Our Commitment to Safety

At Gannett Fleming, we have a motto: Safety is in Our Hands. It means we’re “all in” on a shared responsibility for safety: we empower and engage every employee to help us maintain a safe working environment and advance safety in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry.

We achieve the highest level of safety on our clients’ projects as well as internal operations through our proactive safety program. This program is focused on leading indicators and supported by the latest in personal protective equipment, well-defined procedures, and tailored training.

Our safety commitment to you, our clients, starts with the procurement process. You can vet and approve our safety qualifications through respected third-party providers like ISNetworld and Avetta. You’ll find we have a bench of technical safety experts unmatched by other firms. From certified safety professionals to certified industrial hygienists to a kinesiologist, our safety team works alongside our experts in the field to proactively audit our projects and help solve your most pressing safety challenges.

We actively seek out and meet the federal, state, provincial, and other government standards and regulations to conduct work for you in the safest way possible. This commitment includes, for example, meeting the Gold Shovel Standard for work in California and earning recognition from the Association of Geohazard Professionals (AGHP) for our Rope Access Safety Program. Several of our clients have also recognized us with awards for our safety program.

Workplace safety and health are engrained in everything we do at Gannett Fleming. Our values include providing employees with a safe working environment and applicable personal protective equipment (PPE). And our strategic goals involve making sure they come home safely at the end of each day.

A corporate Health, Safety, and Environment Policy holds us accountable, as do colleagues at every level of the organization. Employees at Gannett Fleming know they have the power to recognize and report hazards. We provide all employees with Stop Work Authority when and if there are imminent safety concerns on the job.

We organize our safety procedures and initiatives and track our progress with the help of a strong network of safety advocates. We regularly convene our Safety Committee – which includes participation from Paul Nowicki, our president and chief operating officer, and other key internal stakeholders – as well as our safety and wellness coordinators in each of our offices.

Our safety experts oversee a robust internal communications program. This program provides education and awareness about effective ways to identify, avoid, and report workplace hazards. Safety stand-down events and participation in industry safety activities provide a forum for proactive safety engagement. And we honor those employees who go above and beyond with the President’s Award for Safety Excellence.

We supplement companywide annual safety training with:

• First aid/CPR training and practice.
• Job-specific safety training and topical safety resources through an internal Corporate Safety SharePoint site.
• Toolbox Talks.
• Our membership with organizations like the National Safety Council (NSC).

Since 2018, our employees have logged more than 17,000 hours in safety-related training and increased reporting of hazards by more than 6,000%. This is thanks to the success of a companywide competition encouraging hazard reporting.

In the firm’s latest Safety Perception Survey, 91% of employees rated Gannett Fleming’s safety culture as “great” or “excellent.” When asked about our safety program, employees say:

• “I appreciate that our company makes safety a priority.”
• “Gannett Fleming as a company and the safety group take safety very seriously and are adamant about the safety of our employees.”

But the most significant success lies in our outcomes. Our total recordable incident and experience modification rates are far below the industry average, demonstrating that our proactive safety program not only raises awareness and provides the right tools and training; it truly saves lives.