March 16, 2018
Sundt Safety Representative Chris Morales.
Chris Morales joined Sundt’s San Diego office late last year as a Safety Representative. He has been in the construction industry since 2007 and holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Resource Management from California State University, Bakersfield.
What interested you most about working for Sundt?
The diversity of work the company performs. The fact that Sundt is an employee-owned company added to my interest.
What do you do in average day?
Every project has its own unique challenges. I ensure all safety and health policies are being followed in the field. I work with everyone on-site and act as a resource for all matters health and safety.
Who gives you the best advice?
Some of my best advice comes from people working in the field. If I feel something should be done differently or propose a change to a process, I ask the employees for their input. I use this advice (if it’s good) to further my success and strengthen my value as a safety professional.
What is the one thing anyone who visits San Diego must see?
Balboa Park is a large, beautiful public space with some great museums, San Diego Zoo and spectacular sites.
Where do you like to travel?
I love to travel and see different areas of the United States. I want to visit Asia soon.
A team from Sacramento State won our concrete problem competition.
It’s a competition that has enabled us to find some of the best young talent in construction. It’s important enough for us to sponsor for eight consecutive years and our Chief Operating Officer attends to meet with dozens of university students.
This past weekend, a team of Sundt employee-owners participated in the Associated Schools of Construction’s (ASC) Regions 6 & 7 competition. ASC is the professional association focused on the development and advancement of construction education, and we are one of only two contractors who sponsor the event at the Platinum Level. As part of our sponsorship, each year Sundt submits a concrete “problem” for the participating teams to solve. This year’s competition included teams from 13 universities.
Solving the Sundt-provided problem required teams to provide a complete execution plan – including scope, cost, schedule, logistics and safety recognition – for the structural concrete components of a high-rise hotel tower in the Southwest. We awarded bonus points for identifying and providing solutions for complexities within the project.
The students had 12 hours to produce a quantity take-off, budget and safety recognition plan, and drew numbers to determine the order in which they would present the rest of their plan (schedule, logistics, execution strategy and risk analysis) the next day. Teams could have six members working on the problem and three alternates. The final six had to be selected prior to the problem presentation meeting on the first morning.
Sacramento State won the competition with an all-around impressive performance and by creating a safety recognition plan that was detailed, affordable and effective.
“It was something we would implement on our own projects,” said Project Executive Chandra Reilly, one of Sundt’s representatives at the conference in Sparks/Reno, Nevada.
Five of the top six teams had scores within one point of each other, and only a tenth of a point separated our second- and third-place finishers, Arizona State and Virginia Tech.
The advantages of self-performing concrete, which include control of cost, quality and schedule, benefit every division of our company, and we wanted to make sure our panel reflected a diverse set of perspectives. To that end, our problem creation team and judging panel consisted of employee-owners from concrete, building and transportation.
“We have committed to giving detailed feedback to all the teams so they can grow and build off this experience for future competitions and their careers,” Chandra said.
Our Concrete Division has a long history of emphasizing safety on the jobsite. As a company, we have won the Associated General Contractors of America Grand Award twice, an achievement which left a strong impression on some of the more than 1,400 students who attended the competition from campuses across the nation.
“We had several students compliment us on the way we addressed safety at our company, to the point where they said that even though they already had several full-time job offers they’d still like to talk to us, because it struck such a strong chord with them,” Chandra said.
Sundt Safety Representative Karrissa Rogers.
Sundt Safety Representative Karrissa Rogers joined the company in August 2016. She has worked in the construction industry since 1991 and has an associate’s degree in Environmental Safety and Health and a bachelor’s in Occupational Safety and Health. Karrissa also is an authorized Occupational Safety and Health Administration trainer.
Her husband, Andrew, works for us as a Virtual Designer. Karrissa was working in Southern California before getting an opportunity to move back to Phoenix and join our team.
What made you want to work for Sundt?
When you’re an outsider, you hear a lot of good things about working with Sundt. Other construction companies view working with Sundt as a high achievement. My husband also had a little bit to do with me changing jobs. He works for Sundt and said I would really like it here. I’m glad I made the change and moved back home with my family.
What unique things does Sundt do to encourage safety?
I love the safety culture. The unique thing with Sundt and safety is that it really does start at the top. There are a lot of companies that say this, but very rarely does this happen. Sundt cares about its working family.
Where are your favorite places to travel?
I really enjoy going to the beach. Virginia Beach and Manhattan Beach, California are my favorites. A few years ago people said we would be able to buy oceanfront property in Arizona. I am patiently waiting.
What’s your personal motto?
Be honest, helpful and kind.
Who has been your best mentor?
Although he retired from Sundt in January 2017, Joe Hall was a very good mentor. He was laid-back and helpful. If you had an idea, you could present it and he was able to ask questions to work out the kinks.
The theme for the AGC Safety Fair was “The Circus.” The “ringmaster” on the left is San Antonio AGC President Mike Sireno, with Sundt Area Safety Manager Mark Bakeman (middle) and AGC Safety and Health Committee Chairman Leonard De Braska (right).
For the third consecutive year, Sundt has been named Safe Contractor of the Year by the Associated General Contractors of America’s San Antonio Chapter.
Our building group had just one total day away from work and one recordable incident last year. The award was presented Oct. 6 at the AGC-San Antonio’s Safety Fair.
Our safety culture is based on the idea that choices made at work have a direct impact on the lives of our employees, their families and co-workers. “Safety by Choice” is our program designed to support a culture of safe choices by recognizing employees who choose positive safety behaviors and actions.
We are also the only general contractor on record to twice earn the AGC Grand Award, given annually to the safest construction company in the country. We won the award in 2006 and 2016.
The VIA Stone Oak Park & Ride team stands in front of its safe project.
This is the best kind of perfect score.
Sundt’s work at the Stone Oak Park & Ride for VIA Metropolitan Transit in San Antonio recently earned a perfect safety score. Every month, our local safety task forces perform peer-to-peer inspections on projects. The inspections are long checklists of safety issues that are reviewed and scored. Noncompliance problems or hazards count against the score.
Each project is rated against a standard criteria each month. There also is a safety task force meeting each month where the photos taken during safety walks are reviewed by all task force members to make sure we capture the lessons learned.
“VIA’s perfect score was a first for the project and it is not real common on these inspections,” said Texas District Manager Eric Hedlund.
In keeping with our Safety By Choice culture, we celebrate this success and thank our employee-owners for their commitment to safety excellence.
