To help members reach safety goals, the National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA) is introducing the NUCA Safety, Training, Awareness and Recognition (NUCA STAR) Program.

“NUCA STAR has the promise to deliver an improved safety envelope for both NUCA members and the entire utility construction industry,” says Mike Flowers, NUCA director of safety, education and training. “NUCA members can promote for bids and labor needs their company’s safety culture through NUCA STAR’s standardized industry rating system. Making job site safety a top priority will attract and retain employees who see that the company recognizes the importance of a safe working environment.”

The NUCA STAR Program was developed by the association’s Safety Committee to help evaluate, update, and recognize a member company’s safety program and practices. NUCA members who volunteer to participate should see lower incident rates and accidents on their job sites and in their company facilities.

The program will focus on evaluating four specific areas:

• Leadership
• Culture
• Procedures
• Records and Data Management

Under these four core areas will be subsections, scored on a points system with specific guidelines that a company must meet for each category.

Leadership is extremely important in a company’s safety program and NUCA STAR will fully evaluate a company’s safety program. The evaluation includes existing safety mission statement, safety procedures, safety training and allocated resources, and individual employee safety evaluation and performance reviews.

Culture is measured through analyzing employees’ engagement in safety awareness, a company’s substance abuse and awareness program, leadership safety meetings, new hire orientations and training, and the company’s safety program goals and reviews.

Procedures includes questions about a company’s accident and incident investigation process, incident response procedures and policies, safety rules and policies, toolbox talks and employee safety training, inspection processes, personal protective equipment procedures, and vehicle and mobile equipment procedures and policies.

The points system for each subcategory will have 12 as the highest value, followed by 8, 4, and zero. To encourage competition and high achievement, the accumulated points are given four levels of accomplishment:

• Platinum (240-276 points)
• Gold (206-239 points)
• Silver (176-205 points)
• Bronze (139-175 points)

Once a company’s application is submitted to NUCA STAR with all supporting documentation, the NUCA STAR Review Board will have 10 business days to evaluate the application. The Review Board will consist of four members of the NUCA Safety Committee.

There will be no fee to participate in the NUCA STAR Program, but members can make a donation to the NUCA Safety Ambassador Club to further the association’s educational and training programs. A detailed outline of the NUCA STAR Program is available online along with the application. There is also a paper application available for submission.

The NUCA STAR Program will be available year-round, and submissions for the program can be made at any time during the year. Members who achieve the Platinum level will be required to resubmit their application every three years to maintain that superlative level of safety achievement.

More information about NUCA STAR can be found at www.nuca.com/nucastar.

About the National Utility Contractors Association

Founded in 1964, the National Utility Contractors Association represents nearly 1,700 U.S. utility and excavation contractors, manufacturers, and suppliers who provide the materials and workforce to build and maintain our nation’s intricate network of water, sewer, gas, telecommunications, and electric infrastructure. Visit www.nuca.com or follow on Twitter at @NUCA_National. The association’s Twitter hashtags are #WeDigAmerica and #NUCAdigs.