Most construction firms believe that their success comes from prioritizing solid safety cultures. The construction industry is one of the riskiest jobs there is – and as a result, safety methods and attitudes are critical to ensure that workers are protected against site dangers. Project managers and construction professionals should understand that they must make construction sites safe to ensure project quality, worker retention, and ROI. Promoting a safety culture within your company can help you in many ways. For example, it minimizes lengthy construction delays, significant insurance expenses, and hefty fines for the business while fostering a safe and sound working environment for your team.
However, having a sound safety management system does not happen overnight. It takes time to develop a world-class safety culture and needs a top-down approach that begins with the executive officers. If you’re looking for more ways to strengthen your construction safety culture, try these seven efficient tactics listed in this article. But first, let us clarify what it means to be safe on a building site.
What is Construction Safety?
As stated earlier, construction workers are often exposed to many risks — falls, electrocutions, or even death. This is where construction safety comes in. Construction safety focuses on protecting construction site workers and others from the potential site hazards that come with the job. Falls, electrocutions, crush injuries, and caught-between injuries are the most common causes of mortality on construction sites.
Any safety technique or management system related to the construction industry is included in construction safety. Construction safety attempts to ensure that a construction site or drive does not pose an immediate threat to the public in the vicinity of a construction site or to construction personnel and that the finished construction product fulfills the needed safety standards.
Why Should You Focus on Promoting Site Safety in Your Construction Projects?
The majority of construction-related accidents happen on the workplace site. Accidents are a pain for employees, and these accidents on building sites have the potential to be fatal. Construction sites are becoming less enticing with new news about environmental disasters, earth-shattering explosions, and stranded employees – even as the population expands and requests for more modern structures increase.
Companies must decrease safety risks for their employees, but the responsibility does not only fall to the management team. The workers must be proactive and take numerous safeguards when working in hazardous environments. Project managers must endeavor to protect their workers and take necessary measures to equip them with the proper knowledge and tools.
Seven Strategies to Promote Construction Site Safety Culture Across Your Organization
With the ongoing pressure on project managers to keep within deadlines and stay under budget, safety often takes a back seat – meaning, most companies overlook this critical aspect when it comes to managing construction. If you fail to deliver the projects on time, your company may lose money or be obliged to pay liquidated damages under certain situations. One of the primary responsibilities of a project manager is to keep your workforce busy and on track by minimizing job site distractions or worker injury can quickly derail a job site, spending significant time.
This section looks at these seven strategies that can help you and your company promote a construction site safety culture for your most important asset – your workforce- from adequate planning to utilizing project management software.
Include Construction Safety in Your Priorities
While most project managers focus on a project’s costs, productivity, and timeliness, construction safety must also be prioritized as it affects how your project will proceed. Regardless of the industry, making your employees feel valued by demonstrating that their safety is a top priority on every project generates confidence and trust. Putting safety first can also help you save money and get more done on the job. Less time is lost due to accidents and injuries when safety is improved.
Raise Awareness Among Your Team Members
Regardless of their function, position, or expertise, every worker must be fully informed of the potential hazards before entering a construction site. Ignorant workers are undoubtedly the most significant threat in every industry, as their careless errors endanger everyone else. Understanding the dangers and maintaining a constant state of attention is possibly the most effective strategy to avoid accidents. A project manager’s responsibility is to ensure that all workers know the hazards of working on a building site and safeguard them. Their top concern should be to ensure the safety of the construction workers and everyone else on the job site.
Provide Opportunities for Training
Although most of a construction worker’s skills can be learned on the job, one skill set that should be known before workers enter the building site is safety. During employment onboarding, companies must train their new laborers on conventional safety and security standards. Experienced staff should be expected to attend frequent training courses throughout the year to update their understanding of standard safety. Practicing construction safety training skills on the job will push workers to exercise these abilities in a setting where safety is paramount, ensuring that they are adequately trained.
Always Plan Ahead
Before starting the workday, ensure all prework processes, such as approvals, are completed. Ensure you have the necessary tools for the job and double-check that your employees know how to operate the equipment they’ll be utilizing correctly. Set up and stock each work location with the essential tools, PPE, and equipment. Install nets and catch platforms and other safety precautions to isolate areas where certain chores will take place. A thoughtful and adequate preparation process can aid in a more efficient and safe start to the workday.
Take Advantage of Construction Technologies
There are limitless possibilities when it comes to addressing safety issues right away while keeping your project on track, within quality standards, and on budget. Luckily, a lot of construction technology, like construction project software, can help bridge time and distance constraints, resulting in increased efficiency and safety in the long run. Construction digitization has made it possible to make real-time judgments from afar. Allowing everyone instant access to the same information reduces the costs of updating and maintaining equipment and ensures everyone is on the same page.
Get Everyone Involved and Invested
Form a safety committee with representatives from all levels of your company. They should be involved in assessing and upgrading your company’s safety program, creating job site-specific safety plans, and identifying potential dangers and safety concerns. You can also form an accident response team for each job site, consisting of a few personnel who have received basic first-aid training. If an incident happens, they should know what to do to mitigate existing hazards and provide first aid to injured personnel. Employees involved in developing and improving your safety culture will be more invested and inclined to take safety seriously.
Conduct Daily Site Inspections and Safety Meetings
Before and after each workday, evaluate the job site for safety hazards such as tools lying around or damaged equipment. Your job sites should be inspected for potential dangers throughout the day, and workers should be observed to ensure they are working safely. You can start by holding a brief safety meeting first thing in the morning to go through the tasks that will be completed and the safety procedures followed. Make sure to address any concerns or difficulties and recognize positive practices from the day before.
How Construction Project Software Can Help You Achieve A Safe Workplace Environment
Software for construction provides every project manager with dedicated quality and safety management capabilities to improve productivity, collaboration, and efficiency. It allows you to standardize essential quality and safety processes within your company’s core processes, resulting in better compliance and adherence to requirements. Integrating comprehensive software can help you improve safety monitoring.
These construction technologies can also help you provide better quality and safety management capabilities to deliver better project outcomes consistently. An all-in-one construction management software, like Pro Crew Schedule, offers an intuitive and simple-to-integrate solution that may be tailored to the project’s needs. It can provide and enable in-depth visibility into site safety through integrated inspections, reporting, and analytics.
Key Takeaway
With the benefits of focusing on construction safety, it is time for you to take a deeper look at your construction site to determine if you are doing everything possible to protect your firm. When your company already has a safety culture, there is always some room for improvement for better or worse. Having a solid safety culture requires a commitment to putting safety first. It requires effort, employee participation, and tweaks to improve programs and procedures that reinforce that commitment. Make safety requirements a condition of employment to foster a safety culture.
Construction site safety is critical for safeguarding workers, protecting the public, and keeping the job on schedule. You may save yourself and your clients from these hazards by fostering a safety culture in your company.
