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January 27, 2025

Specialty Contractor 500K to 1 million hours

Photo courtesy of UMC
Building upon UMC’s successful safety standards, the company incorporated psychological safety into its pride-based safety program, working for all team members to feel physically and psychologically safe in their work environment.

UMC

True innovation is not a new policy or using a new tool. It is a philosophy to think differently. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study saying that 40% of adults in the U.S. reported struggling with mental health or substance use, and 11% of adults seriously considered suicide. When breaking this data down into the various industries, the construction industry has the highest rate of suicide at 53.2 per 100,000 U.S. workers. That rate is four times greater than the national average and five times greater than all other construction fatalities combined, inspiring us to examine our program.

Building upon UMC’s successful safety standards, the company incorporated psychological safety into its pride-based safety program. This is a concept where people are physically and psychologically safe in their work environment. They are empowered to speak up and act, knowing that everybody is working toward the same goal and support. One of the best definitions of an excellent safety culture — even in a chaotic situation that is in the absence of direction, in changing conditions — is everybody knows exactly what to do.

One of the best ways to describe this is a military rescue team in adverse conditions. They go forward with confidence, knowing that they have a mission to complete and that everyone on the team is pulling for the success of the mission, and that under no circumstance will any team member be left behind. This mindset and mentality are key to having the most effective workforce possible.

Another way to describe the concept is by telling a story; every team member knows how the story is supposed to end because they’re all working together to try to make that story a reality. In a film, we often treat the workforce as extras; however, we focus on making each team member feel like a main character. The protagonist knows how they contribute and help successfully complete the mission.

This is not a training program but a different way to engage individually with each team member. It will take some time to be fully incorporated throughout the organization. UMC has piloted it with its foremen and trained the concept to peers in industry training, where the company has garnered rave reviews. UMC reports already seeing a considerable change in motivation and engagement. These micro-missions keep every member driving towards common goals with unlimited support. Another aspect is that all decisions and all resources are utilized with the mission’s success in mind with 100 percent involvement.


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