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Boldt Surpasses 10-Million Hours Without Lost Time Injury

Safety program shifts culture, creates safer jobsites

(APPLETON, Wis.) Dec. 2, 2022 – The Boldt Company announces it has achieved a safety milestone: logging 10-million hours without a lost time incident. Safety statistics are reported from Boldt jobsites nationwide and represent self-performed work hours across diverse geographies and projects.

“We reinforce to all team members that each of us has personal responsibility for our own safety and the safety of others,” said Boldt President Dave Kievet. “A zero-incident culture is built into our organization, and we purposely review safety in every job function.”

Leaders credit operational practices that ensure all employees are educated on safe work practices, work crews have appropriate equipment, and frequent jobsite audits uncover potential problems. “When we look at the variety of market sectors The Boldt Company serves, we find our crews working on some pretty complex construction projects that present differing and unique risks,” said Scott Frazer, vice president of corporate safety. “Our success is primarily due to two factors. First, we have a focus on planning for and integrating safety into our projects very early on which allows for a standard safety approach that is consistent across all jobsites. Second, we have employees – from our frontline workers to our executive leadership, who believe in and support our safety culture and are actively engaged in keeping our job sites safe.”

For 2022, the company established a Total Recordable Incident Rate of less than 1.0. As a comparison, the construction industry average rate is 3.0, which means 3.0 injury cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a recordable incident is:

  • Any issue that causes loss of consciousness, time away from work, restricted work, or requires a transfer to a different job,
  • An incident that requires medical treatment beyond first aid,
  • A diagnosed case of cancer, chronic irreversible disease, fractured or cracked bones or teeth, or punctured eardrums,
  • A fatal injury.

Boldt safety professionals identified the most hazardous activities for teams and developed standardized training, methods, and equipment specific to these tasks to further reduce risk.

“We continuously analyze our performance and engage our employees to understand gaps in our safety systems, policies and procedures,” Frazer said. “We gather feedback from those closest to the work, so our improvements are meaningful, impactful and add value to our employees and the business.”

A company’s safety record is often factored into winning new work and keeping existing customers. According to Salm Partners President and CEO Keith Lindsay, “The number one priority in our plant is the safety of our people. We need everyone to be safe. We need them to go home the same way they came in. We did 80,000 hours with zero recordables on our first project with Boldt. Maintaining that same level of safety is important to us.”  

In addition to proactive training for employees, the company uses a subcontractor prequalification process to identify partners with proven safety records.

Boldt is consistently recognized for its safety record:

  • In 2021, Boldt was honored with a Platinum Safety Award from ConstructSecure, Inc. This award is presented to companies that register a safety score of 95% or greater in the Safety Assessment Program.
  • Boldt received the California Construction Employer’s Association (CEA) highest safety awards for 2020. The firm’s Sacramento office was recognized with an Excellence in Safety Award and the President’s Safety Award from the association marking the fifth time the company has earned safety awards from CEA.
  • In 2019 Boldt was recognized for excellence in workplace safety and health at the Wisconsin Safety Council Annual Conference.

For more information visit: https://www.boldt.com/about/safety/

About The Boldt Company
The Boldt Company (Boldt) is a leading professional construction services firm with customers across the United States and is a subsidiary of The Boldt Group. Founded in 1889, Boldt is a fourth-generation family and employee-owned firm headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin. Focused on innovation, continuous improvement, and Lean principles, Boldt is recognized as a pioneer in Lean construction and in the industrialized construction space. Boldt operates 18 offices across the U.S. that serve customers in healthcare, power, industrial, education, automotive and commercial markets.