June 27, 2012

Merit Contractors honours excellence

FILLMORE CONSTRUCTION

Fillmore Construction won two awards at the 26th Annual Merit Contractors Association Awards of Excellence. The construction company built the Grande Prairie Alliance Church (above) and many other projects.

Merit Contractors Association recently honoured excellence at a gala in Edmonton, Alberta.

The provincial open shop association presented its 26th annual awards to the top construction apprentices, employees and employers at the Royal Glenora Club.

“We don’t do a lot of self-congratulation in this business, but if we’re to continue raising the bar in our industry, we have to take the time to celebrate our successes,” said Merit’s newly elected chairman Joel Thompson.

Edmonton-based Fillmore Construction took home two awards.

The general contracting firm earned a Willard Kirkpatrick Award for excellence in promoting training in the construction industry.

Every Fillmore Construction employee is given an orientation that sets the safety standard that is to be upheld every day.

A database keeps track of all employees’ training certifications, and when an employee is missing something key, such as CSTS 9, they provide the training in-house.

The company’s emphasis on training is not limited to construction employees.

Staff in payroll, human resources and other departments are also encouraged to hone their skills.

Over the past year, about 100 Fillmore employees have received some type of formal training.

The company has three Gold Seal certified employees and 21, who are Red Seal certified.

Fillmore Construction also won a George Durocher Employer of Excellence Award for commitment to human resource development.

Employees said that Fillmore goes above and beyond in its commitment to worker satisfaction through training programs, safety meetings and fun morale-boosting events.

Two other Edmonton-based firms earned a George Durocher Employer of Excellence Award.

Both Synergy Projects Ltd. and Teamco Construction earned the honours.

At Synergy, the company culture has been described as informal, collaborative and mutually supportive.

Evaluations are done in a relaxed, informal way and good staff performance is always recognized publicly through emails.

Safety is also a big priority for the firm.

Teamco’s calling card is its stellar safety record.

The company completed more than five million man hours without a single lost-time incident.

The company does extensive in-house training and has a comprehensive internal communications plan in place.

The awards ceremony also recognized the association’s top employees with the Merit-Royal SunAlliance Awards.

The winners were Adam Fearon, a journeyman carpenter with Clark Builders in Edmonton, Mike Bulger, a labour foreman also with Clark Builders, and Jeffrey Young, a lead hand with Red Deer-based Phoenix Construction.

Four top apprentices also took home some hardware.

Awards were given out for first, second, third and fourth periods.

The winners were electricians Justin Thibault and Henry George of Muth Electrical Management Inc. in Edmonton, HVAC technician Patrick Newport of Pioneer Air Ltd. in Calgary and Mike Hofmann, an apprentice electrician with Stellar Electrical Edmonton Inc.

All of the winners were selected by an independent judging committee from nominations submitted by Merit company employees.

The winners were recognized for a second time at Merit’s AGM Luncheon and Award Gala hosted by Merit’s southern Alberta office in Calgary. Merit Contractors Association represents more than 1,300 member companies in Alberta.

JOC NEWS SERVICE

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