Ep. 285 Properly Utilizing Tailgate Meetings

Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Account Executive Casey Craig talk about utilizing tailgate meetings, a.k.a. toolbox talks or safety meetings, on the jobsite.

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SafetyOne™ App

Director/Host: Alyssa Burley

Guest: Casey Craig

Producer/Editor: Megan Lockhart

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

© Copyright 2023. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

transcript

[Introduction Music]

Alyssa Burley: Hi! This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa’s Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today’s top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our safety and risk management network, StudioOne™. Welcome back, everyone. My guest is Casey Craig, Account Executive with Rancho Mesa. He specializes in commercial insurance for paint, plaster and drywall contractors. Today, we're going to talk about utilizing tailgate meetings, toolbox talks or safety meetings on the job site. Casey, welcome to the show.

Casey Craig: Thanks for having me, Alyssa.

AB: For many foremen and superintendents, weekly tailgate meetings, toolbox talks and safety meetings can feel like a task that just needs to be checked off the list. However, while the purpose of these meetings is critical for the health and well-being of fellow field employees, the time required and repetitive nature of them can create challenges. To maximize the benefits of these meetings, construction companies must be proactive and thoughtful as they develop an inventory of topics. Casey, what do you suggest construction companies do to ensure they're picking safety topics that are going to maximize the effectiveness of their meetings?

CC: Yeah, I guess the first thing that they should do is identify tailgate meeting topics. So, taking a look at the jobs that you're going to be on, understanding the hazards that you’re going to be coming up against and maybe taking a look at the weather. So, if you're going to have a heat wave coming in or anything really cold coming, you should really be prepared for that. Reaching out to your insurance broker to use them as a resource. Because if you're going to be doing a job that might have confined spaces, it'd be nice to really find somebody that specialized in that space. Taking a look at your injury trends. A lot of times when underwriters are looking at your account, they're looking at not only what injuries you had, but what you're doing to fix that moving forward. So, if you guys have had slips, trips and falls, are you guys doing the right training moving forward to make sure they don't happen again? So, this will all kind of lead to you guys having a best practices safety program.

AB: Okay. So, Rancho Mesa recently introduced our proprietary SafetyOne™ app where safety managers can perform safety inspections on their mobile devices, identify issues, assign those issues to employees that need to correct them. And it documents when the issues were fixed, but it also includes a library of toolbox talks. So, Casey, why is it important to utilize Rancho Mesa’s safety resources for these regular meetings that are taking place?

CC: When you're looking for these topics, sometimes you're going into a library that can have thousands of topics to choose from and finding the right one can be time consuming or costly to find, and not all topics are applicable. So, something that works for an electrician might not work for a drywall there. So, trying to find that is very important. Through the app, the supervisor will have access to a vast library of topics from their mobile device as well.

AB: Yeah, absolutely. And the SafetyOne™ app makes it really easy to find topics and complete the meeting on the job site from any mobile device. So, really a safety manager can pick and choose the topics that are going to be available in the mobile app. You don't have to scroll through an entire library. You're only going to see the stuff that really makes sense for you. And if listeners are interested in utilizing the SafetyOne™ app, we’ll include a link in the episode notes where you can find more information and sign up for our wait list. So, Casey, if listeners have questions about their risk management, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

CC: They can email me directly at ccraig@ranchomesa.com or call at (619) 438-6900.

AB: All right. So, I'm going to put you on the spot for a couple of minutes here. You up for it?

CC: Okay.

AB: All right. River or the beach?

CC: River.

AB: I knew that was going to be it. Truck or car?

CC: Car, believe it or not.

AB: Really? I think I see you as being a truck guy.  

CC: Everybody says that. No, I'm a car guy. I am efficient.

AB: All right. And last pizza or burger?

CC: Pizza.

AB: Really?

CC: Uh huh.

AB: All right. What kind?

CC: Italian sausage and jalapenos.

AB: Oh, good luck with that one. All right. Well, Casey, thank you for joining me in StudioOne™.

[Outro Music]

CC: Of course, thank you for having me, Alyssa.

AB: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. For more information, visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.