OneLife: Inspiring a Culture of Safety to Make Choate
The Nation's Safest Construction Company
No matter the language, working safely
begins and ends with people.
Our people, trade partners, safety managers, and project teams are what enable Choate’s safety culture to lead the nation. With a goal to elevate safety standards and ensure everyone goes home safely – and more safety conscious – at the end of the day, it’s a true honor to see the efforts of our people recognized by The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) as the Top Safety & Wellness program in the nation.
Every day, we send thousands of employees and trade contractors to jobsites across the nation, and every day, their loved ones depend on them to return home safe and sound. This monumental, humbling task is why we’ve devoted ourselves to transforming the culture of safety from the ground up.
Since its creation in 2014, OneLife, Choate’s safety identity and program, has become a rallying cry to move from compliance-based safety to safety that focuses on commitment — safety that touches the heart.
Taking Safety to Heart
We want workers to want to work safely — if not for themselves, for their spouses, children, or future grandchildren; for the lives and livelihoods of their coworkers.
Over thirty years of safety management across thousands of jobsites has shown us that simply inspecting for hazards or instituting regulations will not achieve the goal of fundamentally altering the individual mindset.
We also recognize, however, that to err is human; therefore, we take continual, proactive steps to “engineer out” the potential for risk. This includes actively leveraging our Risk Management Information System to predict trends in risk and train/alter our process to prevent incidents before they occur.
A Three-Pronged Approach
OneLife is designed to give a face to the critical, personal decisions workers must face daily by pinpointing the technical (e.g., lack of training), behavioral (e.g., rushing through work), and personal (e.g., language barriers) aspects impacting proper safety performance. By focusing on these aspects via targeted measures, we’re aiming to create a workforce that is personally engaged, empowered, and committed to eliminating injuries.
Walking the Walk
As Choate has grown, so too have the targeted measures we use to protect our workforces.
Choate is driven to ensuring our safety management teams have the skills, training, and experience to improve safety performance on and off the jobsite. By promoting various certification programs, we ensure our safety management team has the necessary skills, experience, and training to drive consistent, first-rate safety performance. Safety team members are encouraged to enhance their skills via third-party credentialing programs through the Manager of Environmental Safety & Health (MESH) program at North Carolina State University, as well as the Board of Certified Safety Professionals – the industry’s premier organization for safety credentialing.
Likewise, regular refinement of our safety program allows us to turn the latest safety innovations into advancements in our policy and procedures. Likewise, adoption of many industry safety and health best practices ensures uniformity across jobsites and among contractors, further perpetuating the ideal of safety being a universal value. We will continue to take active steps to enhance our safety initiatives in the following areas:
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- Management commitment and leadership
- Employee involvement and participation
- Hazard identification and evaluation
- Hazard prevention and control
- Investigate incidents thoroughly
- Safety and health training
Discounted Training Courses
Choate offers a variety of training options through ClickSafety.com/Choateco at discounted prices for the subcontractor community, including OSHA 30 Hour and OSHA 10 Hour courses in both Spanish and English. For more information, click here to view our flyer.
Focused Efforts for
Rewarding Results
Through regular inspections of jobsites, consistent messaging, and continuing education for our employees, Choate has achieved a level of success with our recognizably low injury and illness rates. Since Choate’s inception of OneLife, we’ve received numerous awards recognizing our commitment to working safely including, but most certainly not limited to, honors from the Georgia Hispanic Construction Association, SCDOL, NCDOL, Association of General Contractors and the Associated Builders and Contractors.
F E A T U R E D | Choate Construction ws honored to be named the National Grand Award Winner of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) Willis Towers Watson 2022 National Construction Safety Excellence Awards. In addition to the National Grand Award, Choate received first place honors in our division (Construction Management, 700,000+ man hours) for the second consecutive year.
Profile of a Choate Employee Owner
Allen Martin
Charleston Safety Director
Allen Martin leads Choate Charleston’s safety management team, proudly carrying on a ten-year record of zero lost time incidents for the South Carolina office. With a positive attitude and fresh, innovative approach to jobsite safety, he is able to uniquely inspire others to not just build better but build better safely.
What’s the best part about your job?
Making a positive impact across our sites to ensure that everyone can safely return home to their families at the end of each day.
What does OneLife mean to you?
We all have a commitment to make when it comes to working safely. Our families and loved ones need us on this earth just as much as we need them.
What part of your career have you been most proud?
Joining the Choate family!
