Over the last 11 years, Safety Advantage has worked with more than 500 employers -- either to help create and establish safety programs "from scratch," or to supplement and refine existing programs.  We have also served as "safety director" for more than 100 private and public sector Clients in Texas and other states. 

Our Clients range from businesses with less than 25 employees to nationally-known companies including the U.S. Postal Service (development of interactive training programs and on-site surveys); PPG (interactive safety training and program development); and General Electric (supervisor training and development of specialized OSHA compliance/Best Practices programs).
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Safety Advantage has developed and implemented safety and health programs for a range of businesses and workplaces, including:  light and heavy manufacturing facilities; forging operations; galvanizing and anodizing plants; lumber mills; concrete casting operations; metal fabrication shops; pipeline service and oil field operations; construction companies and subcontractors in a variety of skills.

We provide safety programs for:  service and retail businesses; food service and processing operations; restaurants; medical and dental offices, hospitals, nursing homes and home health companies; cities, counties and school districts; trade associations and professional employer organizations.
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Safety Advantage has helped employers develop initial safety and health programs for new facilities and "start-up" operations (printing plants, metal components manufacturing, warehouse and loading docks operations). 

We have assisted employers who already have substantial and comprehensive safety programs in place to develop specialized, site-specific programs (lockout and tagout, forklift operator training and certification, fall protection, respiratory protection, excavation safety, procedures for the proper selection and use of personal protective equipment, crane and hoist safety, mobile crane operations).
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Jim Giles, Safety Advantage's project director and a founder of the company, has worked with teams of safety and industrial hygiene professionals to develop Client-specific programs that have evolved into formats and templates applicable to a range of workplaces and behavioral safety applications.  Programs include the Matrix System TM, a simplified approach that any employer can use to help ensure a full and effective implementation of site-specific safety and health programs "by the numbers."

"Too often, safety professionals leave employers feeling like safety has to be as complicated and hard to understand as most OSHA regulations,"  says Giles.  "But the fact is that OSHA rules -- while essential as a blueprint for safety and health planning -- won't get you very far unless individual Employees and Supervisors understand and buy into the programs on a personal level. Safety has to make sense.  MATRIX is an effective way to keep safety simple while making sure that all the bases get covered."
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TEAMWORK SAFETY is another concept integrated into Safety Advantage's program development and training.  "How many times do you hear that the safety committee missed its meeting this month because everyone was too busy?  Or, worse, that the Safety Committee hasn't met for the last two months because someone was reassigned, left the company or whatever. 

"This generally happens because employers inadvertently set up safety committees in ways that almost guarantee failure," says Giles.   "We don't need four, eight or ten chosen individuals focusing on safety one day a month.   We need EVERYONE focusing on safety, hazard recognition and accident prevention as part of every job, every hour of the day, on each and every shift." 

"The employer has to establish meaningful TEAMWORK  motives and ideals among all Employees.  Peers must encourage peers.   Additionally, Supervisors must be point persons and attitude leaders regarding safety and accident prevention.   This is why safety committees must act as SAFETY TEAMS, and why SAFETY TEAMWORK must go beyond any single safety committee's activities." 
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SAFETY is the key word, pure and simple. 

Safety results can be predicted by the conspicuous -- for example, when employees consistently wear safety glasses to protect their eyesight.  Or, key factors may be less obvious – the consequences of an employee's poor attitude overall, or a supervisor's misunderstanding of proper incident response procedures. 

Whatever the scenario, Safety Advantage's role is to help identify specific hazards, situations and  needs,  then recommend practical steps toward solution.  A major part of our job is to support the Client's in-house activities for ongoing implementation and constant improvement in the workplace safety environment.   Limiting the Client's potential costs, losses and liability exposure to on-the-job accidents is an additional benefit.

"Getting across" to individual workers on a personal level is perhaps the greatest challenge.  But significant safety results will not happen until you do.  That is why Safety Advantage specializes in doing whatever it takes to make the point. 

Recently, one of our safety professionals posed for a humorous poster to make a special point about lockout and tagout for employees of a specific Client. 

The poster brought laughs throughout the training sessions and wound up being passed around the ranks. It made its point and everyone paid attention.  

The poster photo was all the more effective because the face in the poster was someone who everyone recognized.  

The results:  Follow-up audits documented more than a 50 percent increase in compliance with job site LOTO protocols, and a dramatic 95 percent rise in individual awareness of LOTO procedures among authorized persons. 

Our Virtual Training Center and on-site classes provide an array of workshops and specialized instruction.  Employee and supervisor training are offered in subjects such as PEC certification, CPR and First Aid; OSHA's mandatory Hazard Communications training about chemicals used in the workplace; proper selection and use of personal protective equipment; electrical and fire safety; bloodborne pathogens; and a list of other basic awareness-level classes.

We also present customized training and competent person workshops in topics such as lockout/tagout for authorized persons; fall protection; confined space entry; confined space rescue; excavation safety (trenching and shoring); plus both operator and "train the trainer" classes in safe forklift operations.

CLIENT NEEDS are always our first concern. 

Regardless of how technically strong a professional safety program may be, if it does not work in the Client's organization, it is a waste of time and money.  There are many ways to solve safety problems.  Our focus is to make the solution simple and workable for each Client. 

We listen. We look. We respond.