Safety is a major concern for any electrical construction and maintenance company, yet the latest safety initiative by EMCOR Group, Inc., Norwalk, Conn., has nothing to do with preventing electrocutions, explosions, or fire. In fact, it doesn't even help protect the company's clients or its 26,000 employees nationwide — but it could protect their children.
“Taking KidSafety to the Street” is a joint initiative of EMCOR, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), and M. Jodi Rell, the governor of Connecticut, to help find missing children across the country and promote child safety. The initiative will start in Connecticut and be rolled out nationwide over the next several months. The group's plan will incorporate a three-pronged approach.
Posters on vehicles. The company's fleet of more than 5,000 trucks and service vans will display large posters of missing children along with NCMEC's 24-hour nationwide hotline — 1-800-THE-LOST — on the back of the vehicles. The posters are tailored to six different geographic zones across the nation, and new photos will be rotated in monthly.
Employee training. The company is training its more than 2,000 facilities services personnel, who maintain hundreds of public and private facilities, to implement Code Adam — a program originally developed by Wal-Mart associates that is activated when a child is reported missing within a facility prior to the arrival of law enforcement personnel.
Marketing materials. A brochure created by the company, “My Safety Tips,” is available at www.emcorgroup.com/kidsafety to provide kids with NCMEC's rules for child safety. The company is also making these materials available to other businesses and encouraging them to distribute this information to their employees and families. “Our outreach to other businesses is a key component of our program, as there is no stronger tie to its employees and the future than our children,” says EMCOR CEO Frank T. MacInnis.