Denham-Blythe earns First Place AGC of America 2020 Construction Excellence Award

Culture
Denham-Blythe incorporates safety into every aspect of its business model, from concept to completion. Safety is a core value within company that is led by executive example, bleeding into every fiber of company culture. We believe that every person assigned to a project has equal rights to a hazard-free workplace with the ability to stop unsafe acts. Understandably, it can be challenging to establish a true company culture. Over the past ten years, Denham-Blythe has worked incessantly toward achieving our current status.

Presently, Denham-Blythe has over 1.5 million manhours without a lost time injury and has not had a recordable incident in 14 months. We have learned that by maintaining focus on leading indicators and continual improvement, the lagging indicators—such as metrics, will follow in positive trends. Every individual on our team has a professional obligation to earnestly pursue the values of our company with safety being one. One of the biggest challenges we had to overcome was the redefining the perception of safety being a competing entity for efficiency and quality. Once we understood how to ensure that safety, efficiency, and quality complement each other, it changed our team’s outlook and had a very positive effect on company culture. At Denham-Blythe, value steers the direction of the company and safety is invaluable to us.

Operations
Our EHS team is comprised of seven safety professionals, all with extensive knowledge in the safety field. To help effectively manage our safety program at a project level, Denham-Blythe safety professionals are responsible for completing frequent job site inspections, taking part in the job hazard analysis process, investigating and managing incidents, among a myriad of other responsibilities. At the corporate level, safety professionals are responsible for overseeing the company’s safety program in addition to working closely with project managers and subcontractors to prepare site-specific documentation. Safety has a presence in every facet of operational business at Denham-Blythe.

Continual Improvement
A continual improvement plan forces companies to ask the tough questions: “Where we are effective? Where are we failing? and How can we be better?” Our passion for continued improvement has pushed us to explore ways to evaluate our safety management system at a company level using a safety committee in conjunction with a continuous improvement model (developed by the National Safety Council). Our safety committee consists of a cross-section of company team members, executives, safety professionals, and field staff who meet monthly to evaluate improvement. The continual improvement model by the NSC guides the meetings in a way that by the end of the year, we will have evaluated every aspect of our safety management system. We value our safety committee having two-way communication utilizing the different perspectives represented based on their individual roles and responsibilities. The safety committee is a very important piece to continual improvement in our company.

AGC and Denham-Blythe
AGC has been a vital resource for Denham-Blythe, providing essential guidance for some of the difficult safety challenges in the construction industry, while also serving as a valuable networking resource for like-minded companies who face similar challenges. AGC has helped us raise the standards of Denham-Blythe’s safety program through our partnership with the AGC PROTECT program. The PROTECT program has provided Denham-Blythe with several training opportunities in addition to an unbiased viewpoint on our local projects through PROTECT site inspections. Additionally, being an AGC member has given us the ability to participate in the planning and execution of the annual AGC Safety, Issues, and Education conference. The annual AGC of Kentucky conference is a great event that provides a day of extensive networking and education for employers across the state of Kentucky.

The Award Process
Participants complete an application form and submit it to AGC of America or through their local AGC Chapter. Members of the national AGC Safety & Health Committee review and judge the submissions at the annual Construction Safety & Health Conference. The finalists in each divisional category then compete at the AGC National Convention for either a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place award. Finalists must then give an oral presentation in front of a panel of five highly qualified judges who determine the first place winners.