Category: Fewer 100,000 Annual Man-Hours
Winner: Ronsco, Inc., New York, New York
Ronsco, Inc. believes a successful safety program is managed in a three-pronged approach. The first is that management must make a sincere and visible commitment to safety. Ronsco’s managers always wear their required personal protective equipment. They discipline employees for unsafe practices and acknowledge and reward them for working safely.
Ronsco also practices continuous on- and off-the-job safety training and hazard awareness programs, so that employees are constantly engaged in safety practices. All accidents and near-misses are reviewed at quarterly foreman and safety training meetings, to eliminate repeats and avoid new problems. Furthermore, 40 of the company’s 47 full-time employees have acted as either a safety representative or a safety director.
Ronsco also relies on AWCI’s eSafetyLine Web-based Safety Software.
Ronsco’s management says its safety program saves the company money in estimating, pre-job planning, direct and indirect costs and gives it a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Good safety measures also help keep your labor force intact.
According to Lee Zaretzky, Ronsco’s president, “Lost time and retraining can affect your bottom line by 10 percent or greater. This is especially true if a foreman or key person with a specific skill set is injured, leaving you scrambling to cover multiple projects and not giving full attention as you normally would, creating inefficiencies. If you must retrain employees or other available employees are not as productive as the injured employee, it costs you money. We notice improved cash flow available as a result of minimal injuries.”
