NexGen Spotlight: Setting the Standard of Excellence in Safety
Shaun Marker’s illustrious safety career has reached 30 years, thanks to hard work, dedication to his craft, and a small dose of serendipity.
Planning to head to Notre Dame University for graduate school, Marker spent that summer working for a local concrete construction company. During that time, OSHA came to inspect the jobsite and found multiple violations.
The owner of the company approached Marker and asked if he’d be interested in attending safety training courses and stepping into a safety role with the company. Marker agreed, and more than three decades later, is glad he did.
The experience of developing consistency and standardization around an entire enterprise was excellent preparation for Marker making the jump to NexGen Contracting in 2023 and creating the safety program from the ground up.
“Gray’s first core value is that safety and quality of life come first,” Marker said. “Safety directly impacts our team members. A fundamental principle to organizational success is taking care of your greatest asset, which for us, is our people.”
Marker says his safety team is focused on eliminating all incidents—with an emphasis on those that account for 90% of all fatalities in construction, including falls, struck-by incidents, caught-in-between incidents, and electrocution.
Additionally, the NexGen Safety team is joining the OSHA Voluntary Protection Programs, which would further reiterate the stellar safety culture.
“NexGen and Gray team members hold themselves to a higher safety standard than even OSHA requirements,” Marker said. “We see this as a source of pride, and our inclusion in this program is a testament to our commitment to safety.”
Marker noted how safety is a team effort, spanning not only departments but Gray companies. NexGen and Gray safety teams are constantly collaborating around ways to enhance safety and learning from each other. He noted that when NexGen and Gray partner on projects, the Safety teams meet to proactively discuss potential risks and work together to mitigate them.
Marker said he is proud of the way the NexGen team has worked safely—especially amid the rapid growth of team members and consistent influx of industry newcomers. He said that even while exceeding more than 500,000 work hours, the recordable incident rate is well below the industry average.
“This attitude of safety extends beyond our Safety team to the operational side as well,” Marker said. “They aren’t just enforcing safety—they are keeping it at the forefront of all that they do. It’s working with these amazing people, along with the support of leadership, that makes my job enjoyable.”
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