Keeping People Safe for 20 Years

A Retrospective 

We’ve seen a lot of changes in our industry over the past two decades, with one of the biggest being a greater focus on keeping people safe. It sounds simple but, think about where we were just 20 short years ago.

Back then, safety was driven by insurance companies. Construction firms and other companies needed to meet some basic requirements in order to be insured. At the same time, a boon in the construction industry created the need for more workers, stretching the limits of companies to keep up. This resulted in a higher number of unskilled workers, lacking the proper experience and training, leading to more accidents and injuries.

People were getting hurt, and something needed to change. That something began when John McCarthy was hired by an insurance broker to help mitigate construction risks. John understood safety was much more than risk management, he believed safety was a learned behavior. So, in 1998 he founded Pro Safety Services, LLC, with a mission of helping clients to create and maintain a safety culture.

Pro Safety is more than a safety management company. John started a movement, driven by a singular goal of keeping people safe. His two-fold approach was spreading the safety message, while placing a greater emphasis on continued education and training…of workers and upper management alike.

For the next 20 years, John and his team at Pro Safety have been getting the word out about the importance of safety. Once people in the industry became more aware of the costs and losses associated with accidents, and started to realize the growing number of injuries, things started to change. From new regulations and increased training, to developing a safety-first mindset…everyone in the industry, from owners to workers, became very proactive in changing their behaviors.

What hasn’t changed for over 20 years is our vision at Pro Safety: Keeping your employees safe is not only the right thing to do, it also makes good business sense. For more than two decades, Pro Safety clients have saved millions of dollars associated with safety costs. However, our legacy is much greater than dollars saved…it’s about people. Pro Safety has led a change in our industry, helping clients to realize how a safer environment can significantly reduce accidents and injuries. Keeping people safe is a mission we are proud of, and a message we plan to spread for another 20 years.