For financial and ethical reasons, it's critical for electrical contractors to foster a healthy job site culture and prevent a toxic environment. This way, contractors can support workers’ overall physical and mental well-being.

A top-down approach

Leaders foster job site culture. So if contractors have a toxic culture, it’s up to leadership to change it, said Pam Walaski, owner of RiverLure OSH Services, Templeton, Pa., and immediate past president of the American Society of Safety Professionals.

“David Marquette wrote a book, ‘Turn This Ship Around,’ and he says a bad system beats a good person every time,” Walaski said. “So I think it’s really important to appreciate that changing a toxic culture starts at the top.”

It’s also critical to provide opportunities for workers to ask questions and bring mistakes forward or identify drift from procedure, she said. This is especially true for workers closest to the hazards and, therefore, to the solutions. These workers are sometimes referred to as “the sharp end of the stick.”

Walaski recommends a specific kind of collaborative practice called learning teams or learning reviews. Instead of an accident investigation, which is an enforcement-­focused approach where safety professionals look for evidence, interview witnesses and corroborate testimony, a learning team or learning review is about understanding what happened from those who were there. It’s about learning the story of the incident rather than determining who’s at fault.

“Learning teams and learning reviews are a really good practice that organizations could incorporate and use to understand incidents, and are also effective in reviewing high-hazard tasks to determine the best and safest approaches,” she said.

While it can be tough to encourage workers to maintain healthy behaviors outside of work, there are some things contractors can do to support their well-being, Walaski said.

“Contractors should take a closer look at how they are working with their medical providers around pain management for injuries,” she said. “They should think about how time off is used or abused or available to their workers. Contractors should encourage people to stay home when they’re sick as opposed to coming to work.”

“You can’t separate a worker’s health when they clock in,” she said. “You can’t just say, 'well, you have heart disease or you have high blood pressure or you’re addicted to opioids, but we’re not going to worry about that. We’re just going to make sure you’re wearing your PPE.' You can’t disconnect the two. We’re starting to see that those things are all tied together, and so worker well-being is just as important as traditional worker safety.”

Total worker health

Walaski is a contributing author of “The Wiley Guide to Strategies, Ideas and Applications for Implementing a Total Worker Health Program” published last November. Total worker health is a concept developed and promoted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

A total worker health approach is based on the premise that the prioritization of organizational-­level policies, programs and practices oriented toward worker safety, health and well-being can ultimately help prevent or reduce injury and illness, including problems in mental health and chronic disease, and improve productivity, said Chia-Chia Chang, coordinator for partnership and new opportunity development in the NIOSH Office for Total Worker Health.

“Implementing these policies, programs and practices at the enterprise level can help foster a supportive company-wide culture that is sustainable, beyond changes in leadership alone,” Chang said. “Putting total worker health into action means emphasizing upstream approaches like the hierarchy of controls [and] an efficient use of limited resources. Worker well-being means a thriving workforce, sustainable businesses and a competitive economy.”

Safety culture on job sites begins with each trade’s culture within their organization, then ideally should be supported by the site-specific culture built or fostered by each individual job site, said Rachel Stull, safety manager for Hatzel & Buehler Inc.’s Washington, D.C., branch in Beltsville, Md.

Building a healthy culture

Staff should walk onto each site knowing their role in safety and how to keep their work in a lower risk category as much as possible, Stull said. From there, they can formulate a plan to integrate with site-specific rules, paperwork and other needs. It all starts in-house with training, policy and regulation knowledge, communication, teamwork and accountability.

“If staff have a strong culture within their organization, that message will continue to sites through our staff—no matter the individual site culture,” she said. “Build relationships with your staff and encourage them to always set the standard no matter where they might be physically working.”

Working with sites that have a toxic culture can be very difficult, and it can be taxing on even the best supported in-house cultures, Stull said. It’s critical to encourage staff to continue doing the right thing with more visits and interactions. Appreciate and recognize their hard work, and hold others accountable as much as possible.

“Additionally, sites should aim for attainable safety goals,” she said. “I’m a big fan of safety that really involves the people doing the task so we know the safety practices will work—getting feedback, testing processes out, communication between safety and the field.”

Workplace conversations

It’s important to promote site programs and a team culture that encourages workers to stay healthy, Stull said. Post literature for staff about accessible programs, such as free screenings. Communications can be centered around “themed months” to encourage personal health, from cancer to mental health and wellness. Promote healthy choice by offering healthier options in vending machines.

“Talking about tough issues like substance abuse, mental health, heart health, cancer and more can make team members that might be going through tough times feel like they are not alone,” she said. “Support team members going through things, even if it’s just a check-in on how they’re doing. Encouraging or training direct line supervisors on programs that might be available to staff and then promoting those through the year multiple times.”

Companies can foster a mentally healthy and physically safe job site by communicating values such as transparency, teamwork and organization, said Matthew R. Pierce, vice president of safety, quality and productivity at EMCOR Group Inc., Norwalk, Conn.

“The challenge is maintaining standards consistent with those values, regardless of how they are communicated,” Pierce said. “Standards are maintained by what is consistently done, not by what is said or written. Preaching about the value of safety on site rings hollow if risks aren’t actively identified and mitigated.”

Job site culture can sour quickly if leaders “pencil whip” paperwork without really reading it, let some employees but not others get away with not wearing fall protection, or allow other bad behavior to persist, he said.

There are cases when other trades may tolerate unsafe practices, which can make it challenging for ECs to maintain standards.

“But don’t underestimate the power of doing it right,” Pierce said. “I have seen where a single contractor will raise the overall culture of a site because others see their culture and recognize the benefits of maintaining standards and rise to the expectations.”

When it comes to encouraging healthy lifestyles, there is a lot that employers can’t do, but there are some things that are in their control, such as providing a safe work environment filled with meaningful work and belonging and that does not exacerbate stresses, he said. Employees should feel valued, trusted and rewarded. This starts with good wages and benefits, and access to employee assistance programs.

“Teddy Roosevelt once said, ‘Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing,’” Pierce said. “ ... a sense of purpose and valued contribution is vital. Making it a reality can go a long way toward minimizing the many other challenges that employees deal with every day.”

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