Denver, CO- Nearly 20 attendees came together to attend The Unified Group’s 2025 Safety Forum at The Rally Hotel from October 19th to October 22nd. Members shared best practices on everything from fostering a genuine safety culture to defining and upholding non-negotiable standards, aligning service and construction safety expectations, and beyond.

“The highlight of this forum was reconnecting with this group and getting their unique insights as well as knowing we are not alone in our struggles and frustrations,” said Melissa Melendez of Intech Mechanical. 

Day one we had the pleasure of hearing from Becca Auen, a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Clinical Anxiety Treatment Professional based in Aledo & Willow Park, TX. Becca led a powerful session on mental health in the workplace, focusing on how to handle distressing calls, keeping composure while deescalating tense situations, having the right resources available to provide support, and taking the appropriate next steps when challenges arise. Her session sparked meaningful, open discussions among members about how to better recognize and respond to mental health challenges within their teams. Participants shared their own experiences, strategies, and ideas for creating safer, more supportive work environments, emphasizing that prioritizing mental health isn’t just important, it’s essential to strong leadership and company culture.

“Getting to look at challenges from different perspectives and groups provided valuable information and insight on similar challenges experienced throughout many organizations and techniques for managing these challenges,” stated Tammy Barnes of Blauch Brothers.

To start off our final day of meetings, attendees engaged in small group discussions on managing distractions, which included exploring how they impact focus, increase risk, and reduce performance. We jumped into a few panels including One Safety Policy, Two Worlds: Aligning Standards for Service & Construction, EMR/Workmans Comp, and Establishing Disciplinary Pathways for Employee Violations. A major highlight of Day 2 was Frank Quintanar, Chris Sandoval and Alejandro Cortes of J&J Air Conditioning giving their perspectives on how they Identify and Empower Safety Champions in Both the Field and the Office. We also heard impactful presentations from John Whitehurst of Cox-Powell and Ken McFadden of Legacy Mechanical, who discussed how to establish clear disciplinary pathways for employee violations and what effective corrective action looks like in practice.

“Exchanging best ideas and what works for others is always super beneficial, gets me excited to go back to work and start using some of these suggestions,” stated Erica Peet of VHV Company.

The 2025 Safety Forum reinforced attendees shared commitment to building safer, stronger workplaces. Upcoming Forums include Design Build, Service Management, and Annual Meeting & Owners’ Forum! If you are interested in learning more about attending a meeting or becoming a member of The Unified Group, contact Janet Kelleher at [email protected].