2024 Safety Excellence by a Field Supervisor

Ryan Girten, our Director of Field Operations and Special Operations, received the 2024 EMCOR Safety Excellence by a Field Supervisor Award. The award recognizes his work helping develop and implement a new safety structure for our fire protection group. Each year, one individual across all of EMCOR Group is given this award for demonstrating an outstanding commitment to safety.

In late 2023, a group of fire protection leaders and safety professionals at Shambaugh began discussing ways to revitalize our safety program. They wanted to take a “boots on the ground” approach with our field crews, emphasize training, focus on conditions unique to the trade, and provide on-demand safety support to sprinkler fitters.

Ryan played a pivotal role in developing the new approach, bringing together key stakeholders and safety personnel and offering critical expertise as policies were revised. When the new program launched in 2024, he went above and beyond to help ensure it was successfully implemented, meeting weekly with the safety team and spending 192 nights on the road to visit high-impact job sites across the country.

Under the new program, leadership is now required to obtain Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) accreditation. After receiving a Safety Trained Supervisor Construction (STSC) certification in 2023, Ryan built an appreciation for BCSP’s training methodology, which emphasizes logic and reasoning, instead of a checklist approach. He spearheaded efforts to get more than 458 field foremen through the STSC training and testing.

Ryan also helped create and train a new group of safety leaders dubbed the “Safety Mavericks.” Made up of seasoned sprinkler fitters and field foremen, these regional safety leaders are key to the new program, holding regular meetings, conducting audits, supporting field personnel, and serving as safety role models.

The fire protection group’s new safety program has already positively impacted our safety metrics. We are establishing a robust culture of safety, built on the commitment of each field employee and the incredible dedication of leaders like Ryan.