SSOE Group Provides Design Services to United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America for New Workforce Training Facility

Safety-Always Culture

A positive, proactive safety culture in the workplace is vital to our company’s success. At SSOE, a high level of importance is placed on safety values and attitudes. After all, fostering a safety-always culture is more than just a “check box” exercise, it’s a mindset that permeates all aspects of the organization.

Safety: A Core Value

Safety is incorporated into our core values because it guides our decisions, actions, and behaviors—not compromised for productivity or other goals. When safety is viewed as a priority, it becomes an item on a “to-do list” relative to other factors. We view safety as a value because it’s at the very core of what we do, unwavering to other factors.

Our safety policy is to provide our employees, visitors, and contractors with a safe and healthy site of employment. Some of the ways we achieve this is by:

Employee Empowerment

Trust and open communication are key elements in fostering our safety-always culture. Our employees are provided tools and training to raise any issues or concerns without fear of retaliation. Our employees are trained to submit incident reports for any incidents that may occur, and these incidents are investigated to gain a lesson learned to prevent recurrence. Employees are also trained in hazard identification and reporting and can submit “for safety’s sake observations” to report unsafe behaviors. Involving employees in our safety processes creates a sense of responsibility and ownership.

Education and Training

These aspects are of the utmost importance in equipping our employees with the skills and knowledge to protect themselves every day. This starts with mandatory OSHA training for technical, construction, field, and start-up employees and continues with additional client and project-specific safety training as required, along with regular corporate-wide safety training for all employees throughout the year.

Continuous Improvement and Technology

We work in an ever-changing environment and continuous improvements help us stay at the forefront. Our safety sites and tools are continuously improved to meet the needs of our employees, clients, and regulatory agencies. We track safety key performance indicators, which allow us to analyze trends to make data-driven decisions to improve our safety practices.

Celebrating Safety Achievements

SSOE utilizes a recognition platform to acknowledge various achievements including positive safety acts. These can be submitted by employees or leadership and range from a simple thank you to monetary awards. We’ve consistently received high marks for safety from outside sources, earning Highwire’s Platinum Safety Award for several years and recently presenting at the Semiconductor Environment Safety and Health Association’s Annual Symposium in 2024.