Lucy - BQ Magazine EditorOf the biggest responsibilities that you have as a construction site manager is the safety of your crew. Not only is it a legal obligation to make sure that your business doesn’t hit any lawsuits for not protecting workers, but you also need to be able to protect the people who are making you the money.
After all, without your employees, what kind of business would you be? If you’re going to have people out on site working, then you need to protect your workforce as much as possible. Accidents in the workforce don’t just lead to financial penalties and setbacks, but they lead to injuries and the last thing you want is people coming to work and getting hurt.
From having debris netting for safety to ensuring everybody’s wearing hard hats, you need to have strict safety protocols for construction workers to site managers. These factors should be non-negotiable and people should not be allowed on site without the appropriate training.
If you want to keep your construction site safe, follow the tips below.
Perform regular safety inspections
You can’t just inspect a site once and say that it’s OK.
Safety inspections should be conducted regularly and they are like regular health checkups for your work site. Not only will they help you to identify any potential hazards, but they give you the chance to rectify them too.
With a comprehensive safety checklist, you’ll be able to make any fixes as you need to. Not only should you schedule some safety inspections, but you should also conduct them spontaneously while people are working.
Documenting these inspections will ensure that you have something to compare with and you can make improvements over time that are visible.
Make sure that you provide safety equipment
You cannot expect your workers to come to work with the right PPE and high visibility clothing if you’re not providing it in the first place. It’s not just about the vests and the helmets either. You need to have safety harnesses for every single person that can work at height.
Safety equipment is a barrier against harm and wearing it is non-negotiable so every single person should be trained on how to use it and how to get fitted. Your crew should be wearing gear that fits and is in excellent condition for its function.
With regular training sessions on the use and care of the equipment, you’ll ensure that people are putting on safety equipment as second nature. You should also hire a construction street sweeper to keep your site clear of debris and remove waste from the ground. Debris netting is great for catching things from a height, but ground debris still happens.
Make sure that you have clear communication channels established early
Effective communication from the top down is instrumental to upholding those safety standards you’re trying to implement. Top-down directives and issues that are reported from the bottom up mean that it’s a two-fold approach to ensure the safety of everybody on site.
Labels, signs and symbols should also indicate any potential hazards around the work site so that people are aware of them. Communication is not just something that’s done between people but from signage as well.
Keep up with training and education
You can’t throw helmets at people and expect them to know what safety means. Education is, at its core, the best thing that you can do for your workers. Offering unlimited amounts of training for your construction team on the operation of gear and equipment, as well as how to present themselves on site, is important.
Explaining construction plans, potential hazards and procedures, and going over OSHA regulations regularly will help. You should also ensure that training programs are there to keep everyone informed about the latest and greater safety protocols.
Encourage the right culture
Safety awareness should be something that permeates every aspect of a construction site, from the senior managers to the entry-level apprentices. This is a culture that comes through consistent leadership and incentives for safer practice. As a team, everybody should feel like they are safe and secure in their workspace.
Update your safety policies regularly
There are always new risks of rising as projects develop, so as a site manager, it’s your job to ensure that you are continuously evaluating and updating safety policies to address any hazards that are emerging.
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