BIRMINGHAM WATER WORKS: ZERO HARM TRAINING INITIATIVE
Birmingham Water Works (BWW) aims to foster a safety-first work environment and cultivate a strong safety culture through targeted education, incident tracking, performance monitoring, and reinforcement activities. In 2023, the Learning & Development (L&D) team partnered with the executive leadership team to create a safety culture that would reduce rising safety costs and promote a zero-harm environment. The resulting Zero Harm Training Initiative seeks to reduce workplace accidents and injuries, minimizing lost workdays, Workers’ Compensation claims, and operational disruptions.
Program Details
The Zero Harm Initiative focuses on four critical courses that address the most hazardous aspects of the water utility’s industry:
- Heavy Equipment Training: Employees gain hands-on experience operating excavators safely and master essential skills for replacing, installing, and repairing pipes.
- Confined Space Rescue Equipment Safety: Employees learn critical rescue techniques, including vertical rope rescues, SCBA usage, and multiple-victim rescue scenarios.
- Saw and Blade Safety: This course pairs inexperienced employees with seasoned workers to learn safe saw usage, blending classroom instruction with live demonstrations and hands-on practice.
- Chlorine Safety: Employees are trained to safely handle, store, and dispose of chlorine during the water treatment process, using real-life scenarios to sharpen their decision-making skills in hazardous situations.
Collaborating with safety and risk management experts, local businesses, community partners, and executive leadership, the L&D team created a training program that features a dynamic blend of online learning, interactive hands-on sessions, and real-world demonstrations with on-site practice simulations. By immersing employees in real-world scenarios, they gain hands-on safety experience.
BWW’s general manager, assistant general managers, and department managers participated in the training kickoff and delivered follow-up safety talks with employees.
After the Zero Harm Initiative training, BWW integrated specific activities, such as monthly safety talks and safety observations, into its daily operations and monitored progress through key performance indicators (KPIs).
Results
Two hundred employees were trained via the initiative from 2023 to October 2024. BWW more than surpassed its goal of reducing workplace injuries by at least 10 percent, decreasing incidents by 32 percent from 2023 to October 2024. The utility also reduced lost-time injuries from five in 2023 to two as of October 2024.
MCCARTHY BUILDING COMPANIES: MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL AND PLUMBING (MEP) ADVANCED COMMISSIONING TRAINING
Commissioning a building in construction is the process of making sure all systems and components (including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and life-safety systems) work as they were designed to. It involves testing and adjusting these systems, verifying they meet the project requirements, and ensuring everything operates efficiently and safely before the building is officially used. The goal of this process is to confirm that the building performs as intended, providing comfort, safety, and energy efficiency for the occupants.
With that understanding, project teams can adjust the construction schedule accordingly, to coordinate each step in the commissioning process in the correct order without rework, and to have the building ready to hand over to the owner on time. As these tasks are completed throughout the building process, McCarthy’s MEP professionals assess the systems to ensure proper installation and functionality utilizing the company’s MEP assessment procedures. This allows for issues to be identified and corrected early and at a cost savings.
McCarthy Building Companies’ Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) Advanced Commissioning Training program aims to bring awareness around how long the commissioning process takes and how to adjust the construction schedule to accommodate that timeline more efficiently. Training that takes a deep dive into the MEP systems of a building is the first of its kind at McCarthy.
Program Details
Accurately recreating a commissioning lab was not feasible, so McCarthy partnered with Engineered Air Balance (EAB), commissioning agents that often review the commissioning process on McCarthy projects.
The four-day MEP program offers a hands-on approach to commissioning by immersing participants in real-world lab activities. EAB provides expertise and facilities where trainees adjust water pressure, balance HVAC systems, manage electrical systems and emergency power, and more under the guidance of seasoned professionals. The workshop also includes classroom-style lectures to expose MEP professionals to these complex systems.
Speakers include both McCarthy MEP experts, as well as external consultants. Facilitated activities with learners show how McCarthy manages these systems and processes during the commissioning of the project.
Learning objectives include:
- Create target commissioning dates
- Prepare a schedule to meet the commissioning dates
- Ensure functionality of systems
- Build value for clients, trade partners, and commissioning agents
Training is reinforced through a Microsoft Teams community page, where participants can stay connected to one another and share ideas and best practices as they begin to implement their training into their day-to-day. McCarthy also offers MEP “Ask the Expert” Lunch & Learn sessions, where subject matter experts present a deeper dive into certain topics within MEP and commissioning and are available to answer questions from the group. The training also is reinforced in McCarthy’s Peer Group sessions across the country, which provide the opportunity to develop skills with fellow employees in similar roles, network with others from across the company, and support the company’s culture and business goals. Currently, McCarthy offers more than 25 different Peer Groups.
Results
Participants gave the MEP training a 93 percent net promoter score (NPS). In 2024, McCarthy increased MEP assessments and realized significant costs savings due to identification of potential issues and the ability to correct them as part of the assessment processes being followed. (Editor’s Note: McCarthy provided specific numerical results in its submission but deemed them Not for Publication.)
