Bassett Mechanical, a Linc Service franchise in Wisconsin, marked 2 million total hours of accident-free work in 2016, when it carried about 355 employees.
The company, which is a third generation family business founded in 1936 and a
Linc Service franchise since 1986, developed a safety program, which is headed by a committee. The program takes a collaborative approach, which encourages employees to share their ideas for ways to improve safety conditions.
The committee takes reports from employees on safety improvement opportunities and incidents that nearly led to an accident. Employees reported over 700 safety opportunities, which the committee tracked and investigated until reaching an acceptable solution, said Ryan
Theunis, Safety Manager at Bassett Mechanical.
“Our safety program strives to continually improve and better protect our employees through a collaborative approach,”
Theunis said. “Our employees really take pride in improving their work environment and watching out for one another.”
The team also unleashed the BEAST (Basset Environmental Awareness Safety Team), a customized behavior-based safety program that actively observes and reports possible safety issues. The team started with 16 members in 2016, and is slated to grow by 34 members this year, bringing the team up to 50 members.
In addition to BEAST and the safety committee, Bassett Mechanical’s safety training program consists of more than 20 hours of classroom-based training, in addition to the 10-hour or 30-hour OSHA Certification earned through an apprenticeship. But the team is ramping up their efforts to keep these safety training sessions fresh in their employees’ minds by requiring a refresher for safety topics.
“In the past, some training topics were refreshed every other year, while others were not,”
Theunis said. “This was seen as an inconsistency and concern, so our safety team met with the management team, explained their concern and laid out a plan. Beginning in April, every employee will have a refresher course for each topic every three years, or more frequently, if needed.”
Bassett Mechanical also provides Safety Champion Training, which designates one member of a pod of five to eight technicians as its safety champion. The safety champions are members of the safety committee or BEAST program, and are provided extra training on a variety of topics, participate in safety meetings and investigations, and incident and injury management programs. Their role is to make sure each of their pod members know and understand the safety measures in place.
In all, Bassett Mechanical’s emphasis on safety and awareness not only keeps employees safe, but also brings everyone together to help each other, which ultimately leads to a better customer experience.
“We’re a family company, meaning we are both family-run and treated as a family and this respect for one another and our customers leads our organization to hold one another to high expectations – simply meeting minimums is never enough,”
Theunis said. “It reassures me that our employees view safety as a personal value. It also gives me confidence that our employees believe in what we are doing.”
Bassett Mechanical CEO Kim Bassett said she was proud of her team for reaching the milestone.
“Reaching this safety milestone is a huge accomplishment; however the most important aspect is that our associates go home safely to their families every day,” Bassett said.
