R.B. Hinkle Kicks Off Safety Excellence Program

Team members are nominated for recognition of their acts of safety by company foremen, safety department members, executive management or even clients, said Ed DeNeale, R.B. Hinkle Safety Director.

“You’d be surprised how often we get feedback from clients on how safety conscious our people are on the jobsite,” he said. “For example, an employee of the general contractor was walking too close to an excavation, one of our guys stopped her and told her it wasn’t safe to proceed. She let us know how much she appreciated his looking out for her welfare. In another case, we received an email from one of our biggest clients how one of our team members went out to the jobsite to cover up the holes when it was raining just to ‘safe it up.’”

Each nominated employee — and there were 25 nominations during the program’s first month — receives a Safety Excellence certificate and a food gift certificate at the monthly recognition event. Then all nominees’ names are entered in a random drawing for two big monthly prizes.

If the first name drawn is that of an employee who works in R.B. Hinkle’s Sterling headquarters office, that person automatically receives what DeNeale says is the most coveted prize of all, month-long use of a prime parking spot closest to the door.

“That’s a big deal at this office, where we have limited parking, and people sometimes have to park far away and walk long distances to the building.”

The person whose name is drawn second (or first, if it’s an employee from R.B. Hinkle’s Maryland offices in Beltsville and Boyd, which don’t have the same parking issues) gets to spin the safety prize wheel. The wheel is populated with desirable gifts and perks, such as a new pair of work boots, a $200 Visa® gift card, a $200 gasoline gift card, a movie and snacks pack from the local cinema, an extra vacation day or lunch with the R.B. Hinkle President.

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“We have a great team here, they’re always focused on safety every day,” DeNeale said. “The Safety Excellence Program gives them the opportunity to be recognized and rewarded for what they’ve been doing all along.”