Safety Management at Humphrey Rich Construction Group

Headquartered in Maryland, Humphrey Rich Construction Group works with customers and project teams across the country. The leadership team can’t always be on every project, but it’s important to them that they have visibility into what’s happening on-site. So when Humphrey Rich VP, Tom Garcia, met with OpenSpace at a Procore Groundbreak show, he knew he had found a solution that could help, not only with project visibility, but also help to streamline documentation and communication across the organization. 

What Tom didn’t realize at the time was how quickly OpenSpace would also become a go-to for their safety department. East Coast-based Safety Manager, Suzy Garcia, started using OpenSpace quite by accident when she was added to a job on the West Coast for visibility. Interested in the tech, Suzy logged in and started poking around the jobsite virtually. It didn’t take long before thoughts of, “this is so nice; I can see everything that’s happening on this job from across the country” were replaced with, “wait a minute… that ladder shouldn’t be there!” Sure enough, as she “walked” further through the site, she found several other safety observations that she would normally call out… if she was on-site, that is. 

Not being one to sit around and wait for a solution to be presented to her, and ever the problem solver, Suzy continued to look through the OpenSpace platform until she came across the Field Notes feature. Field Notes organizes 2D images and comments in OpenSpace, and maps them to the floor plan in context of the construction project so they’re easy to find and easy to share. And I guess you could say the rest was history. 

Utilizing Field Notes, Suzy began going through that West Coast job and documenting each safety observance she found, tagging the appropriate project members on-site who could quickly address the situation. The first round of observances were quick and blunt, with no time wasted on pleasantries. She soon realized that if this were to be a success in making everyone’s lives easier, she would need to get broader buy-in from the teams on-site. It only took a short time before they had made progress and set some standard operating procedures in place. Before she knew it, Suzy was walking sites virtually on a regular basis. 

Admittedly, it’s not always easy to implement new processes. There were a couple team members who tried everything in their power to delay the implementation, however, the enthusiasm from the leadership team has gone a long way in getting buy-in from the team. Even those initially reluctant, have realized the value and are now internal champions of OpenSpace. Those champions now spread the word as Humphrey Rich works to implement OpenSpace company-wide on all projects. 

The level of insight that the Humphrey Rich team is able to gain from OpenSpace allows for a greater level of transparency within their team and also in their communication with partners and owners. It’s shown those they work with how important jobsite safety is to them and how committed they are to innovation for process improvements. This commitment has not only improved safety but has also resulted in more efficient projects and better communication across the organization. As Humphrey Rich Construction Group continues to grow and take on new projects, they can rely on OpenSpace to provide the visibility and documentation they need to succeed.