PHOENIX, AZ Paul Johnson Drywall finished 2016 with a stellar safety record of 1,170,702 work hours with zero away from work days.

In 2014, Paul Johnson Drywall began implementing its most comprehensive safety program to date, "Safety First." The program not only follows all OSHA standards and regulations, it also includes additional fall-protection and scaffolding training for every employee, daily job-site safety training, and regular job site safety inspections of the scaffolding equipment and crew environment and practices by the firm's designated safety supervisors.

"Two years ago, when we made the decision to focus more heavily on worker and job site safety, I knew it would bring peace of mind to our customers and me, but after achieving this important milestone of logging more than one million hours without a day missed, our crews and their families also share an appreciation for the additional safety measures and benefits of training," said Cole Johnson, President of Paul Johnson Drywall. "This milestone is significant, and I hope others in the industry will be inspired by it to implement similar practices. Accidents are often avoidable, and we owe it to our people to do anything we can to keep everyone safe so they get home to their families." 

The "Safety First" program helps to educate employees about safe construction practices and trains employees to identify and take corrective action in unsafe situations. Implementing the comprehensive program has helped crews to more efficiently complete projects, while also providing customers with the added comfort of knowing their contractor is focused on worker and job site safety.

Employees participate in a safety training program that covers various OSHA safety topics, including equipment utilization requirements; hazardous materials identification; compliance with the acquisition and maintenance of safety data sheets, implementation of accurate labeling procedures; and heat illness prevention as well as fall-protection training.