Each year the Construction Employer’s Association gives out awards to deserving firms and individuals who go above and beyond in the promotion and advancement of health and safety in the construction industry. Award winners are the who’s who in construction safety and Dr. Kendon Dressel is the latest honoree into this distinguished group.
Dr. Dressel has a broad background in construction, safety and healthcare. Starting as a rough carpenter in concrete residential construction, he later worked as a safety and security professional at a large industrial plant, emergency response team member and industrial firefighter. Other opportunities saw him work as an EMT, a heavy equipment operator, member of an air-mountain rescue team and in shipping, handling and detonating explosives. He spent 14 years in a leadership role for several large commercial general contractors handling all facets of their risk management and environmental, health and safety programs and guiding their programs to best in class results. Most recently, he has continued his pursuits with his own company, SALUS, LLC wherein he works full time as an EHS consultant.
“I have never been one to sit still for too long and am highly motivated to succeed, particularly when someone says it can’t be done. As a child I was constantly trying to figure out better ways to do things, looking for opportunities and pushing the limits. This made things tough for my parents, but by the age of 14 I already had several businesses.”
Kendon is a CSP, CHST and OHST as well as an experienced instructor/lecturer. His true passion lies in the field of healthcare, where he worked as a licensed Doctor of Chiropractic and Sports Physician. While running a worker’s compensation and sports injury practice he had the opportunity to work on interdisciplinary teams and with athletes ranging from the industrial and weekend warrior to the Olympic and professional. Dr. Dressel is a former strength and conditioning specialist, specialist in biomechanics and ergonomics and also has worked as a Independent Disability Examiner.
It is this broad range of expertise combined with his passion for helping people that has guided his success. Dressel acknowledges these baseline attributes and motivations but feels the biggest parts of his success are his constant challenges to the status quo, creativity and desire to achieve.
Fast forward several years and Kendon left private practice to enter into a relationship with DPR Construction as their corporate doctor/safety professional. “I was at a hockey game with some executives from DPR and trying to sell them on all the unique services I could provide. I had some big ideas and didn’t really have much hope that they would be interested but I knew their reputation for pushing the envelope. True to their vision they brought me aboard and shortly thereafter I was developing their Stretch & Flex program.” That program, part of an extensive soft tissue management program, was one of the first of its kind in the industry and is now something widely used across the construction industry.
Dressel was also involved in Beta testing and working on the ground floor of what was perhaps the first digital safety audit/inspection system. That system became DBO2 SafetyNet, perhaps the leading system in the industry. “I was searching for better and more efficient ways to conduct safety audits. The timing couldn’t have been better and soon thereafter, Dr. Jon Moldestad and I were developing and testing safety inspections on the original Palm Pilot, something unheard of in the industry at that time.”
“I have always welcomed a challenge. I remember brainstorming a system that would measure safety leading indicators and serve to bring consistency and accountability across the organization. People told me it couldn’t be done, and if it could, it would be too complex and cumbersome to gain wide use. A few weeks later I rolled out the ‘Consistency Survey’ which was essentially a project report card that measured project deliverables and safety systems, provided raw scores and added instant accountability. I started beta testing it in one regional office, people quickly saw the benefits and soon it was adopted company wide. ”
Every organization that Kendon has been involved with has improved their safety performance. Kendon would be the first to point out that ultimately the success of an organization is the culmination of the entirety of people’s efforts and no single person can be responsible for that success, however Kendon has more than demonstrated his ability to lead and spearhead efforts. Early in his career, his involvement at an industrial plant led to over 3 years without an incident. At DPR he took an already good program and made it better. At Nibbi, the incident rate was 17 when he was hired and it went to zero in less than 3 years, including almost a million hours of injury free self-performed structural concrete work, culminating in the achievement of VPP-C status.
Safety professionals are a unique group. Not only do many have post-secondary degrees, but they are some of the more highly trained workers in the industry in the way of course work, continuing education, certifications and technical knowledge. They are pitted daily into conflict, having to convince people to do things they otherwise don’t want to do and have to be adept at communicating, problem solving, dealing with difficult people, planning, budgeting, management etc. They have to deal with trade workers and executives, office and field, owners, insurers, and government agencies. Further, to be most effective, they have to intimately understand each trade’s work process and methods, as well as the general characteristics of the people within that trade. There are a few folks who can do this and do it well and Dr. Dressel is one.
One question that many people ask was why he left his work as a doctor to come to work as a safety professional in construction. Few would make this jump and take the risk to basically break new trail in an industry known for being slow to embrace change. His answer, “I saw the results of people working unsafe on my exam table all the time and I knew that I had some unique skills and expertise that were lacking in the construction industry. I felt there was a real opportunity to effect change and make something special happen and I took that leap.” There are many who are happy he did.