Our Safety Practices

At Tilson, safety is our number one value

We work hard to build a culture around safety that emphasizes good habits and establishes cultural norms about how we operate. The goal of our safety culture is accident prevention resulting in zero workplace injuries. We believe this is an achievable goal. Our safety culture revolves around the following cultural characteristics:

Empowerment. If any team member sees anything unsafe, they are both empowered and obligated to speak up and stop work until that unsafe condition is remedied. It’s every employee’s right and responsibility to observe and call out at-risk behavior.
Transparency. We analyze and report all safety incidents so that we can all learn from what happened. We do this not to assign blame or punish, but to prevent future accidents. Employees are obligated to report accidents and near misses immediately so we can learn from them.
Judgment. Accidents tend to be multi-factor incidents. In addition to whatever ultimately caused the accident, there are usually conditions that contributed to it, such as worker fatigue, insufficient supervision, inexperience, lack of personal protective equipment, or a rushed schedule. Our employees focus on using good judgment to set the right conditions for safety, now and in the future.

It is our obligation to our fellow team members and to our customers to watch for at-risk behaviors on the job site, to set the right conditions for safety, and to be open about reporting incidents to prevent future accidents. These cultural characteristics around safety are a daily, ongoing conversation with our management and employees.

It is also our obligation to ensure that all team members have the training necessary to do their jobs safety. All Tilson field team members are trained in OSHA standards, first aid/CPR, blood borne pathogens, and risk prevention and control techniques. We leverage our National Safety Council membership and a robust health and wellness program to optimize employee health and safety both at home and at work. Additionally, we are currently developing an apprenticeship program in conjunction with The Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP) and the U.S. Department of Labor which emphasizes safety and proper training for telecommunications industry workers. This program is sponsored by the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA).

The NATE STAR requirements

Tilson’s wireless tower team adheres to standards set by the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE), and has been named a NATE STAR participant for seven years in a row. STAR stands for Safety Training Accountability and Reliability. Tilson has made a commitment to the highest levels of tower safety by agreeing to participate in a rigorous regime of training, auditing, and reporting on safety and quality.

Provide specific training and certifications to tower climbers and managers in the field. We have in-house, Comtrain instructors to certify our employees for competent climbing, rescue and rigging
Implement a Safety and Health and Accident Prevention Program
Ensure that there will be a competent person for health and safety on all job sites at all times
Conduct and submit site safety audits for 10% of projects
Deploy and abide by various NATE mandated standards, checklists, and reports

TIRAP

The Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program (“TIRAP”) is a joint venture of telecommunications companies, industry associations and the U.S. Department of Labor (“DoL”) that develops DoL-credentialed apprenticeship programs available to qualified employers for career development of the telecommunications workforce.

The TIRAP’s mission is to partner with stakeholders to promote safety, enhance quality, and enable education and advancement opportunities in the telecommunications workforce that will meet network infrastructure build out needs.

Learn more about TIRAP.

Safety

At Tilson, safety is our number one value