Insight Blog

While workplace safety has always been a top priority for reputable construction contractors, in the past few years, there has been an increased focus on safety and health within the industry. Many firms have put tremendous efforts into their safety and health programs to create strong overall cultures of safety. Some of this is due to the fact that senior management teams have come to realize the many direct and indirect benefits of having strong safety cultures.

The benefits of a construction firm having a strong safety culture span from the obvious – reducing accidents and injuries, decreasing project schedules, and reducing litigation risks, to the not so obvious - enhancing a company’s reputation in the marketplace. In fact, safety is becoming so important that the safety managers who carry the most responsibility for overseeing safety on projects and their credentials are now influencing major project awards. Many conscientious owners are requiring safety professionals to have high-level qualifications for a company to be a part of a winning bid. And if this wasn’t enough incentive to create a strong culture of safety, doing so can also provide firms an edge in recruitment and employee retention.

How can a construction firm build a strong safety culture?

In a 2013 report released by Ace Construction entitled, ‘Building a Proactive Safety Culture in the Construction Industry’, three of the company’s senior executives express that the good news in the construction industry is that, as a whole, it is moving beyond compliance-driven safety programs to emphasizing the “human side” of safety, focusing on the health and welfare of workers.

The report outlines some of the fundamental elements of building a strong safety culture:

• A firm’s executive management needs to instill a culture that recognizes and rewards safety, and filters that commitment throughout every level of management. They need to lead by example and play an instrumental role in the creation and execution of a safety policies and procedures, recognizing that they are ultimately responsible for safety in their organizations.

• Establish safety committees, which include senior management, risk managers, safety directors, operational staff and labor who meet and discuss safety performance on a regular basis.

• Recognize projects that are well done and completed with few or no injuries.

• Include safety in the pre-planning process. A comprehensive plan includes the scope of the work and names, roles and responsibilities of key personnel. It should also include a list of local emergency responder and medical facilities; emergency procedures and evaluation plans, fall management and retrieval procedures; substance abuse testing; new employee orientation; and a project safety manual.

• Prequalify subcontractors for safety and review their Bureau of Labor Statistics recordable and lost time incident rates, OSHA citation record, and overall safety culture and procedures.

• Enforce safety training for all workers on a project and ensure communication of all safety procedures.

• Create a detailed fall management plan and ensure that it is in place before construction begins. The plan should outline where fall exposures exist; hazards associated with the tasks; and controls implemented that can mitigate the exposure.

• Address substance abuse appropriately and in a timely manner.

• As a project progresses, assess each phase for safety.

• Closely review causes of accidents as well as situations that were almost accidents.

Accomplishing the above can be a daunting task yet imperative to long-term success of any construction firm, which is the reason why some leading companies are hiring and appointing senior-level safety officers who are responsible for establishing and leading cultures of safety.

Sources: Ace Construction, EHS Today, Occupational Health & Safety