Sherman-Dixie, Inc
The Company
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Testimonial
"Since PureSafety courses are also available in Spanish, senior management has the confidence that real transfer of information is occurring with our Hispanic employees. Also, the system flexibility allows our employees to complete training at their leisure without taking away from their productive time."
Pete DeLay
President Sherman-Dixie, Inc
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Sherman-Dixie, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of "Precast Concrete Pipe" and "Precast Concrete Storm & Sanitary Sewer Structures" in the southeast United States. The company currently employs ~250 people at 8 locations throughout Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.
The Challenge
Sherman-Dixie has historically been very safety conscience as exemplified by its formal safety program led by senior management. Although training was being conducted by supervisors and occurred on a regular monthly basis in the form of short “tailgate” talks and lunch meetings, it was difficult to track whether the employees were retaining the information. With many employees not speaking English as a first language, senior management needed a solution to provide consistent safety training in their native language that proved real deliverable transfer of information.
The Solution
In the Fall of 2002, Lamar Lasley became the company’s Safety Director and was given the primary task of implementing the PureSafety solution. Senior management charged him with the task of improving training accountability, documentation and flexibility. A stronger safety culture was being created that included employee accountability through testing. In November 2002, Sherman-Dixie implemented the PureSafety Enterprise solution in order to provide training to employees in all of its plant locations.
The Results
- Sherman-Dixie has experienced 60% fewer accidents since the launch of PureSafety.
- Their large group of Hispanic employees are being trained and tested in their native language, thus giving management the confidence that real understanding of the subject is occurring throughout the entire group.
- Training absenteeism has reduced and productivity during the workday is not being adversely affected because the flexibility of the system allows employees to complete the training at their leisure.
- The employees’ awareness of safety in the workplace has been raised as a result of increased, consistent training taking place in all plant locations.
- The company is able to assign, manage and monitor its training program from a single location, resulting in reduced travel expenses.
- The efficiencies that the PureSafety solution provides have allowed the company’s Safety Director to spend more time on proactive safety duties such as plant inspections and hands-on training.
- Documentation is ensuring that the employees are being trained and that supervisors are aware that the training is being completed.
- PureSafety is proving to be a more effective tool because it is one-on-one and is formalized in its presentation.
