Construction safety week is May 2-6, giving Prime Electric an opportunity to recommit sending every worker home safe, every day. My name is Annie Mathis, I have been a Safety Manager at Prime Electric for three and a half years with nine years of experience in Safety. Throughout my years in Safety, I can say that PRIME stands out from others simply because we cater to the human factor and people feel that.
The PRIME culture allows us to do our jobs authentically and from a place of love, which is the only truly effective way. This reflects in our TRIR and EMR numbers by being so far below industry standards.
If you have been a part of PRIME for at least a year, you know our culture around Safety is something to be expected. For those that are new to PRIME, I will share with you what to expect from this week. Safety is a core value and belief that we all share. This week, we will strengthen our safety culture and performance by sharing best practices, tools, resources and, as always, ourselves. Safety week originally started for the construction industry in 2014 with this goal–“Inspire everyone in the industry to be leaders in safety.” Throughout this week, the Prime Electric Safety team has designed a variety of topic discussions to execute this goal.
I have been asked, “In today’s world, what has been the most relevant topic to discuss in Safety?” Without a doubt, it has been mental health. We are living in a different world from 3 years ago and our industry has acknowledged that mental health plays a role in our day-to-day work. We keep hearing that everyone is waiting to go back to normal—we’re actually living in a new normal and we all must adjust and adapt to that. History has always shown us that there is no going backwards. Sometimes it’s easier said than done! However, here at PRIME, we live for this!
Therefore, our topics for Safety Week will be focused on our mental health, sharing ways to stay connected, and showing the importance of owning your own safety. In the last two days, we will be closing out the week with Continued Learning and demonstrations.
Safety is so important in our day-to-day lives, and we are beyond excited to have this whole week to celebrate the career that we have dedicated our lives to. We believe it is a connection that is seen and felt between our fellow workers on the job site, between office, management, and craft. We know that it can be hard to find a place for you to love yourself, that is why we want to give you space to be yourself. I want everyone to know that working safely does not end after this week but continues every day in our professional and personal lives. That is why I show up every day as a human, not an employee.
