Virginia BEST Program: Improving Safety For the Industry Together

Many contractors struggle to manage project safety. It takes significant time, effort and expertise in many cases to provide a safe working environment for employees, subcontractors and others on site. It’s tempting to let other priorities get pushed above safety, yet we all know how incredibly dangerous a construction site can be. How do we create a culture where safety takes precedence and is part of every decision and work plan?

AGCVA and VOSH have partnered to create the Virginia Building Excellence in Safety, Health & Training (Virginia BEST) program. The Virginia BEST program is a safety and health management system providing a framework for developing a very effective company safety program. The key elements include management commitment and employee involvement, hazard prevention and control, worksite analysis, and training. The process begins with a self-assessment which is an excellent review of your current safety efforts and identifies strengths and weaknesses. Your company is assigned a mentor in the program who will then work with you to focus resources where they will have the most benefit and may suggest solutions you hadn’t considered. The Virginia BEST mentors are safety professionals who manage successful safety programs in their company and are willing to help others improve.

Perry Engineering Co., Inc. achieved Virginia BEST Level 1 in 2020. We had a robust safety program prior to BEST achievement but it was not cohesive and there was no definable plan to take it to the next level. Our safety program had become stale. The self-assessment revealed we excelled at management commitment and employee involvement and were doing a good job of training, but we were weak in subcontractor involvement and improvements were needed with daily safety planning. Recurring minor hand injuries caused us to exceed the average injury rate for our NAICS class. Through work with our mentor, who looked at our safety efforts from a fresh perspective, we were able to make improvements that have resulted in a decrease in injuries and a more effective safety program. The assistance of the BEST mentors and VOSH safety consultants has been invaluable in identifying areas needing improvement and choosing the best options to achieve our safety goals. They are truly safety professionals who want to help.

Construction work is dangerous and fatality rates are high. Managing company and site safety is difficult, to say the least. If you want to make meaningful improvements that will reduce losses, improve employee morale and retention, and generally make your company better, check out the Virginia BEST program. More information is available at on AGCVA's website and on the Virginia Department of Labor's website as well.

About the Author
Ken Pracht has 36 years in safety and 21 years as Safety Director for Perry Engineering Co., Inc. He has a Bachelor of Science in Safety Engineering from Fairmont State University and is a Certified Safety Professional, Certified Safety and Health Manager, and Professional Member of the American Society of Safety Professionals. Perry Engineering Co., Inc. is a heavy civil contractor serving Virginia and surrounding states.