Employers must prioritize the health and safety of workers to ensure that they are able to work with peace of mind. Workplace safety plays a huge part in maintaining a good work experience. However, different occupations pose different risks, like how an office worker differs from a construction worker. So there are a few construction site safety tips every contractor should consider.
The workers’ lives at every construction site are constantly at risk due to the danger present in their work. Construction sites are places packed with high-risk machinery, equipment, and hazards that can endanger the safety and lives of individuals if not monitored deliberately. As the threats present in this work area are life-threatening, employers might highlight strict environment supervision and high prioritization of workers’ safety.
Important factors you need to know about construction site management.
1. Preserve construction components
Every construction project must preserve non-living and living components as part of the proper construction site management. To do so, one must understand the processes involved in completing a project. The construction site management’s primary function is to understand and integrate the independent factions of the system for accomplishing a task.
2. Proper coordination
Even if the construction site is already a system itself, it is still dependent on other methods to preserve the flow. To establish order among the different smaller and larger systems, a project manager or contractor and their essential staff guarantee the cooperation of each system in producing connections and outputs on time while following the budget.
The site management works together with the project team to ensure effective communication regarding the project’s progress and roadblocks. Effective construction site management anticipates issues or concerns on independent systems and can alter their parameters to accommodate the progress of the whole project. The essential purposes of construction site management are understanding the workflow and maintaining flexibility within the system.
3. Proper work environment
Issues and delays in the project are inevitable, but you must make sure that such problems do not stem from poor management of the security of the construction workers. Ensuring a proper work environment can secure their safety due to reduced risk of injuries and accidents. On account of that, employee retention would not be a substantial problem as they feel safe in the work environment.
As there would be lesser problems when it comes to accidents, you won’t need to worry much about medical costs and repair replacements or expenses. Additionally, reduced accidents and a safe environment would guarantee maximum productivity from your employees.
Now, What Construction Site Safety Tips Do You Need to Know?
The safety of each worker must be the top priority of employers. To provide them security means keeping their environment safe. The best way to train them is to learn about specific safety processes.
Employees must continuously impose safety training so the workers know how to maintain a safe site. A safe environment and knowledgeable workforce are the best weapons you can use against accidents and injuries. You should define and explain the rules that they should follow. In which case that one fails to abide, hold them accountable.
However, most of the time, the employees are the ones who are directly involved in the processes inside the construction site, so it is vital to consider their opinions and suggestions regarding the safety protocols that are present.
Given the anticipated outcomes from prioritizing the workers’ safety, every contractor should know these safety tips for better construction site management:
1. Right training
The best protection you can offer your workers is providing them with the right and proper training. Helping them understand the fundamental processes of the construction project and equipping them with the knowledge to do the job efficiently helps them avoid and prepare for the unexpected. They can prevent incurred accidents when they know how to do things appropriately.
The management should be able to provide training to their employees, but it is also beneficial to have additional education to have a broader insight into today’s best safety practices.
2. Physical protection
Wearing protective gear is a must in a construction site as it is filled with hazards and is at constant risk of falling objects. Although the project managers and workers design the structure as safe as possible, the measures taken to achieve it include many threats. These hazards include falling debris, exposed wirings, low-hanging objects, structure collapse, and the possibility of tripping against construction materials.
Donning hard hats should be highly imposed as protection against small debris and lacerations on a construction site. Without it, you would be more susceptible to minor accidents and more immense impacts. Hard hats, protective boots, and other gear should be mandatory for workers to keep their safety on site.
3. Working on heights and fall protection
In construction, working on heights is not unusual, as completing a project requires work from the bottom to the top of a structure. As the height of the structure increases, the intensity of the possible damage also increases. However, the risk of falling is always present, suggesting that you need to ensure enough safety protocols are in place.
Most importantly, you must be aware of the fall distance to understand when and how you would use the fall protection equipment if needed.
4. Crane and forklift safety
Because of the crane’s weight and size, the equipment must undergo regular inspection to ensure that it will not malfunction during use. Furthermore, the one who handles it should be a professional in the field to perform the task without misusing it and causing harm. The same also applies to forklifts, wherein only trained operators must handle them since these types of machinery carry materials that could endanger everyone on the site.
For both engineers, you should examine the surroundings and the operator’s actions, wherein they should not swing loads over other workers. Their condition and the operator’s jobs are the most critical factors in manipulating them.
Summing It Up
Accidents and injuries can always happen on every occasion, but there are steps that you can take to avoid those incidents as the lives of many are at your hands. These measures include, first and foremost, proper training of the employees, the use of protective gears, especially for head protection, special attention for when working on heights, and appropriate use and precautions on cranes and forklifts.
The construction site safety tips above are just a few of many other things you need to consider, but they are the basic ones that would help you build a solid safety protocol on your construction site.
Diana San Diego has over 15 years of experience in the architectural glazing industry and over 17 years of experience in public relations and marketing. As the Vice President of Marketing at SAFTI FIRST, O’Keeffe’s Inc., and Titan Metal Products, she oversees the advertising, content management, media relations, promotional activities, and communication initiatives for these companies.