Building a Safety Culture in Construction
In a high-hazard industry like construction, workplace safety is an ongoing concern. Every company wants to achieve zero injury status and every employee wants to return home safely to their families each work day. Most construction companies likely already have some form of a safety program in place but a program alone is often not enough. To be truly effective, safety must become embedded into the very culture of a company.
Creating A Culture Of Safety
Creating a true culture of safety is easier said than done, and it’s best to start with a vision. As with most things in business, without clear plans, goals, and policies, new initiatives rarely last long enough for any real momentum to take place. A vision provides your team with some direction to guide them through initial efforts and implementations.
The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) provides processes and strategies for safety and health programs. By implementing these practices, construction companies can build the foundation for a successful safety initiative. Listed below, are some of OSHA’s tactics for developing and maintaining a strong culture of safety:
- Support from Management. Building a culture of safety is impossible without the backing of senior management. With support from leadership, the company as a whole will be much more likely to adopt any safety initiatives that are set forth.
- Hazard Assessment. This involves inspections and investigations to identify hazards of the workplace, fixing what can be fixed immediately, and establishing methods for hazard prevention and control.
- Self-assessment. It’s important to take inventory of where your company is starting from so you can create realistic goals and track results based on the initial benchmark. You can then correct shortcomings of your program and make improvements in the future.
- Team participation. For a safety culture to be successful, employees at all levels of the organization must be involved and take responsibility for their part in keeping job sites safe. Recognizing and rewarding success helps to further incentivize your team, maintain enthusiasm around safety initiatives, and acknowledge the progress that is being made.
- Education and training. Educate your team members on workplace hazards and prevention, so they can do their job safely. This can include safety orientation for new team members, extensive training for supervisors, and ongoing workplace safety education and training for all team members.
It’s important to keep in mind that creating a safety culture takes time, it does not happen overnight. Rather, it is the culmination of months and sometimes several years of implementations and consistent communication that create a lasting and effective company-wide culture.
Safety At MMC
Metropolitan Mechanical Contractors has a company-wide commitment to workplace safety. Safety is an integral part of how we do business and we have adopted a plan to carry out that philosophy.
We provide ongoing training for all team members, so each individual can contribute to workplace safety. We offer jobsite safety audits, on-site training, and computer-based safety training among many of our safety services. We comply with all federal, state and local regulations governing the workplace.
Contact us about jobsite safety audits or a construction safety program.
