Safety Isn’t a Policy. It’s a Promise.
How ViaSun and Ascent Works Built a Culture That Proves It
“We didn’t build a safety culture. We made a promise.
A promise to our people that every single one of them would go home. Every day. To their families. Safe.
That promise didn’t come from a policy manual or a compliance checklist.
It came from the deepest part of who I am as a leader and as a person. It is the belief that people are not resources to be managed. They are lives entrusted to our care.”
– Rolando Perez, CEO, ViaSun Corporation
A Company Built on More Than Asphalt
ViaSun Corporation specializes in asphalt paving, asphalt preservation, and concrete work across Arizona.
Their projects touch the infrastructure of everyday life. They include airports, public roads, towns, and communities.
But what truly defines ViaSun isn’t what they build. It’s who they are.
ViaSun is an employee-owned company, an ESOP, and that changes everything. When every person on the crew is also an owner, the stakes are different.
The sense of responsibility is different. The culture is different. You don’t just clock in and out. You invest. You care. You show up differently when it’s your company too.
That ESOP identity is the heartbeat behind everything ViaSun does. It also includes how they approach safety.
Because safety, at its core, is another expression of the same value. We take care of each other because it’s the right thing to do.
“The ESOP isn’t just a business structure. It’s a belief system. We prosper together. We protect each other. That’s who we are.”
-Rolando Perez
The Night That Changed Everything
One morning, Rolando received a report from a risk advisor.
The message was stark. Based on ViaSun’s current operational risk profile, a workplace fatality was possible.
Many leaders would have filed that report and moved on. Risk is part of the business. You manage it, minimize it, and keep moving.
Rolando went home that night and cried.
“I sat with that. I let it hit me. The thought that someone who trusted me, who showed up every morning and worked alongside our team, that they might not make it home. That was not something I could accept. That was not who we were going to be.”
-Rolando Perez
That moment wasn’t just a wake-up call. It was a defining one.
Rolando made a personal commitment. It was not as a CEO calculating liability, but a leader who genuinely loves his people.
He would do whatever it took to make sure that day never came.
ViaSun already had safety programs. Training existed. Policies existed. But Rolando knew that policies don’t save lives. Culture does. And culture starts with leadership.
Moving Safety from a Department to a Leadership System
Rolando didn’t just want to improve their safety score. He wanted to transform how executives and crew members lived and felt safety.
The vision was clear. Safety needed to cascade from owners to supervisors to employees.
It needed to become the most natural, most sought-after behavior in the company. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to.
To get there, ViaSun needed a partner who could do more than check compliance boxes.
They needed true risk advisory services that turn data and strategy into behavior.
They needed someone who understood that lasting safety transformation is a culture. Also, that it is a leadership challenge, not just an operational one.
“We didn’t want a vendor. We wanted a partner who believed what we believed, that people matter more than metrics.”
-Rolando Perez
That partner was Ascent Works.
The Ascent Works Partnership: A Different Kind of Risk Advisory Services
Ascent Works helps organizations build a business worth owning, by creating the conditions for people to act like they already do.
ViaSun chose Ascent Works for three reasons:
– Integrated culture approach
– Commitment to leadership development, and
– Focus on measurable systems that actually stick.
The work began the right way: with an honest diagnosis.
This is where Ascent Works’ structured risk advisory services created clarity. They turned assumptions into measurable truth.
Step 1: Seeing the True Picture
ViaSun completed the comprehensive Safety Risk Score (SRS) assessment, rigorous evaluation of operational risk, leadership systems, and safety culture maturity.
The initial score was 55. That number wasn’t a failure. It was a starting point. A data-driven map of where the gaps were and what had to change.
Step 2: Leadership at the Top
The transformation began at the executive level. That’s where culture is either built or broken.
Rolando didn’t hand safety off to a department and move on. He leaned in personally.
He made one thing unmistakably clear to every leader in the organization. Keeping people safe is a leadership responsibility. Not a compliance function. Not someone else’s job.
Steve Tusa, partner at Ascent Works, formalized that commitment as a fractional Chief Risk Officer. He reported directly to Rolando.
Safety was no longer siloed but rooted at the executive table. It was woven into every strategic conversation and decision.
This is where Ascent Works’ risk advisory services went beyond analysis. They began shaping leadership behavior at the highest level.
Step 3: A Clear Path Forward
With leadership aligned, Ascent Works built a structured path:
- Assess: Uncover the true exposure and understand the current reality
- Align: Connect risk data, people systems, and leadership to see the full picture
- Predict: Use leading indicators to prevent issues before they occur
- Simplify: Turn complexity into a clear, daily-actionable plan
Building the System: SHIELD in Action
Ascent Works deployed the SHIELD Framework. It is a structured risk and leadership system designed to drive safe behavior every day. Not just when someone is watching.
It’s a reflection of how modern risk advisory services embed structure into culture, not just policy.
The framework defined the following:
– The critical behaviors required for safe work
– The leadership activities that reinforce those expectations
– Recognition systems that celebrate safe performance, and
– Measurable leading indicators for daily tracking.
One of the most powerful tools was a live leading indicator dashboard. It gave leadership real-time visibility into safety performance across the organization.
Safety became visible. Measurable. Something you could see, discuss, and improve, daily.
More than 30 leaders began delivering over 200 safety observations every week. Pre-task planning discussions became part of the daily rhythm.
AI-powered driver safety monitoring provided real-time coaching feedback. Recognition programs celebrated people who were doing it right.
“Safety stopped being a conversation we had after something went wrong. It became the conversation we had every single morning.”
-Rolando Perez
The Real Transformation: People Who Chose to Own It
Rolando admitted it wasn’t the framework. It wasn’t the dashboard. It wasn’t even the leadership alignment, as important as that was.
It was the intentional change to the culture championed through the people at ViaSun.
“Ascent Works helped us create the conditions. Our employee-owners[…]started acting like what they already were: owners. People who care about each other. People who hold each other accountable not because a policy says so. But because they genuinely want everyone to go home safe.”
-Rolando Perez
That’s the culture shift that was needed.
When safety stops being something enforced from above, it becomes something your people expect from themselves and each other.
The Results: What a Culture Shift Actually Looks Like
Within less than three years, the numbers told a story that backed up everything ViaSun had built.
Safety Performance
- Safety Risk Score improved from 55 to 15
- Safe driving behavior increased from 72% to 95% in just 45 days
- Over 75,000 hours worked without a lost-workday injury
- Critical behavior safety scores maintained at 97% or higher
- Average leadership engagement reached 96%
- The last recordable injury occurred more than two years prior
Financial & Business Impact
- Total claims cost reduced to $13,000 in 2025
- Over $1 million in captive surplus generated, scheduled to return to employee-owners through the ESOP
- Recognized as a top 10-performing company in the captive group
Industry Recognition
- RMA Diamond Award 2023. Top 5% Performer
- RMA Blue Diamond Award 2024. #1 performing risk and safety company in the portfolio
- Captive Vice President’s Award. Top 10 performing companies in the captive group
These results are not the goal. They are the evidence. The proof that when culture changes, everything changes. Safety, performance, and the financial health of the business improve.
Results show what risk advisory services can achieve when a company adopts them.
Before and After: Two Different Organizations
Before
- Safety managed through programs and policies
- Limited leadership engagement in daily safety execution
- Higher predicted fatality exposure
- Insurance-driven conversations focused on cost containment
- Safety as a compliance requirement
After
- Leadership-led safety culture embedded into daily operations
- Real-time visibility into leading safety indicators
- Organization-wide accountability and peer coaching
- Significant reduction in claims and operational risk
- Safety as a competitive advantage and a reflection of who we are
Safety is no longer a rule ViaSun follows. It is a promise they keep.
This Is What It Looks Like When Leaders Choose to Care
Every organization faces risk. The question is whether you address it before it addresses you.
What ViaSun built, with Ascent Works as a trusted partner, isn’t a safety program. It’s a leadership culture.
A people’s culture. A culture where every person who walks onto a job site knows they are valued, protected, and seen.
That kind of culture doesn’t just protect people. It builds businesses.
It retains great employees. It attracts clients who want to do business with organizations they can trust.
It creates the kind of legacy that outlasts any single project or contract.
“The change went far beyond safety. It improved leadership performance, accountability, and the whole company culture. As leadership behaviors improved, operational performance and profitability improved alongside it. You can’t separate the two.”
-Rolando Perez
Are you a leader reading this and thinking, “I want to build something like that.” That feeling is worth listening to.
Are you an employee thinking, “I want to work somewhere that actually cares about me.”
If you’re a business leader looking for a partner to help you get there, Ascent Works exists for exactly that.
The journey begins with a choice. The choice to lead differently. To care more. To build a culture where every promise is kept.
