Keeping the employees at Hooker Creek Companies safe is a challenge of monumental proportions, like everything else at Hooker Creek. It's a company that measures what it sells in tons; it operates mines, plants, trucking companies, and equipment rentals in about a dozen locations throughout Central Oregon and employs more than 300 people. Some of its construction projects have multiple crews on different shifts working around the clock.
Employees at Hooker Creek are in the field every day, operating backhoes, bulldozers, and rock crushers. They mine, crush, and deliver rock, cement, and asphalt – a diverse and intense involvement in the construction world that makes a strong safety program critical.
"Safety is always important," says Gary Robertson, safety director. "It's an important philosophy that comes directly from the top."
Before coming to Hooker Creek Companies, Robertson worked in law enforcement. "The goal there is to always come home in the same condition you go to work," he says. "We feel the same here. I want to participate in any program possible that helps us improve safety or get people back to work."
On the rare occasion that someone is injured, the company's goal is to get the worker back on the job as quickly as possible. To help do that, Robertson uses the wage subsidy benefit of the Employer-at-Injury Program (EAIP).
"SAIF talked to us about the possibility of purchasing equipment in order to provide more productive work," says Robertson. "When the next injury occurred, I hopped on that pretty quickly."
That injury came in September 2007, when Dan Pettersen, a ready-mix driver at Hooker Creek, slipped and fell. The damage to his right knee required surgery and time off work.
To get Pettersen back on the job as quickly as possible, Hooker Creek took advantage of the EAIP benefit Tracy Stephens, a SAIF return-to-work consultant, had told him about. Robertson requested a computer and printer so Pettersen could assist him in creating materials for the safety department.
"I was amazed how fast it happened," says Robertson. "It was almost like there was no red tape at all."
The request was approved and the computer was in place even before Pettersen had surgery. He was back on the job in four or five days. In four months he was able to return to his regular job as a driver.
"The nice thing is that these benefits will open the door for future workers," says Stephens. "Someone else may need it someday, and it will be there. It has also been a benefit to the safety program at Hooker Creek. It's been a win-win for everyone."