Local contractors celebrate Safety Month

Summer in the Lakes Region brings busy days, especially for local contractors enjoying a booming building and renovation market. Good contractors are figuring out new ways to attract employees and be efficient to meet demand. Great contractors are doing so with a focus on safety.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists Tree Workers (1), Roofers (4), Construction Trade (9), and Landscapers (10) in the top 10 of most dangerous professions in the U.S. Since June is National Safety Month, two local contractors are working hard to keep their employees safe.

“When you’ve been around as long as we have you see booms, busts, new technologies and fads that come and go, but the need for safety is always consistent,” says Hayden McLaughlin of Belknap Landscape in Gilford. “Lately technology has stepped up in helping us be safe.”

Belknap Landscape has adopted the use of a smartphone App called Whip Around to assure their equipment is safe through inspections every day. “All of our equipment is inspected using this program on our phones in the morning before we even start it up” McLaughlin explains. “There’s a unique checklist for each piece of machinery. The team goes through the checklist and if there’s a safety concern the app notifies our fleet manager and fails the machine so we don’t use it.”

As technology helps workers be safe, there still isn’t a substitute for old-fashioned safety leadership and using the right protective equipment. Gloves, safety glasses, boots, and hard hats are synonymous with safety on construction sites, but real safety starts from a commitment by company owners and managers.

Leveraging local experts is an important strategy Belknap Landscape has been using for years, even though the pandemic made that challenging. Mark Cote of Cross Insurance in Laconia helps educate and train Belknap employees on important topics. “They know that safety is not a weekly, monthly or quarterly topic — it needs to be discussed daily. The pandemic did not change their mentality and safety stayed a top priority,” says Cote. “Together we adapted to Zoom and held company wide training sessions which included Defensive Driving, Job Site Awareness, the importance of wearing personal protective equipment and other valuable topics.”

This focus on safety has paid off. Belknap Landscape has received national recognition from trade magazines and organizations like the National Association of Landscape Professionals. Lighthouse Contracting Group sees the benefits every day.

To learn more about Belknap Landscape Company visit https://belknaplandscape.com