By John Staffier, Account Manager

Watch out! Another project is in the works and the last thing you need is a hazardous jobsite that puts your workers at risk and compromises your timelines. Rather, you must focus your efforts on building a proactive safety mindset that is widespread throughout your organization. From upper management to the jobsite personnel, everyone must pledge to construction job safety. As follow-up to our last blog article on construction safety guidelines, the recommendations below serve to strengthen construction site safety and keep your projects on track.

Maintain Communication
In order to enhance construction job safety, it is important to ensure that everyone involved in a project is aware of and adheres to construction safety. From top management, to superintendents, to workers, construction site safety must become an everyday routine, a company norm. Hold regular meetings where everybody is brought up-to-speed about the progress of the project and all safety measures are reviewed. Make sure that there is constant communication between all parties. It is important that safety guidelines are conveyed across all borders and everyone on the team knows what they need to do and how.

Eliminate Irresponsibility
The construction world leaves no room for mistakes and irresponsible actions. From the use of machinery, to the exposure, to extreme weather conditions, construction site safety is being put to the test. The last thing your construction site needs is workers whose behavior increases the risk of accidents. A great way to ensure that everyone follows the rules and there is no foul play is by regularly testing current workers for illegal substances as well as conducting background checks for laborers who join the team. Building construction safety is also about detecting and preventing.

Stick to the Plan
An effective way to strengthen construction job safety is by breaking down the project into phases so that hazards are identified and back up plans are put together to address failures. Once this takes place, ensure that your workers have the necessary safety equipment to safely carry out their jobs. Instruct your superintendents to make certain that no one is at risk and encourage laborers to speak up if they feel uncomfortable with construction safety procedures. The same applies for subcontractors who come on at later stages of the project.

Take Corrective Action
Keeping your workforce safe is not an easy task. Unfortunately, many things have the potential to go in a different way than planned, and accidents do sometimes take place. To make sure that a mishap does not happen again, it is vital that these incidents are reviewed and analyzed in depth. The reason for that is that they offer a great opportunity for your company to learn important lessons and take corrective action towards increasing construction job safety. Use these failures as a means to highlight to your team the significance of following and sticking to the rules.

Make it Culture
The final step to take in order to reinforce construction site safety is to create a direct safety message that your company embraces and stands behind. Make construction safety part of your organization’s culture. Follow up with any safety trends that take place in the industry and adopt new OSHA regulations and policies. Keep in mind that you are what you share, so investing heavily in the safety of your people is going to establish you as a firm that cares for its workforce and works toward preventing accidents.

Key Takeaways to Construction Safety Guidelines (Part 2):
1.  Ensure that safety communication is widespread throughout your company
2.  Have regular testing and perform background checks to eliminate irresponsible behavior
3.  Break down projects into phases to ensure that you have all of the means to increase safety
4.  Review incidents to detect mistakes and take corrective action
5.  Make safety part of your company’s culture

About TradeSource
Founded in 1993, TradeSource is a construction labor solutions firm focused on delivering labor solutions to contractors throughout the United States. By supplying skilled tradespeople – where and when they’re needed – we help contractors grow their companies, without the associated costs and hassles of full-time hires. Likewise, we match qualified employees with rewarding and well-paying job opportunities in the construction industry. www.tradesource.com