Precautions Your Commercial Roofing Team Should Be Taking

Selecting a commercial roofing company can be a challenge. With the Internet at your fingertips, it only takes a quick search to find a seemingly endless list of potential options to tackle your roof repair, maintenance, or installation. Not only are you choosing a company to contribute to the long-term integrity of your building, but you’re also trying to balance factors like budget and project timeline in the process. However, the most critical factor to analyze should be the safety standards of the commercial roofing company you’re considering. 

A construction site is a hazardous place, and accidents can happen if a roofing company has not made safety a top priority. You might feel like you’ve found a bargain, but will the roofing foreman do everything in his power to keep the crew and your employees safe? A team that has neglected the safety details is a liability. If an accident happens on your property, the news coverage can lead to bad exposure, affecting your company’s reputation. Most importantly, however, is family. All of your employees, along with our roofing crews, have loved ones waiting for them at home. Their safety should take precedence over any other consideration.

How do I evaluate a commercial roofing company’s safety performance?

As a key decision-maker for your company, it’s your responsibility to identify and hire a commercial roofing team with high safety standards. Here are some important questions to ask during the process to gauge if the roofing crew is a safe one:

• How are you going to protect the employees working at my facility?
• What type of safety systems and barricades will you put in place to direct the public away from the job site?
• How are you going to access my roof safely?
• What type of fall protection systems are you going to utilize to protect your employees?
• Do your employees have the proper training and certifications to start my project?
• How often is your equipment inspected?

Safety standards at Mid-South

At Mid-South Roof Systems, we’ve already asked ourselves the important questions. We go above and beyond to ensure the safety of our team and our clients.

Thorough safety training begins when we hire a new employee. Our crews are trained in fall protection, personal protective equipment, forklift operation, aerial lift operation, CPR, First Aid, the OSHA 10-hour Construction Course, and the OSHA 30-Hour Construction Course. A select team is also trained on the Bloodborne Pathogen Standard. Additionally, all drivers go through specific training for vehicle operations which includes a road test. This hands-on, immersive training experience prepares our team for real-world situations so they are confident out in the field.

This comprehensive training is complemented by on-site procedures that secure the safety of our team and our clients. Our foremen observe the job-site through daily visual inspections, and we coordinate with our worker’s compensation carrier to perform site inspections across the country. We believe it’s our job to not only meet the safety standards but exceed them. The minimum construction requirements are just the beginning. We surpass these standards to keep each job site safe and secure.

We also continue the safety conversation throughout the project with educational Toolbox Talks that reinforce our team’s safety training. These talks remind and require our crews to perform daily visual inspections of all vehicles and personal protection equipment.

The numbers speak for themselves

In the construction industry, insurance companies use what’s known as an Experience Modification Rate (EMR) to gauge the past cost of injuries and the future chances of risk. This performance rating is an important indicator of a commercial roofing company’s safety standards. Year after year, Mid-South’s EMR rating is well below the construction industry average. You can learn more about how an EMR rating is calculated here.

At the end of the day, it all comes back to family. At Mid-South, we hold ourselves to a higher safety standard and go out of our way to protect our employees. We consider our employees to be family and we want to keep our family safe. Contact us to start the conversation about your next commercial roofing project. We’ll treat your company like family too.