How to increase Safety on Site
Safety is the most important consideration of any construction site and underpins all work that takes place. If safety isn’t made a top priority, then there can be a range of detrimental impacts to health, profit, legal implications, and project timescale.
Everyone on a jobsite is accountable for the safety of others. Here are four ways you can make sure your team works in a responsible way.
Prioritise training
Training is an essential part of site safety. Regardless of experience levels, anyone new to the site must go through a thorough safety induction. The induction should cover a range of topics including safety measures taken on-site and how to report an incident or near-miss.
This training shouldn’t be exclusively given to people who regularly work on-site, but should also be provided to any visitors, even if they are only set to be there for a short while. Training should also be done regardless of whether staff have worked on similar sites or for the same client in the past. Every site has its own quirks and exceptions, and so site-specific training must be conducted.
Regular toolbox talks
A toolbox talk is a session that focuses on a specific health and safety topic. Delivering these on a regular basis is a fantastic opportunity to educate site staff on various H&S measures while not overwhelming them with too much information in one go.
It can be useful to invite different staff members to deliver the talks to make sure they truly understand the topic and that way they can be presented by someone who follows the safety measures daily.
Display crucial information
Safety information can be very overwhelming, particularly for someone who is new on-site or new to construction in general. Although completing training is essential, it can be challenging to remember all the necessary information and take it in.
Therefore, it is very useful to display crucial safety information and procedures on-site. Create some informative posters detailing key safety material as well as emergency contact details for if an accident does occur.
Encourage reporting
Reporting is a crucial part of safety. If accidents aren’t reported properly there can be several repercussions, as they are more likely to reoccur and there could be damaging legal implications too. Therefore, all staff should be heavily encouraged to properly report any accidents or incidents that do occur on-site. This way the cause can be assessed, and measures can be put in place to prevent it from happening again.
As well as accidents, it is equally important that near misses are reported too. A near-miss is an unplanned incident that didn’t but had the potential to cause an injury or hazard.
With any form of reporting, staff may be apprehensive to do so, especially if they were the cause of the incident. Therefore, it is critical that staff feel comfortable and confident to report if they feel something isn’t right.
