The Three E’s That Transformed Ervin Cable’s Safety Culture with Colby Davis

The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management

"I always reference what I call the three e's - educate, empower, and enforce. The older and more mature I get, the more I realize that enforcement works better if you're more positive than negative." Colby Davis, Safety Director, Ervin Cable Contruction

OK, everyone, this one is packed with wisdom and heart. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Colby Davis, Director of Safety at Ervin Cable Construction, to unpack how his team brought their incident rate down from industry average to just 0.1 while scaling to 1,700 employees. Colby walks me through his “Three E’s Framework,” Educate, Empower, Enforce and how combining data analytics, hands-on driver training, and blended learning has completely reshaped their safety culture. We talk leadership, accountability, and the real power of empowering people to protect one another. If you care about safety that truly sticks, this one’s for you.

Here are some of the topics that we explore:

• How to reduce incident rates from industry average to exceptional (from 1.8 to 0.1)
  
• The "Three E's Framework" for safety success: Educate, Empower, and Enforce
  
• Why comprehensive driver training programs are crucial for reducing incidents
  
• How to build an effective safety culture that encourages reporting
  
• The vital importance of investing equally in safety training for all employees
  
• Why in-person, hands-on training must complement online learning for optimal safety
  
• How involving safety leadership in contract review can prevent incidents before they occur
• 
  The power of using data analytics and custom algorithms to predict and prevent issues
  

Colby Davis is the Director of Safety at Ervin Cable Construction, where he’s led a transformation in safety performance, reducing incident rates from industry average to an outstanding 0.1 while scaling to 1,700 employees. With a background in environmental and civil engineering and experience across manufacturing, transportation, and telecommunications, Colby blends data-driven insights with hands-on leadership. His “Three E’s Framework,” Educate, Empower, and Enforce, has become a proven model for building strong, proactive safety cultures that protect people and drive performance.

Episode Resources:

• Colby Davis on LinkedIn
• Ervin Cable Construction Website
• Michael Zalle on LinkedIn
• Yellow Bird Website
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Apple Podcasts
• The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management on Spotify