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If you own or are in charge of a construction company, your employees’ safety at the job site is your responsibility and your responsibility alone. So it is essential to make sure in advance that all the proper policies are in place in advance before you start any project as in the long run it could even save people’s lives, not to mention their limbs and lastly the massive waste of time that a major mishap (Or many minor mishaps) can cause.
In this article, we are going to share with you the four most important tips to ensure safety at the construction site.
1. Plan Your Project in Advance
Proper planning of the project before starting it is very important. As an owner, you have to be very careful about the selection of the site that will be under construction, and you have to be clear about what you want to construct there.
By having a proper plan, you will be able to analyze the potential hazards of that site. Your manager or some other representative will be able to take preventive measures for all the possible mishaps that can happen at that site. Not only this, but they need to clearly tell the workers of that site about these potential hazards and provide them with the necessary tools or equipment to counteract them.
2. Risk Management at The Right Time and Place
The second most important tip is proper risk management. This includes the management of risk at the times, days, or sites when the odds are the worst for an accident.
It has been observed that most of the accidents occur at construction sites during the hours between 10 am to 3 pm Moreover, it is also observed that at Industrial construction sites, the chances of mishaps are much greater as compared to residential or commercial construction sites.
Another factor that you might not take into account is equipment safety. Dynatect.com actually specializes in custom engineered equipment modification (Among other fields) and may be able to help you out with a custom solution for your job site and your equipment.
Keeping these factors in mind, you can schedule your workers working hours and arrange your safety measures to take them into account. Especially if you are working in the industrial sector or with accident-prone equipment. This will could help in reducing both the chances, as well as the severity of incidents.
3. Enough Staffing and Proper Scheduling
The work schedule and hiring of enough employees to complete a project is also very important. Sometimes accidents can happen just because of the workload and shortage of time. Many construction companies by not hiring enough staff for their project inadvertently overload their workers to the point of exhaustion. In such a scenario, even though the safety measures are taken, they are of no use because the staff needs to cut corners to get things done in time. Also, the workers can become so tired mentally and physically, that they become unable to follow the safety protocols and accidents happen.
Another factor is extended shifts decrease the alertness of the employees at the workplace or job site. Obviously, this can also cause tiredness, they will not bother to get into the additional trouble of carrying out safety measures before starting their work.
So always make sure you are properly staffed and to not schedule workers for over extended shifts if at all possible.
4. Safety Culture Within the Company
Safety must not only be something you talk about but should be made your “company culture”. It needs to be instilled into the employees and the management staff by educating them about how important it is. If people would know the consequences of their actions that they might be doing wrong without even knowing it, they will be able to avoid them next time. But this will happen only if they are made aware of it.
Hope you took notes as these were some important tips that can drastically improve the safety of your workers. They are simple but very important to consider and implement. Remember it is critical to never cut corners in the pursuit of profit as lives are on the line.
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This content is sponsored by Costea Lestoc.
Photo: Getty Images