An Ounce of Prevention
According to OSHA, safety issues can be prevented through planning; anticipating what the work will involve; and what safety equipment, scaffolding or other materials will be needed. Anticipating how structures will come apart, what may be behind a wall, or how it was put together during original construction will assist in developing the safest plan and providing the best training for crews. Collapses often result from little or no planning.
Kliwinski says safety starts at the top with leadership and trickles down to employees on the job site. “A primary factor that’s going to drive safety performance is the supervisors and the managers who are running the work and especially the foremen over the crews. It’s their attitude, their exemplary behavior, but especially their experience and how they implement safe work practices that makes the difference. And if we don’t have leaders engaged in driving safety performance and understanding what it is that drives performance, we’re going to have the [poor] results we’re seeing now in the industry with people being injured relative to unsafe work or unsafe conditions,” he warns.
Cannon agrees and says safety should be set as a top priority from the beginning of the project and should be talked about constantly: “I think that sends the message that we want the project to be completed in the safest manner possible.”
Ultimately, if facility executives want to communicate their commitment to safe work practices, there’s no better way to do it than with their wallets. Money talks, after all.
“Funding is a key factor because if you cut costs with regard to safety, you’re going to suffer the consequences down the road,” Kliwinski says. “And then when you have a catastrophic event, a very serious injury or incidents, it can have such an impact that it exceeds anything you think you might save in the budget. We need to get clients to understand they have to appropriate money [toward safety]. If they do, then the contractors will put it in the contracts and the work will be done more productively and safely.”
AGC Tips for Worker Safety
According to the Arlington, Va.-based Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America, the following 13 steps have been proven to improve construction worker safety on the job site (learn more details about each step):
New Employees
1. Establish a buddy system for all new hires.
2. Hold safety orientation sessions for all new hires, including temporary workers.
Ongoing Training
3. Ensure managers and supervisors have the appropriate leadership and effective communication skills critical to instill safety culture and concepts into the workforce.
4. Institute two separate Pre-Task Hazard Analysis training programs.
5. Hold monthly Lunch and Learn safety training programs.
6. Require all foremen and/or superintendents to attend Leadership in Safety Excellence certification courses.
7. Hold targeted safety training to address all safety incidents.
8. Make sure all training and materials are in the language of the entire workforce.
9. Train your trainers.
Operating Procedures
10. Create worker task-specific “pocket safety guides” for every task workers are assigned
11. Establish craft-specific safety mentoring programs.
12. Issue easy-to-read badges to all workers indicating their level of training.
13. Authorize all workers to issue Stop Work Cards to address safety risks.