The work season is here and moving at a swift pace. We’ve had great weather on all of our projects (less some high river water). The good weather is reflective in the needs and requests being made in our Monday morning Project Review Meetings. These joint meetings with our Project Managers are proving to be quite beneficial to all involved and I am pleased with the participation.

Let’s make every effort to capitalize on the beautiful days and accomplish the project goals that you have established. As we increase production we need to insure that all of our employees are properly trained within their scopes of work. This begins with establishing everyone with a mentor and complete safety training.

HBCC will continue to step up Safety and push you to the extreme, so “Plan your Safety” and be prepared! May we all give encouragement and show appreciation to our fellow employees. Remember our Core Values: Safety First, Quality, Integrity, and Teamwork. These values can be utilized everyday personally as well as professionally – the rewards are endless.

Kenny Hill

WORKPLACE VALUES:

Company Policies – Why do we need them?

“I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day”.       

~Abraham Lincoln

Please understand that policies are written to protect a company from those who break the rules, not from those who follow them.

In the beginning days of a new company, when there are only a few employees, it’s easier to monitor what everyone is doing and let everyone know what is expected of them. However, when a company grows and takes on additional personnel it becomes apparent that policies have to be written to protect the employees and the company from abuse. Because unfortunately, some employees begin to take advantage of their work environment, e.g., sick days, tardiness, excessive breaks or spending too much time attending to personal affairs, etc.

Employers would like to believe that their employees will maintain the best interests of the company. Regrettably, there will always be employees that put their own personal interests before the company's.  If this wasn’t true, there would not be a need for policies.  It is important to know that company’s policies are legal documents and ultimately represents a contract with the company and its employees.

Too bad that the ideology of Lincoln’s time has passed when a hand shake was a person’s policy but, the time is always right to do what is right.

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right.

Sharon Goolsby

Safety Update

Safety! How can I help?

Many throughout our company exhibit tremendous interest in improving our safety program. After all, injuries affect us all in many different ways. Injuries affect our moral, profits, insurance cost, ESOP, ability to bid work, etc, etc.

There are several ways that we all can help:

1. Involvement: Stay proactive in the safety program by identifying hazards. Attend the safety meetings and STARRT meetings. Teach the new employees how to work safely.

2. Accountability: Hold yourself and everyone around you accountable for the safety in your area. Don’t be afraid to let someone know if things aren’t safe.

3. Culture: Make safety a part of everything you do.

4. Fight Fraud: Help us keep an eye out for false injury claims. 10% - 20% of all injury claims are false or inflated. Report these potential false claims to the corporate office.

5. Do it Right: Don’t get caught in the trap of “it will only take a second” or “I’ve always done it this way and nothing ever happened.” Stop all unsafe actions immediately and don’t take shortcuts.

Practice these simple steps and you will have a positive impact on our safety program. Nothing could be worse than knowing you could have prevented an accident by speaking up and chose not too!

Benton Elliott