5 Ways For Construction Companies to Boost Site Safety

All businesses need to prioritize workplace safety, but it’s essential for businesses where the danger is more pronounced. Construction sites, for instance, present an above-average number of risks due to the equipment used, as well as the work being conducted more broadly.

While hundreds of thousands of construction workers experience injuries at work each year, many of these injuries are preventable. Construction companies that establish these safety protocols not only do right by their employees but also benefit from improved employee retention, fewer missed workdays, and more efficient work processes.

In other words, site safety should be non-negotiable. After all, it offers a multitude of advantages — and just as importantly, helps prevent worst-case scenarios that could spell real trouble for the worker and the company as a whole.

In this post, we’ll run through some construction-site best practices that will help boost workplace health and safety. 

Regular Employee Training

Establishing safety protocols will be pointless if workers don’t know what they are or how to implement them correctly. Many construction companies hold training sessions for their new workers, but then fail to provide ongoing training sessions that help to correct the bad habits that workers develop, which increases the risk of injury. 

If you find it challenging to create safety training sessions that truly engage your workers, consider outsourcing the task to a third-party company. They’ll have the expertise required to put together sessions on proper equipment usage, emergency procedures, and other safety factors that employees should be aware of. 

Perform Audits

Some accidents occur completely by chance, but in most cases, you can usually see that the risk was always there — it’s just that it was never noticed. Site safety audits help to identify potential risks while they’re just that: risks. By placing them before work begins, managers can take steps to mitigate risks and enhance the overall safety of the construction site.

So, how do you do it? At their most basic, site safety audits are essentially walkthroughs where potential hazards are identified, and, if any are identified, remedied. The most important thing is that whoever conducts the safety audit has a good understanding of safety regulations and procedures. As with employee training, it’s something that you can outsource to external experts. 

Reliable, Safe Infrastructure

It can be easy to identify the threat that heavy machinery and other equipment pose to construction workers, but actually, the structures themselves are often just as much of a threat. Heavy machinery, too, can pose a significant safety threat if it’s installed incorrectly. As such, construction companies should work with a company that offers mechanical & structural services to ensure that these and the site’s other infrastructure are safe and reliable. Ideally, it’ll be best to work with a single company that can handle as many of these jobs as possible, since involving multiple companies can lead to gaps in the site’s safety being overlooked. 

Strong Site Communication 

Having strong communication within the organization can go a long way towards enhancing a construction site's safety. As we said earlier, most hazards make themselves known, in some form or another, before they can cause damage. If the audit misses something, then it may well be one of the workers who identifies a potential danger. 

Remember that a culture of communication rarely just happens. It needs to be established from the top down. Consider offering incentives for your workers to speak up. It’s also just as important not to blame anyone for anything that impacts safety, while it can be tempting, in most cases, it’ll just prevent other workers from speaking up in the future. A worker may be reluctant to admit to a mistake for fear of punishment, but the safety of the worksite may depend on them speaking up. A blame-free environment, therefore, is key.

Emergency Planning 

Finally, construction companies can help to boost their site’s safety by developing robust procedures for what they’ll do if something goes wrong. On-site first aid equipment, as well as knowledge of the nearest medical centers' locations (or possibly even having one on-site), is key. It’s also recommended to treat even the most minor of incidents as serious. Even if whatever happened didn’t result in an injury that’s in any way serious, it’s best to act as if it could have. Treating it seriously will encourage you to take action to prevent a recurrence in the future.