Granger Safety Manager, Eric Medley, understands exactly how important safety measures are on every jobsite. With over 15 years of experience in the field, his expertise has earned him high marks in the construction industry. His extensive list of accreditations and certifications only adds to his impressive resume and on-site experience for big name clients.
Eric started his career after graduating from The University of Toledo in 2007 with a marketing and sales degree. With that, he worked as a mortgage broker for about a year before being presented with the opportunity to work as a safety manager for a local pipefitting contractor. There, Eric realized that a career in safety was calling him back.
“I was raised in a trades family, and I helped with safety part-time for my father and here and there during college, so it was not a new thing to me. Seventeen years later and I’m still doing it.”
In those 17 years, Eric has thrived helping everyone around him embrace safety standards and strive to always be prepared. In his time at Granger, Eric has fully grasped the impact of safety on all aspects of the construction industry. “Safety is extremely impactful. This position has taught me how to analyze things from different perspectives. I’m constantly trying to figure out how tasks can be done safely.”
Eric plays a critical role in preventing accidents and ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations on our jobsites. Some of the tasks he performs that help achieve these goals include:
- Site Safety Inspections: regularly walking the site to identify hazards like exposed wiring, unguarded machinery or unsafe scaffolding.
- Safety Training and Toolbox Talks: running daily or weekly safety briefings tailored to current tasks happening on site and educating workers on any new regulations, equipment use or potential hazards.
- Regulatory Compliance: ensuring the site complies with OSHA (or equivalent standards) and maintaining documentation for audits, permits and certifications that may be required.
- Developing Safety Plans: creating job hazard analyses (JHAs) and site-specific safety plans for new projects; collaborating with project partners to proactively mitigate risks.
- Emergency Response Planning: setting up fire drills, evacuation procedures and first aid protocols, and coordinating with local emergency services.
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Eric explained that his favorite part of his job is getting to be a part of a constantly changing environment, as well as getting to help others go home safely to their loved ones at the end of every day. When asked what safety means to him, he gave an answer that was short and sweet: It’s a way of life.
Having Eric as a safety manager on job sites has been impactful in a multitude of ways. Granger Corporate Safety Director Brian Goodman said, “Since joining Granger as a safety manager, Eric has been a dedicated safety professional helping to ensure and constantly improve our culture of safety. Eric not only helps with the project he is on but is also more than willing to step up and assist with other projects or safety items. He prioritizes the safety of the workers and works hard to assist them in eliminating hazards. Granger’s safety team is much stronger with Eric on our side!”
Eric strives to raise the safety consciousness of all workers on a project, guiding them through site-specific safety plans, pre-task analysis and action plans. He shared some advice for the next generation of safety professionals entering the industry: “Don’t hide behind a book, you have to talk to people. You would be amazed at what you can learn from just listening to those ‘Old Timers’ tell their story about the ‘Good Ole Days,’”
