As one of the Midwest’s most respected builders, Power Construction is not one to stand still.
With nearly a century of experience behind it, the Chicago-headquartered contractor knows that sticking to the status quo doesn’t cut it—especially as a Star Status holder under OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP).
This coveted designation is awarded to companies that go above and beyond OSHA requirements, driving continuous improvement, boosting worker participation, and strengthening management engagement.
So when it came to a deep dive into its site safety processes, led by Senior Safety Manager Mike Gloria, CHST, key gaps like repeat issues, inconsistent reporting and missed opportunities to plan proactively bubbled up.
Paper forms, emails, and incompatible formatting of existing online documents were slowing teams down and creating blind spots. These manual workflows had become a bottleneck for executives, to site teams and everyone in between.
A smarter, scalable platform was needed to guarantee consistent safety across a growing pipeline of work.
What's Inside |
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"We needed something we could shape to fit our way of working” Pre-planning Overhaul — from JHAs to Safety Plans |
Company: Power Construction
Headquarters: Chicago, United States
Primary Challenges:
Paper forms and fragmented data visibility
Compliance gaps and manual workflows
Little insight on trends and incidents
Key Outcomes:
Reduced incident severity
Improved reporting quality
Higher quality and quantity of Safety Plans & Job Hazard Analyses (JHAs)
Full site-wide visibility
Consolidated workflows and improved incident tracking
"Our incident rate has dropped, and the severity of incidents is down too — even as reporting has increased. That’s a major step forward."
Mike Gloria, CHST, Senior Safety Manager
Since onboarding HammerTech in late 2022:
Safety plans are reviewed and approved faster—with clearer formatting, easier revisions, and improved plan quality.
Site teams know what’s required and when—preventing delays, missed steps, and duplicated efforts.
Simple digital workflows replace file clutter and manual workarounds—saving time and sharpening accountability.
Executives enjoy access to live dashboards and reports to monitor performance, empower site teams, and demonstrate safety leadership.
Power’s decision to move forward with HammerTech was grounded in data. An audit into incident reports, safety performance trends and compliance gaps highlighted a need for a more connected, scalable system that moved beyond the contractor’s existing in-house software system and paper form processes.
“Our process was time-consuming and inefficient,” says Mike, an 11-year veteran of Power Construction who mentors teams and helps optimize safety software use on site.
READ MORE: Mike Gloria wins Safety Ambassador Award for North America at the Community Safety Awards 2024
“We couldn’t easily tell how we were doing on permits or checklists. Before we had to keep going back into spreadsheets, pulling down data, building our own pivot tables and visuals—just to try and find the information we needed.
“Even then, it might lead you down a path that still didn’t give us the full story.”
The contractor knew it needed a system that could grow with them: “We didn’t want to just replace what we had. We needed something we could shape to fit our way of working—not someone else’s.”
From the start, the focus was on more than simply replacing paper forms. It was about rethinking how safety processes are delivered daily—from streamlined permit tracking to improved pre-task planning, and making critical information accessible and actionable.
“Before, there was a lot of effort spent on adjusting the forms in the tech solution to fix the process. Now, we can focus more on improving safety itself because the forms and systems are already set up and it’s easy to make adjustments.”
WATCH: How to Complete a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) & Why It Matters
That shift is already having a clear impact – particularly in pre-planning.
Contractor onboarding is faster today. Safety plans are easier to submit, review, and track. And what once needed eight separate subfolders now fits into four streamlined workflows—in short, less admin, more clarity, and a better experience site-wide.
“You might have one JHA in there, or you might have ten—but you couldn’t tell. Now, we can sort them by activity, by contractor, and check. That’s a level of visibility we just didn’t have before.”
One of the biggest shifts for Power has been how easy it now is to spot trends, identify risks earlier, and take action earlier—all thanks to better safety process engagement visibility across projects.
Site-specific safety plans are reviewed and approved faster — and with higher quality submissions — because requirements are clearer and more accessible.
Permit and checklist tracking now happens live, not retrospectively, making a real difference for high-hazard activities.
Teams can compare high-risk activities across projects, spot recurring issues, and course-correct sooner.
With that visibility, the safety team was able to raise the issue early—prompting the subcontractor to submit a stronger, site-specific safety plan that addressed those concerns in advance.
DISCOVER: Transformational safety, site ops data with 'HammerTech Insights'
“Even though the negative observation happened on another job site, we were able to pinpoint it and prevent it from happening again. When the contractor submitted their plan for the next job, they’d learned from it and we could see they’d addressed the issue—it was a growing process for them.
“Having that visibility now means conversations start with facts, not assumptions. It makes safety planning more collaborative—and more effective.”
That kind of clarity is helping site teams and subcontractors take greater ownership, reduce delays, and stay engaged throughout—without relying on multiple handovers or manual checks.
Leadership and clients can also log in and see what’s happening across sites through regional dashboards—helping Power deliver greater transparency and accountability at every level.
One standout moment came during a high-profile bid for a data center project, where Power used HammerTech to present a live digital permit board that mapped every active permit on site.
“The important thing was our executives could explain to the client: this isn’t just about visuals. It’s about showing where permits are active so we can help prevent unnecessary exposure to risk.”
For a client already operating in a high-risk industry, such clarity made a strong impression: “We were able to walk in with a solution to a problem that didn’t even exist yet—that was very beneficial for our execs to share.”
For Power, site safety success isn’t just about meeting compliance obligations. It’s about building a culture of shared accountability where insights lead to action and safety is seen as a process of continuous improvement.
Participation tracking now helps the team keep everyone engaged too. Field teams can focus on critical conversations rather than chasing down paper forms, and executives have the data they need to support strategic planning and safety initiatives that move the needle the most.
“HammerTech helped us take what we were already doing—and do it better.”
Visit http://www.hammertech.com to learn more.
Founded in 1926, Power Construction is a family- and senior management-owned firm with a long-standing reputation for successfully delivering complex projects across diverse market sectors. Headquartered in the greater Chicago area with projects nationwide, its unique business model and values-based approach means its leaders are directly involved, its employees build long-term careers, and it builds trade relationships that drive customer value. Most importantly, it’s what allows them to fulfill its fundamental promise: to exceed expectations, every time.