Jamie Dabbs attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Occupational Safety and Health. He secured an internship with the Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and then he obtained a position working as a safety manager within a manufacturing plant in Oklahoma City. Realizing that he wanted to broaden his experience beyond manufacturing, he sought opportunities in construction. He assumed a role with McCarthy Building Companies, a well-established general contractor based in St. Louis, MO, and then was introduced to TDIndustries.
His career advanced for the next 15 years at TDIndustries, where he now serves as the Vice President of Safety, Health, and Environmental. TDIndustries, Inc. is a premier facilities service and mechanical construction company, founded in 1946. TD is 100% owned by its 3,000 employee-owners, who they call partners, and the organization champions innovative, sophisticated and challenging construction projects.
For our latest Faces of EHS profile, we sat down with Jamie to discuss his passion for the construction industry, prioritizing pre-task planning, and an inspirational approach to safety culture.
Q: How did you get your start in the field?
I attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University where I earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Occupational Safety and Health. My career began when I secured an internship with the Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma. While working with the Noble Foundation, I was exposed to the Oklahoma Safety Council. I made several professional connections at that time that helped advance my career in the environmental, health, and safety field.
Q: Who has been your biggest influence in the industry?
The professionals who had the greatest influence on me, throughout my career, are Guy Albanese and Barry Nelson. Guy Albanese was my long-time mentor at TD. Guy has since retired. He was a tremendous source of knowledge and expertise. Barry Nelson, who is the leader of FactorLab, taught me how to measure and improve safety processes in a radical and transformative way. Finally, I would also say that all my peers in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas who are active in TEXO have had a tremendous influence on my career growth and development, including Tim Kuykendall, Scott Sears, and many others.
Q: What is your best mistake and what did you learn from it?
Early in my career, I had to learn to avoid working around established silos. I also had to make sure that I sufficiently engaged all resistors and key stakeholders. Safety and health system excellence requires full participation. Since I was not initially serving in a senior leadership role when I began in this field, obtaining full buy-in from all stakeholders sometimes proved challenging.
With time, I eventually learned that the best outcomes require alignment of objectives across the entire company. Although this approach may seem to slow progress, it is critical to make sure that there is production leader alignment before trying to reach your EHS goals. On a positive note, when you do engage everyone, you become integrated within the team and establish the trust needed to make additional strides and improvements.
Q: What is your favorite and least favorite part about working in the industry? Would you change anything?
Construction is one of the most fun industries out there. It suits me. I need to stay busy; I work best with constant activity. Thus, my favorite part about working in safety and health, particularly for a construction firm, is that our roles are so dynamic and varied that my days are never the same. There is a tremendous array of skills required to perform well. I am also constantly learning new and innovative techniques and solving how to best apply them for the betterment of TD and to keep our partners safe.
The area of safety and health is often perceived as something that slows down processes, a disrupter of production. My least favorite part about working within the safety field is that, because of this perception, environmental, health and safety professionals may have to advocate for the creation of additional leadership roles, work to gain credibility and work harder to demonstrate their value. Because safety and health touches every aspect of the business, it is important that EHS professionals have a seat at the leadership table.
Q: What are your thoughts on safety culture? How can company leaders make safety a value within their organization?
Fortunately, at TDIndustries, safety is a core value. TD encourages all employee-owners to fiercely protect the health and safety of all our employee-owners. As such, safety is top of mind for everyone. We have a vision for 2023 and beyond called ZERO Harm, which is TD’s pursuit of work that results in no serious injuries or fatalities. Within the construction industry at large, I would encourage all leaders to take a similar “inspirational” approach to safety culture, while simultaneously implementing safety “how” and sophisticated safety controls and processes. This combination focuses on what matters most—sending people home the same way that they came.
Q: What safety concerns or issues do you think need more prioritization in EHS programs?
Throughout the industry, companies should focus more heavily on daily planning conversations. Effective pre-task planning should occur across all construction teams, and the discussions involved in sharing those plans with the crew are crucial to safe work occurring. It is important to focus on the quality of the daily planning communication. Have reciprocal conversations with the crew in a manner that is clear and concise. Examine who is doing what task step and have an in-depth discussion about the most hazardous activities for the day, what can go wrong, what work is out of our control, etc. This will also give insight into the leadership skills of your field leaders.
Q: What will be the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles on the EHS industry?
ESG principles will prompt us to ask different questions when we assess the effectiveness of our environmental, health, and safety programs. We will be considering our carbon footprint, researching fair trade suppliers, and expanding recycling programs. ESG principles also emphasize that our choices have global implications. Safety professionals’ duties across the United States are starting to reflect these considerations because it is a natural tuck-in of responsibilities to your EHS staff.
Q: How will new safety technologies influence the work being done by EHS professionals?
There are several added benefits of innovative technologies. Technology will help teams become better at identifying significant safety issues and allow us to be more intentional when developing solutions. Innovative technologies, such as AI, will result in more direct problem solving during the initial stages of each project. We will have better tools for analyzing work. This could significantly impact daily planning conversations. For example, words spoken during a daily cleaning conversation, recognized by AI, will identify and document risks and be predictive in nature, filling knowledge gaps.
Technology will also be a resource multiplier, allowing safety professionals to effectively watch larger crews and or multiple locations. For instance, across TDIndustries’ job sites, our safety app has allowed us to exponentially increase our visibility of safety process performance and quality across multiple projects, teams, geographies, and trades.
Q: What are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the drastic improvements in safety process engagement and safety metric performance that I have seen during my tenure at TD. I am also thrilled about the dynamic and meaningful objectives we have implemented. Our efforts and results demonstrate respect and care for the people who do extraordinary work every day and are core to TD’s culture and success.
Q: Do you have any advice for people entering the profession?
First, find the field that is right for you. I would suggest that professionals entering the safety and health field consider working within the construction industry. The construction industry is dynamic and has several challenges yet to solve, thus it offers many opportunities to gain experience, innovate and grow. In the construction industry, safety professionals will always be challenged. Finding solutions is fun. I would also suggest that when entering the EHS profession, one should find a company with a great corporate and safety culture. Finally, I would suggest that they consider a variety of advanced degrees. An MBA, for example, may help professionals attain higher executive roles.