At Mid-States Concrete Industries, we practice six World-Changing Behaviors:
Safety before all else
Yes! attitude
Be candid
Put yourself in someone else’s shoes
Practice the four referability habits
Show up on time
Do what you say you are going to do
Finish what you start
Say please and thank you
Be a little weird!
In honor of Construction Safety Week, which is May 5 to May 9 this year, we want to shine a spotlight on our first world-changing behavior – safety before all else.
“Safety starts with, basically, getting up in the morning and it starts with being a human being,” said Hagen Harker, president of Mid-States Concrete.
Hagen frequently speaks with our new staff members and asks a couple of key questions. The first – how many people would say, as a person, you have pretty good common sense? The second – And how many of you would say safety is basically good common sense? The third – how many of you have ever been injured - cut your finger, fallen off a ladder or worse? Finally – if safety is common sense, then why are you getting hurt?
“That is the story to training – the right tools, culture, auditing - that is the journey,” Hagen said.
We have many safety programs that we follow throughout our organization, according to Safety Specialist Jack MacDougall, including hazard communication and fall protection for both general industry standards as well as construction standards. All Mid-States foremen, supervisors, and managers complete OSHA 30-Hour training to increase their knowledge of hazard recognition and all-around safety. Additionally, we have a strong PPE policy which requires all team members to wear, at least, a hard hat, safety glasses, high vis vest or shirt, and steel toed boots anytime they are in a production area. Additional PPE is also required when completing certain tasks.
Safety Manager Tracy Miller added we also have first responders on all shifts in the plant and all field team members are first responders. Additionally, refresher training is completed every year for lockout/tagout, safety data sheets for hazard communication, forklift safety, crane safety, rigging, fall protection, and fire safety. This is just a small sampling of the safety policies and programs in place at our facilities.
“You can’t run a business if you have people out there getting injured,” Hagen said. “… It’s not just that safety is important, it is the process behind it, the commitment to the training, and auditing and the investment… the company takes the money we make and pours it back in.”
As a team, we are committed to safety. It is a part of our company culture. We are committed to safety in that we want the members of our team, and the members of the teams we work with, to go home to their families and their hopes and their goals and their dreams, in the same condition at the end of their shifts, as they were in when they arrived.
Safety is not the responsibility of just one person or one team. It is the responsibility of all team members, and a responsibility our team members take seriously. The team takes the responsibility so seriously, in fact, that our South Beloit plant has been OSHA SHARP certified since 2017. This program recognizes employers who have used OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program services and operate exemplary safety and health programs. Acceptance of a worksite into SHARP from OSHA is an achievement of status that singles you out among business peers as a model for worksite safety and health. Among the goals of the Safety Team is to get our plants in both Browntown and Germantown OSHA SHARP certified as well.
“No one person ever gets this thing done,” Hagen said. “It’s ingrained and it’s the care you show people as to why it’s important and help them to see that.”
Safety before all else.