily on industrial, commercial, healthcare, design/build and communications projects and employs 150 field electricians with a fleet of 50 vehicles. Kaiser Electric is headquartered in Fenton, MO with divisions in Central Missouri and Southern Illinois. For more information about Kaiser Electric, visit www.kaiserelectric.com or call 636-305-1515.