The Brock Group is one of North America's largest specialty soft craft services providers, with offices and project sites throughout the U.S. and Canada. Driven by a commitment to excellence, Brock focuses on safely and efficiently delivering solutions to its customers.
Brock has a long history of bringing innovation to its industry. Today, the company continues this tradition through the design and implementation of safety systems, processes and products created to increase the safety of Brock employees, customer employees and other contractors on the jobsite.
"We are in a unique position as a company," said Ron Lang, president -- U.S. West, The Brock Group. "Our strong presence in the industry makes us a desirable company to partner with on project work. We are also forward-thinkers and game changers, which allows us the freedom to be innovative and push the envelope. We have the flexibility to identify, validate and implement new ways of working, and that's powerful."
Safety is a foundational value at Brock and the responsibility of each team member. Brock's focus on safety excellence begins with a common culture of respect and caring and the relentless pursuit of a zero-harm work environment. Brock is committed to achieving world-class safety performance and leading the specialty soft craft industry with its results. It is because of this commitment that Brock has dedicated significant effort to designing new and innovative safety practices and products.
In a league of its own
The primary concern for Brock in all facets of operations is complete commitment, attention and dedication to the safety of its employees and other contractors on shared jobsites. To that end, Brock has created a Safety & Health Management Manual (SHMM) that is second-to-none.
Brock's safety program exceeds the minimum requirements of OSHA. In fact, it goes above and beyond any regulatory or industry expectations and is structured to align with the requirements and elements of OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP), which officially recognizes the outstanding efforts of employers and employees.
Brock currently has 18 jobsites that are recognized as VPP Star Site locations, which is about triple the number of sites held by any other contractor in a similar business. In addition, in 2019, Brock was awarded 15 Star of Excellence Awards, one Super Star Award from Region VI OSHA, and four Special Government Employee (SGE) Recognition Awards by the 2019 Region VI Voluntary Protection Programs Participants' Association.
To receive the Star of Excellence Award, a company must have an injury/illness rate during the previous year that is 90 percent below the national average for the industry in which it is working.
Best TRIR in company history
In 2019, Brock achieved its best OSHA safety record in the history of the company, which began operations in 1947. The 2019 end-of-year TRIR was 0.18. This is calculated for all Brock-owned companies together and includes Brock-owned entities in Canada, which are not governed by OSHA.
"Some companies will segment out certain areas of the business in order to have a lower perceived TRIR," explained Drew Ashcraft, vice president -- Health, Safety and Environmental, The Brock Group. "Brock chooses to align all business units' reporting with OSHA Recordkeeping Guidelines, 29 CFR 1904. Nothing is hidden, and nothing is segmented out."
Brock's safety programs have evolved from measuring "lagging" indicators and reacting to incidents, to the measurement, tracking and communicating of "leading" indicators in real time. A leading indicator is proactive in nature and includes a safety initiative or reported activity, with the goal of preventing unfavorable events before they happen. Leading indicators include near-misses, behavioral audits, hazard identification and risk recognition assessments.
Safety KPIs and dashboards
A key component of Brock's operations is the Scaffold Management Solution (SMS), a comprehensive, interactive dashboard used to provide visibility of KPIs relevant to each site. Depending on the services provided, some typical data collected and shown on the dashboard include a scaffold aging report, the number of scaffolds by area and scaffold geo-mapping.
Additionally, Brock's HSE team maintains a database of safety statistics for each site. By capturing and sharing this information, field leadership can make decisions locally and in real time to assure a safe, healthy and environmentally sensitive workplace, as well as minimize cost and improve schedule efficiency. Corporate, regional and site business leaders can view KPIs via the SMS to ensure work at each site is proceeding in alignment with stated targets. The immediate access to data provided through the SMS dashboards both supports and encourages improvements in planning, scheduling and safety, as data visibility drives collaboration and team activity.
Customers are provided access to the SMS dashboards for their sites through secure, individual accounts, and those with responsibility for multiple sites can view comparative data across locations. Giving customers access to such valuable information promotes transparency, fostering greater trust between Brock's local teams and the customer's site personnel.
"Year after year, Brock consistently performs work safely for us in the Dow Houston Hub. They partner with us on safety initiatives and participate on our EHS teams," explained Karen Vick, EH&S delivery leader, Dow Houston Hub. "This is why Brock was selected for the second time, since implementation in 2017, for the Dow Diamond Award -- the best of the best in its class."
Developed each year, Brock's HSE Strategic Plan is made up of specific initiatives and programs to drive greater awareness and implementation of its core safety values and initiatives.
A roadmap to safety
Each year, Brock's HSE leadership team carves out a "roadmap" to help define the company's safety journey. The roadmap is formally known as the Brock HSE Strategic Plan, which is used to drive greater awareness and implementation of the company's core safety values and future initiatives. The Strategic Plan is distributed to all Brock supervision and many requesting customers. The HSE Strategic Plan is a complement to the SHMM, as it is made up of specific initiatives and programs developed each year.
Brock continuously strives to improve safety by incorporating innovative processes to break undesirable safety trends. Throughout the year, Brock's HSE team analyzes safety trends to find recurring opportunities. The team reviews the findings and collaboratively develops initiatives for the following year, with the goal of reversing those identified undesired trends and promoting desirable behaviors.
The goal of the HSE Strategic Plan is to establish the expectations and minimum requirements for governing all operations for Brock. It challenges each Brock employee to fulfill his or her commitment to the Bsafe culture and its emphasis on respect and caring.
Brock provides customers with a comprehensive, interactive dashboard used to track all KPIs relevant to each site. The dashboard also includes a database of site safety statistics. Giving customers access to such valuable information fosters trust and collaboration between Brock and its customer.
Safety innovation with tool, equipment enhancements
"At Brock, we don't just implement; we innovate," explained Ashcraft. "Brock's Bbest culture is about being better every day, which means we are constantly looking for new tools and execution methods to keep our people safe. We partner with our vendors and suppliers to create new products that better serve our needs and the needs of the industry."
Advanced respiratory system: Brock had the opportunity to partner with RPB Safety to develop a proprietary fitting designed for exclusive use on breathing air lines. The focus of Brock's partnership with RPB was preventing operators from connecting their breathing air lines to nonbreathing air sources that could result in serious injury or death.
RPB designed and manufactured a solution called the RZ fitting that is designed specifically for breathing air. The unique RZ fitting is not compatible with any other compressed air fitting used in industry today. Consequently, operators using the RPB Nova 3® blast helmet can only connect to an approved breathing air source with an RZ fitting.
This design dramatically reduces the likelihood of someone connecting to a nonbreathing air source and also satisfies OSHA and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health requirements to ensure breathing air fittings are incompatible with other air supply sources.
"We chose to present Brock with the Safety Innovation Award for the RZ fitting because it embodied the spirit of the award," said Shelly Guilbeau, executive director, Gulf Coast Safety Council. "We created the award to recognize ingenuity that results in risk reduction and increased safety. Brock hit a homerun with the fitting. Brock is known for pushing the envelope in trying to do things in new ways with the goal of making sure everyone goes home safe."
Blast hose depressurization system: A hose depressurization system is an accessory to blast pots. When utilized, the system reduces the chance of overblast or other types of blasting incidents caused by residual abrasive being released through the blast nozzle. This occurs after the remote control or "deadman" switch has been deactivated. Standard blast outlets shut off by closing valves to stop the flow of air and abrasive. However, the energy in the blast hose must still dissipate through the hose and out the blast nozzle, where the air and abrasive can take up to 20 seconds to completely exhaust themselves. The residual abrasive released during this timeframe can have serious consequences for a careless or inattentive blaster or helper.
The blast depressurization system instantly depressurizes the blast hose when the deadman switch is released, providing complete pressure relief at the nozzle in less than one second on hose distances up to 200 feet. The air and abrasive are instead directed to an expansion chamber. The abrasive is retained in the expansion chamber, and the compressed air is safely vented through a filter.
Brock recognized the reduced risk to blasting crews using equipment with this system and chose to make the investment in safety. Brock is in the process of retrofitting its fleet of blast pots to include a hose depressurization system for each one.
Innovative methodology on a lead and asbestos abatement project: On a recent abatement project, Brock utilized an existing tool in an innovative new manner. Brock completed a project to abate lead paint and asbestos-containing material (ACM) on the shell of a tank. The tank had been insulated with sprayed-on foam that had already been removed, leaving an asbestos-filled mastic and lead-based paint on the surface. Brock used a robotic waterjet machine to abate both the lead and ACM simultaneously. The resulting hazardous waste was greatly decreased, with no cleanup needed, and the return-to-service schedule was shortened by weeks, providing tremendous savings to the tank owner.
Brock partnered with RPB Safety to design a breathing air fitting that is proprietary to RPB's breathing air system. The fully padded, motorcycle-style respirator is designed to fit ergonomically on the operator's head, and the custom fittings are color-coded.
A league of HER0s
Brock understands molding an employee into a safety-conscious craftsperson starts on day one. Brock believes everyone has the power and ability to be a Bsafe HER0, someone who possesses the personal qualities of caring and respect. Brock's special approach to training gives its craftspeople the best possible chance to go home the same way they came to work, while also teaching them to be observers so their teammates can do the same. Brock considers a Bsafe HER0 to be someone who transforms respect and caring into heroic actions. It takes more than random acts of kindness to make a Bsafe HER0. It requires acts that are both distinct and direct; a HER0 is a person who intervenes by Helping Everyone Reach Zer0.
Recently, one of Brock's employees, Glen Taylor, was recognized by a customer for exhibiting an exceptional level of safety and ensuring the well-being of his co-workers. Taylor, a site safety supervisor, was the recipient of the Huntsman Corporate Safety Excellence Award. This was the first time this award was given to a person outside Huntsman Corp.
"This speaks volumes about the caliber of Brock employees and their 100-percent buyin to our safety culture," explained Robert Hudson, behavioral-based safety facilitator, Huntsman Polyurethanes. "As a safety professional, working with people like Glen makes my job very easy."
'Breaking the Trend' series
The ability to identify safety trends is essential to the success of a company's safety program, but only if action is taken to address and correct those trends. "Breaking the Trend" is a tool that has been developed and employed by Brock's HSE team as a campaign to spread awareness and attack negative trends that are recognized in the company and industry.
Breaking the Trend is a training series developed annually and provided over a twoweek or four-week period. Modules have included "Stop the Drop," "Protecting Your Hands," "Line of Fire," "Walking/Working Surfaces" and "Working at Heights."
Instead of identifying trends, addressing them and moving on, Brock identifies trends and then develops innovative emphasis programs that focus on and address the behaviors underlying the trends. These programs are implemented over an extended period of time, as Brock recognizes that continuous reinforcement of correct behavior is the best way to change the trend.
The Breaking the Trend emphasis programs are unique in that they require and reward employee involvement, discussions and solutions through the use of daily topics with discussion-provoking questions and case scenarios that focus on workplace hazard identification and mitigation discussions.
The case scenarios are developed from actual incidents that have occurred at Brock or in industry, along with real-life situations and concerns employees have brought to the company's attention. These scenarios are real to the employees and encourage them to take lessons to heart, identify what was done correctly and incorrectly, and provide feedback about how they would have done the job differently.
Breaking the Trend is a vital part of Brock's ongoing HSE training, providing employees with the opportunity to recognize hazards and use critical thinking to resolve and mitigate them. This innovative approach is part of what drives Brock's Bsafe culture of taking safety to heart, respecting one another and the safety rules, and caring enough to take action.
This waterjet robot was used on a tank to abate lead- and asbestos-containing materials simultaneously. No chemical solvents were used and waste was collected through the equipment, which minimized cleanup and greatly improved efficiency.
Focusing on the future
"We are certainly proud of our current safety record and successes; however, looking back is not what we are about when it comes to safety," explained Ashcraft. "Being in the now and looking toward the days ahead is where our concentration will remain. In 2020, we have a perfect vision with 100-percent focus on each and every task. Together, each of us will strive for no injuries, no near misses and no negative impacts on the environment, while also being smarter and more efficient about how we get that accomplished."
For more information, visit www.brockgroup.com or call (281) 807-8200.
