Safety isn’t sexy. We all know this. But safety is what quietly keeps your business moving forward. It is the foundation on which good cultures are built. Safety keeps your people alive. It keeps them working. And it keeps workers coming in day after day, without fearing for their life and limb. Workers without fear are good for morale. And even though most of us have heard this before, we still hear business owners asking why they should prioritize safety.

To put it simply: Safety is good business. But don’t take our word for it. MAPP is a $200 million dollar company expanding across the south with nearly 30 years of commercial and industrial construction success.

Mike Polito is the owner of MAPP Construction, and has been in the industry for over 30 years.

He’s seen a thing or two.

Financial performance. It’s on every business owner’s mind. Of course, the natural thought is that cutting costs on safety will save expenses and result in higher profit. It seems obvious. But is that really the case? Mike Polito has seen overwhelming evidence to the contrary through his decades of experience in the construction industry.

When Mike Polito was getting started in the construction industry, times were different. 30 years ago, Mike was a safety visionary in Baton Rouge for making sure all employees wear hard hats. Back then, most people didn’t understand the powerful effect safety has on culture, morale, and financial performance.

“Our safety culture is influenced by clients. You can’t grow in our markets without being safe.”

When you work with some of the major players like Shell or Exxon, you learn more about the safety world. When you start bidding on larger industrial and commercial projects, safety becomes a prerequisite to even get to the table. When that much money is on the line, no one wants to risk having to shut down a site because of an accident. Safety culture turns into an investment and risk reduction strategy. It becomes a bottom-line issue. 

Would you spend 15 minutes now to save 30 minutes later? Do you read the instructions before putting a piece of furniture together? You probably should, and this is how a lot of large companies value safety practice. It’s similar to the idea of measuring twice and cutting once.

What costs time and money is teaching people to do what they have never done before. It’s common science that first gear takes the most energy to get moving.

Once you gain momentum, cement in procedures, and engrain safety into the culture, it becomes second nature. Once safety no longer takes the same mental effort to happen, you are running in high gear. Highway mileage is always more efficient than stop and go in the city.

If you hit your thumb while hammering a nail then you get downtime. If you don’t hit your thumb, you can continue to hammer nails. But of course, safety is about much more than avoiding downtime or extra costs.

To Mike, safety at its core is looking after the guy next to you. It’s being your brother’s keeper. It’s making sure that the person working with you goes home the same way they came in. What it really comes down to is the value system your company carries. When you value human life and the people you work with, it affects the culture and the tone of your job site. People work with a higher level of confidence when they are confident they are going to be able to go home. They walk with a better stride. Employees need to know someone is looking out for them (just like your clients).

A culture of safety goes beyond safety. It’s rooted in caring about the people you work with. Whether its concern about physical safety, mental health, or financial security, smart leaders prioritize the wellbeing of their workers. If people come into work stressed, it affects the culture. A poor work culture hurts performance, plain and simple.

“You can see the morale of the site is better when people know everybody's watching out for them. Construction’s not an easy job, so morale is extremely important. Inherently, safe projects have higher morale.”

It’s important to remember that good safety practice isn’t about punishing mistakes, it’s about understanding, improving, and valuing others. A successful business is rooted in its people, and safety keeps your people alive and well. Nobody wants their employees to be unsafe. It’s just about remembering to keep safety in focus when it's easy to get caught up focusing on other aspects of a project.

MAPP is always trying to get better at Safety. It’s easy to get complacent with safety, but that’s how things catch up to you. Before you realize it, someone can get injured and you could be dealing with a huge mess. Take it from MAPP, the best path to prevention is to prioritize safety, be proactive, and to keep improving.

Safety isn’t sexy, but it will make you more attractive to clients and employees.