Working in the construction industry Will be a dangerous career path if you ignore safety.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9 in 1,000 full-time construction employees will experience a lost time injury due to contact with objects or equipment. 4.5 in 1,000 employees will have a lost time injury due to overexertion. And 2.5 in 1,000 employees will lose out on work time due to a fall.
Your company can help keep its employees on the job and out of the hospital by following these ten easy suggestions.
1. Develop an Injury and Illness Prevention Program
OSHA has discovered that companies with a Safety and Wellness Plan can reduce their lost time injuries anywhere from 9 to 60%.
Having a program in place encourages your employees to maintain a safety mindset and follow the correct protocol on the construction site.
A Safety and Wellness Plan may also prevent you from paying unexpected fines in the near future.
2. Conduct Regular Safety Meetings
Monthly Safety Meetings are an excellent way to monitor how well your on-site Injury and Illness Prevention Program is working. You can go over upcoming safety training and workplace accidents from the prior month at these meetings.
You may also consider giving rewards and incentives to employees who stay safe through the month during these meetings. Employees are more likely to follow safety precautions if there is something in it for them.
3. Screen Future Employees
Not all individuals are built for construction work. You can limit the number of employees who are either inexperienced or unable to perform the job physically by screening them out from the get-go.
4. Do Not Skimp on Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)
You are legally required to provide your employees with the proper PPE that they need to do their jobs safely. Do not skimp on the quality of the PPE.
Cheaper fall protection equipment may fail at a higher rate than a more expensive body harness would. For that reason – Some have seen the wisdom in paying for the best EQ possible in the short-term, so responsibility for someone’s personal injury is mitigated in the long-term, and many have learned this the hard way – through experience.
5. Maintain Proper Staff Levels
Over time, being in a construction zone can easily lead to overexertion, especially when working in extreme temperatures. Give your employees adequate time to rest in between shifts by hiring enough staff members.
We all know what it is like to be behind the gun on an important project, but to become lax in our safety habits due to this can become more costly than planning ahead of time to have the correct amount of people on the job site.
6. Proactively Identify Workplace Hazards
Identify potential safety hazards in your workplace before they cause an accident. One of the easiest ways to keep your employees from getting hurt on the job is to eliminate the hazardous situation that could harm them in the first place.
At times the hazard may be the environment in which the construction worker is operating. If that aligns with your situation, help your employees to recognize potentially dangerous situations and understand the best methods to diffuse them.
7. Maintain Company Equipment
While most do maintain the companies equipment for the very important aspect of saving money by preserving the life of the equipment, some miss out on an even more important aspect of maintenance – Monthly Safety Operation Inspections of the equipment.
Company equipment and vehicles need to be periodically inspected to ensure that they are still safe to operate. Many construction accidents occur because of faulty equipment. Keep your employees safe by performing monthly inspections.
8. Do Not Encourage Shortcuts
Make sure that your work instructions are up to date and easy to understand on all processes around the job site. Clear Communication will prevent employees from getting harmed because they did not know the proper steps in performing their job duties.
9. Keep a Tidy House
It is an obvious one but nonetheless, pivotal. The more junk and trash that is lying around the job site, the more likely it is that one of your employees will be hurt. Keep your construction site clutter free, and you may reduce the likelihood of one of your staff suffering a lost time injury.
10. Offer Regular Safety Training
If you do not provide regular safety training for your employees, you may not be complying with legal requirements, and you are increasing the likelihood of an on-site injury.
If you need assistance on training employees who do not want to be trained, refer to our previous article on the matter by clicking HERE.
TriTech Safety & Training Inc, located in Grande Prairie is in the best position to keep you up to date with the essential and important industry practices to prevent avoidable accidents with our knowledge of Safety. For more information go to https://tritechsafety.ca/courses/
