Building sites are notoriously hazardous spaces. However, this doesn’t mean that every building site will have an injury occur. It simply means that an area like this is filled with potential hazards that, if not treated with respect, can cause harm. A pile of bricks, for example, isn’t inherently harmful. A pile of bricks placed in the centre of a dark corridor or balanced precariously on scaffolding can definitely be harmful, though. A lot of health of safety can be reduced down to common sense. Sure, plenty of red tape and legislation is in place, but this isn’t designed to annoy. It’s designed to force people to use that common sense to identify potential risks, no matter how minor, to reduce the chance of anyone getting hurt. Here are some ways you can improve the safety of your construction team today.
Provide Safety Training
This may elicit groans from your employees, but it’s incredibly important to ensure that everyone clearly understands safety procedures while working for you. They may think that they don’t need this safety training as they’ve never had an accident before, but it only takes one major accident for your business to take a huge financial hit. Ultimately, if you’ve not taken the correct precautions, including training your team properly, you’ll be liable for damages and injuries. This is why enforcing health and safety training should be your first step.
Hold Your Employees Accountable
Once you’ve followed all of the correct procedures to provide everyone with the training and tools they need to keep themselves safe, you’ll want to make sure that you’re holding everyone responsible for the safety of themselves and those around them. Once someone enters the worksite, they are responsible for safety. Taking risks is not worth it, no matter how much time it may save. These shortcuts can put others in harm’s way, not just the person being negligent, and so it’s essential that you make sure everyone is enforcing these safety rules for each other, dissuading anyone from taking unnecessary risks. This creates a culture of safety and forethought on the job site and will help to reduce risks significantly in the long run.
Use Appropriate Gear
Your construction team will be working in proximity to dangerous materials and chemicals, which may be heavy, corrosive, toxic, poisonous, or sharp. This is why it’s crucial for everyone to be wearing protective workwear at all times. You can find a selection of useful clothing via suppliers such as XY Workwear whether you need safety boots, high-vis vests, overalls, or kneepads. Each building site will require different types of safety gear, of course, but the chances are all of these will benefit you and your team, alongside some sturdy work gloves and hard hats.
Conduct Site Inspections
While many will dismiss this as annoying bureaucracy, it’s very important to conduct regular site inspections to ensure that everything is proceeding safely and smoothly. Assign someone that is qualified and trustworthy to this task or conduct it yourself. First, start with a daily safety briefing to ensure that each task is done safely and that your team knows the proper procedures. Next, take a walk around the site to identify potential hazards and work to remedy them before work begins. This may seem time-consuming, but an injury on site is going to stop work for much longer than these safety inspections.
