The new programme supports frontline construction supervisors and magnifies their indispensable impact.
Compass Datacenters has launched a new programme providing frontline construction supervisors guidelines to encourage, support and maximise their daily project insight.
Traditionally referred to as foremen, frontline supervisors are critical leaders. They play a central role in safety, quality, effective communication, efficiency and developing innovative process improvements. From this point forward, foremen on Compass projects will be called ‘Frontliners’.
“No one has more influence on construction site safety than Frontline supervisors. They have the exceptional ability to see the big picture of a project while also keeping tabs on the smallest details. Their impact on a project’s overall success and daily crew safety cannot be overstated,” said Nancy Novak, Compass’ Chief Innovation Officer.
“Through this programme, we are doing something unprecedented in the industry: empowering frontline supervisors to be vocal, candid change advocates, making job sites safer, driving continuous improvement and so much more,” Novak added.
The Frontliners programme will strengthen safety by creating a culture which welcomes and celebrates supervisors who humbly acknowledge areas for improvement – including times when there have been mistakes or setbacks.
“Can you imagine a climate in the construction industry where frontline supervision is celebrated for talking openly about their vulnerabilities and things they could do differently to create a safer work site?” said Rachel Neal, Compass’ Vice President, Global Safety. “We encourage participants to ask questions which may appear simple, but they are groundbreaking for the construction industry.
“People and organisations both grow when they acknowledge failures and learn. This is one of our core convictions as a company, and it is in the programme’s DNA,” Neal said.
Frontliners encourages and positively recognises frontline supervisors for asking questions such as:
- What could I have done differently last week?
- What can I do to make the job site and our processes safer?
- What can I do differently to eliminate error?
- What can I do differently to better support my crew’s mental health?
- And other questions sparking dialogue which fosters safety, identify areas for improvement and drive change.
In addition, the programme will embrace mental health, while encouraging Frontliners to be supportive and create healthy relationships with their crews – providing a platform for discussing issues such as depression, anxiety and the rising rate of suicide.
“Too often, frontline supervisors are expected to be superhuman, feeling isolated and burdened with high levels of stress. As a result, these critical employees suffer and so do their projects,” said Neal. “We can do much better as an industry, and this programme provides a guideline for how we can better support frontline supervisors. This programme is driven by Compass’ corporate promise to make lives better, which extends to customers, neighbours, employees and the men and women building Compass’ data centres. I’m so proud we are leading the charge on these important changes.”
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