Tell us about Southwest Missouri Safety Co. LLC. I opened this company in 2006. We (mainly serve) the construction and industrial areas for all (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations, first aid, CPR and OSHA 10-hour and 30-hour instruction. We also do (Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard training) and anything that pertains to safety issues. We do construction inspections on job sites (and) write safety programs specific to (companies’) needs. We hold classes monthly at our training center … and we have online training at our Web site. I have (two other) employees and expect to (add) a couple more before the summer’s over.
How did you get your start in the safety business? (United Rentals) asked if I’d stay on for 120 days, and that ended up being six years (as) a safety and maintenance coordinator.
Why did you decide to open your own safety business? It’s one of those things where, if you’re an entrepreneur, you take advantage of the situation, and your competition is limited in certain fields. In the safety field, there’s … Brittney Inc. in the Springfield area that’s local besides us. There’s a lot of individuals – probably a dozen – one-man shows that do it.
What are key safety issues for businesses? The four biggest that OSHA looks at in the construction industry are falls – that’s the big one – and electrocutions, (getting caught) in between something or struck by something. In the industrial or manufacturing end of it, hazardous communication is huge. … If somebody knocks over a bucket of acid, what do you do? Also, recordkeeping is going to be huge this year (for) OSHA reporting on accidents. Anybody that has 11 or more employees has to keep records.
How do you help companies come up with the right safety plan? We’ll sit down and do an interview and find out their specific needs, what kind of equipment they have and what kind of company they are. You don’t write a masonry contractor’s safety program and a general contractor’s safety program the same. … Everybody has to abide by OSHA standards. That’s a given. … We’ll sit down and do an interview and (inspect) different types of projects they do (and) write their program. If they want to hire us to do their monthly inspections, we’ll do their monthly inspections. If not, there’s no other obligation.
Do Ozarks employers overall have appropriate attitudes toward safety? What we’ve found in the industry is what we like to call the feel-good syndrome. Everybody feels good about their safety program until something happens. Then they panic, and that’s when we get a call. Or when OSHA walks in on them and starts writing fines. Probably overall, most people are very concerned about the safety programs they have at their companies, but that’s not top priority. The top priority is the bottom line.
How can accidents affect the bottom line? There’s been some very serious accidents. … One client – before he became our client – had (someone) fall 28 feet, and that one accident is costing him $700,000, because (the worker) hit the concrete floor … it busted him up. ... It could have been prevented.
Are most workplace accidents preventable? Every accident’s preventable. There’s no such thing as an unpreventable accident. Cutting your hand (while) slicing tomatoes could have been prevented if you hadn’t stuck your finger in front of the knife. … Workers’ compensation is a big deal for (our clients). We get a lot of calls where (the company is going to be) shut down because of their accidents, and … we set them up a program and get them ready … and that usually gets them by. [[In-content Ad]]
