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Pacific Coast Steel

The Company

Testimonial

"Pacific Coast Steel is a company that has always challenged the norm, and strives to be best in class through innovative practices and hard work. In 2003, we believed that we could deliver safety training through unconventional means for construction ironworkers, who are accustomed to being trained in a classroom or jobsite environment. Pure Safety has been embraced by our employees who find it informative, convenient, and challenging. Pacific Coast Steel believes that Pure Safety shares their vision of a safe workplace and is an excellent safety partner, who has helped Pacific Coast Steel to achieve several milestones in their safety program since 2003."

Jennifer W. Martin
Risk Manager

Pacific Coast Steel (PCS) is one of the largest reinforcing steel contractors on the West Coast employing over 1,000 employees, with revenues of $200+ Million. PCS specializes in the fabrication and installation of reinforcing steel and post-tensioned products for over 200 active projects in California and Nevada, including design/build, high rise construction, heavy engineering, civil and public agency works of improvement. In addition to field operations throughout the West Coast, PCS operates multiple steel fabrication facilities in Northern and Southern California.

The Challenge

Historically, PCS has provided training through outside organizations such as union, safety vendors and insurance companies; in classroom and jobsite settings; and using videos and hands-on demonstrations.

As PCS continued to grow, it became challenging to schedule classes to meet employees’ needs, and even more difficult to ensure 100% attendance at the training sessions. PCS invested resources setting up classes and paying instructors, but then wasted resources on absent employees and coordinating make-up classes.

Once courses were completed, obtaining all the certifications and keeping adequate records became an administrative burden. In addition, it was difficult to ascertain the impact that the safety training being conducted was having on injuries in the workplace. PCS was looking for measurable results in terms of injury rate reduction. They were also striving to create a streamlined approach to achieving OSHA training compliance and recordkeeping.

The Solution

After identifying the various training challenges, PCS researched various training techniques, including courses on DVD and written programs and tests. DVD usage was difficult to track based on the large geographic areas where employees worked. Plus, it was continually difficult to keep track of the location of the DVDs and ensure they were reaching all intended trainees. When written programs and tests were implemented, it was unclear if the content was being understood or retained by the employees.

Although online training was a new method of delivery for the company, it was worthwhile evaluating to determine if it would meet the safety training needs and accomplish PCS’ goals. In the company’s quest to select the right online training partner, they researched PureSafety plus two other vendors.

It was important to the PCS safety professionals that they were able to sample the training from the various vendors at a low cost before making a significant investment. PureSafety allowed this through its on demand training delivery and tracking solution at www.puresafetyppv.com. PCS found that the quality and instructional design of the PureSafety courses was superior to the other vendors and the price was reasonable and affordable.

PCS was uncertain whether online training would be embraced by field ironworkers as a method of training, so the company launched a pilot program among a select group of supervisors. It was a success! PCS implemented PureSafety in 2003 and currently has 320 employees being trained on the system, with over 1,900 completed training courses.

The Results

Many PCS employees now prefer online training to classroom training because of the flexibility. They can set their own training schedules and still keep commitments to their families on weekends and after work. The company still encourages and schedules classroom and jobsite training as it is important to offer different methods for varying training situations. However, the majority of the safety training is done online. PCS has found that the costs of online training are less than classroom training, and the administrative burden of manually logging training completion data is eliminated.

Significant accomplishments include:

  • PCS’ experience modification has been reduced from 1.01 to .78 since implementing PureSafety.
  • In 2006, PCS was awarded the coveted American General Contractors (AGC) National Award for Specialty Contractors to recognize their safety efforts. The dedication and commitment that PCS employees have shown towards safety was instrumental in the receipt of this Award. The AGC recognizes companies who have excellent safety and loss prevention programs achieved through management commitment, employee training and program innovation.
  • PCS was recognized for having zero accidents at its Northern California Steel Fabrication facility by the Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute (CRSI) in 2005.
As a steel specialty contractor, PCS is impressed with the results they have been able to achieve since the implementation of PureSafety. The PureSafety online courses have allowed PCS to deliver affordable safety training, achieve OSHA compliance, and make the workplace safer through the education of its many employees.