SAFETY CORNER


Lessons Learned in Safety: Skanska’s Clark Peterson Shares Safety Best Practices


By Rich Howell, Swinerton H


ow do you create a culture of safety? It takes listening as well as


leadership. It takes effective training, attention to detail, data and dedication. And it takes safety professionals committed to applying lessons learned to make the industry safer for all. Safety professionals have been


successful at shifting safety culture in a positive direction over many decades because at every turn, they under- stood the importance of keeping those around them safe and then acted as safety leaders. Safety leaders challenge the status quo and create positive safety cultures. Clark Peterson, vice president


of environmental health & safety at Skanska, has learned a lot about construction safety during his 24 years with the company. He has been involved with the AGC Safety & Health Council for nine years and was the AGC Safety and Health Council chair in 2015. Continuing our Q&A series with


past and present AGC of California safety leaders, we asked Peterson to share his journey and a few of his top lessons learned in safety over the years.


What was your personal journey like to become a safety leader, and what experiences or lessons brought you to where you are now?


I started out as a craft laborer for


Skanska. I believe being in the trades and physically doing the work made me understand and appreciate the demands of our craft people. As a safety profes- sional I have had the highs of going eight years without a lost time injury in our Rocky Mountain region and the lowest of lows when we experi- enced three fatalities on one project


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in Florida. I have had to temper my passion for safety to learn how to influence the people in our organization. I have been lucky in the mentors that I have had throughout my career to help guide me on better ways to influence our people.


do not demand excellence like other industries and award contracts to low bidders who do not even comply with basic OSHA standards. We are constantly re-training and


Clark Peterson


culturally influencing the workers that come to our organization. We overcome this by our actions that demonstrate our commitment to our “care for life” value.


How do you instill a sense of safety in employees on an ongoing basis?


You must demonstrate through


Why is safety a core value at your organization?


Tere is nothing worth more


than the life and wellbeing of our employees. We will be remembered more for the relationships that we create, and the culture on our projects, than the projects we build. At Skanska we hold our “care for life” value as a foundational piece of our business. What we see, hear, read, reflect


upon, experience, etc. causes us to develop an opinion (belief) about something. Tis belief gives us an understanding or misunderstanding, which, in turn, allows us to appraise the worth of it (value). At Skanska, the core values of our company are only fulfilled through leadership in action.


What is the biggest obstacle to safety in your company and how do you work to overcome it?


Our current market is one of the


biggest challenges to overcome. Te fight for talent from the craft level all the way to the top executive is at an all-time high. Turnover is at the highest level I have ever seen it. Te skilled workforce is dwindling in numbers while the need is growing every year. Combined with that is the construction industry has too much variability on safety. Our public clients


your actions the expected behavior. You do this through constant contact and communication.


How does your organization measure safety?


We measure leading indicators in


the following categories: competency, culture, communication, controls, and contractors. For each category we establish targets for specific actions (drivers) that we then correlate back to improvement in safety. We see room for improvement in understanding qualitative indictors vs quantitative.


How do you recognize employees for positive safety performance?


We do not give out awards for


safety. We publicly recognize the specific desired behaviors (leadership) that make our people safe.


What program or policy has had the biggest impact on safety at your company?


I wouldn’t say any given policy


or process has had the biggest effect on safety. It has been our leadership’s action of engaging craft, communi- cating expectations, supporting right actions, and being champions of all of our policies and processes. 


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