Now the Safety Director and Business Services Specialist for Ed Bell Construction, Phillippe Falkner has worked numerous roles in his 20 years with the company, including Estimator, Project Manager, Operations Manager, Fleet Manager, and plenty more if you keep going. This also makes him a veteran user of different HCSS products that Ed Bell – in business since 1963 – relies on daily as a heavy highway specialized contractor in North Texas. Fulfilling jobs for the Texas DOT and local municipalities, they primarily cover concrete paving, roads, bridges, walls, storm drains and earthwork.
Winning 1st Place for the 4th Time
The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) holds their annual safety awards as a way to recognize excellence throughout the industry. Having approximately 150 employees, Ed Bell has achieved tremendous success in the “Highway & Transportation” division in the category of under 500,000 annual work hours.
“We got involved initially to improve our culture and improve our process,” Falkner says of how they first threw their hat in the ring about 11 years ago. “As we grew, we started competing. The first time we were chosen as a finalist was 2015. We actually won first place in 2018, 2019, 2021, and now 2023.”
The Horse Before the Cart
As Ed Bell has built up their safety program and culture, the biggest challenge has proved to be getting the buy-in of their employees and communicating with them at the highest level.
“A lot of people hear me say I'm not about checking boxes,” Falkner states. “I'm really after the adoption and engagement from my employees. Some companies may consider putting the cart before the horse, but we start at the bottom and really talk to our employees, listening to what their feedback is, and tailoring our program to get success metrics.”
About 3 years ago, Ed Bell started bringing their senior employees in to not just participate in training but also lead those training sessions as well – with some oversight by either third-party trainers or Falkner himself. Letting the employees train each other is a practice that has brought success in getting their engagement rates up.
“Making sure everybody here is involved in the creation of our program, not just pushing the program down onto the people,” Falkner adds about what makes their safety choices stand out in the industry. “I'm not the one in the trench or on the bridge. Our employees are what carries the voice of our safety culture forward.”
Looking at OSHA as a Baseline
When you ask Ed Bell what’s made them one of the safest contractors in the country, the answer is thinking outside the box, which means scrutinizing the smallest details that really make a jobsite safe.
“We look at OSHA as a baseline,” Falkner explains. “Things can be OSHA-compliant and not be the safest they can be. As we go out and talk to our employees, we pay attention to leading trends and indicators. It's not just about making sure everybody has a hard hat and a vest. It's really going, ‘Yes, we meet the minimums, but can we be better? This meets the specs and meets the criteria, but how could this really be as safe as possible?’”
For Ed Bell, this means not allowing themselves to be peer-pressured into copying industry models and templates.
“Every company's different,” Falkner continues. “Even though we're doing a lot of the same work, your people are different. The culture is different. Your method of completing the work is different.”
In addition to carving out their own unique path forward, another crucial practice that boosts their overall safety is not being afraid to admit when they’ve made mistakes and then learn from them.
“I know a number of contractors that, if something goes wrong and they have a near miss or a minor incident, they're quick to just bury it or not acknowledge what happened,” Falkner shares.
Oppositely, Ed Bell will be the first one to post a new hazard alert and ask how it happened and how they can avoid that same mishap going forward, using the incident as a teaching moment.
“When I have a near miss or even a minor incident, I want to get some of the best training that you can't buy through a mistake. I'm not afraid to reach out to my insurance company, OSHA, or peer companies and go, ‘Man, I got in the spot, what have you done when you've been in that spot?’”
In that sense, there’s really no substitute for not having an ego and displaying the courage to community-crowdsource an answer as to what the right path is for your workers
Two Pieces of Advice
Phillippe Falkner will openly discuss the fact they’ve learned some hard lessons at Ed Bell over the years. When given the chance to share advice with his industry peers, he has a couple offerings to share.
“Be focused on the success and the adoption,” Falkner reaffirms. “Don't don't get so wrapped up in, ‘I have a 100% percent with OSHA 10’ or ‘I have x amount of employees checked off to do x amount of things.’ Really go out and talk to your people and watch your people. Shoot for engagement, shoot for adoption.”
As for the second recommendation, the construction industry is continuing to diversify as it combats the labor shortage, which means a lot of new people are entering the industry.
“Remember that as a safety professional, the care and the condition and the safe return of your people home every night is your first and foremost priority,” Falkner states, “but you’ve still got to balance that with getting the work done. So don't be in opposition with your operations people. Work hand-and-hand with them. They're not the enemy. They shouldn't see you as the enemy. I always try to encourage people to see operations and safety like a married couple. You may disagree from time to time, but you're going to be a unified force.”
When you’re trying to build the job timely, safely, on budget, and maintain quality, safety is a huge component of pulling off such a massive task. Then again, just being safe isn't enough on its own. Getting every professional to work together is how to truly succeed.
“That's the way we've looked at it for ten years, and it's obviously worked for us,” Falkner concludes.
About Ed Bell Construction
If you’re interested in learning more about Ed Bell Construction Company, be sure to check out their website at www.edbellconstruction.com.
