One Company’s Unwavering Dedication to National Safety Stand-down

By Evelyn Witterholt, RCS Reporter. 

Learn about the history of safe roofing practices and the innovative safety initiatives from Tremco WTI. 

In a recent Roofing Road Trips episode, RCS President, Heidi J. Ellsworth spoke with Ro Lewis, Tony Kotnik, Morgan Minter and Sarah Panter from Tremco WTI about the importance of safety in the roofing industry. 

Ro is the director of health and safety at Tremco WTI and believes that the key to safe practices is keeping people at the forefront of their mind. Whether it’s out on the field or in the office, their team wants people to make it home safe and sound at the end of the day. “We had the motto: Lead with Safety,” he said. “But shortly after (coming up with) that we came behind it and said, ‘Lead with safety so we could end with family.’” 

As the Assistant Director of the health and safety department, Tony analyzes their metrics daily to make sure they are constantly striving for improvement. One of the metrics he tracks is their experience modification rate (EMR), which insurance companies use to determine how likely a business is to have worker’s comp claims. With an EMR of 1 being average, anything below 1 will result in lower insurance premium costs. Tony says that Tremco’s WTI is at 0.6, an industry-leading standard that they are proud of. 

Tremco WTI’s safety efforts have been going so well, that the company has now expanded into the Canadian region. Morgan is the field safety manager in their Canada department and is amazed at how fast their company has grown over the past few years. “It's been really amazing to be able to sit back and watch how things have grown into what they are today,” she said. “People really care and they want to make sure that everything is done safely.” 

Sarah, their health and safety administrator, spoke at length about what makes their department and company so successful. She believes that doing the right thing when no one is watching is important as well as doing the right thing for the right reasons. Sarah also discusses the latest technology integrations they’ll be making soon. 

“We brought in some wearables, which we haven't really experimented with yet. We’re able to start that out in the UK. I'm excited to see how that's going to come over to the U.S. and improve our programs here,” Sarah said. 

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about Tremco WTI’s safety team strategies. 

Learn more about Tremco and Tremco WTI in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.tremcoroofing.com.