Health and Safety Tips for Construction Businesses

Regardless of size and kind of business, health and safety is the number one priority. As a business owner, you are responsible for the health and safety of your workers. This means applying and taking the right precautions and safety measures to remove or to lessen the hazards in the work environment. This is true especially for construction businesses wherein hazards are found everywhere.

Constructions site workers are injured every year in the workplace. What’s worse is that some of them are killed in the process. Listed below are a few of the important tips to avoid such mishaps and to keep your construction business a safe place to work in.

Make an SOP for health and safety.

Create a health and safety standard operating procedure and place it in a location where all staff can easily access and read it. The SOP needs to be precise on who does what within the premises, when and how. By law, every business must have a written health and safety policy should there be five or more employees. Once written, it is important to check if it is fully implemented and up to date with state rules and regulations.

Assign a competent individual that will focus on health and safety.

It is important to appoint a qualified professional that will assess and focus on health and safety issues in your company. This individual must possess adequate training and experience or knowledge required in the field. A health and safety consultant will be responsible for initiating seminars and trainings among employees regarding health and safety in a construction company.

Implement risk management and assessment protocol.

Risk management and assessment is vital for health and safety in business. It involves executing a thorough inspection of what could cause harm to the staff, which will then give you ways to be able to decide on whether you need to apply additional precautions. Harmful consequences might arise if there are risk and uncertainties in a construction project. New risk assessment software has made the process of managing health and safety risks in our business much more efficient, and will overall reduce the time it takes to assess risks and, most of all, make our workplaces safer.” This is according to David Rowland, head of marketing at Engage EHS, a leader in the field.

Prevent marijuana use within the workforce.

In the construction industry, workers need to keep a sane mind to avoid unwanted accidents on the job. Any impairment caused by marijuana use could hurt the company in terms of productivity as well as finances in case a terrible accident occurs. One way of ensuring this does not happen is to implement marijuana testing among employees.

Regularly assess the workplace and equipment.

To prevent accidents within the workplace, be aware of any changes in your work environment, any new machinery, or any defective equipment that shouldn’t be used. It is also required for every worker to wear safety gear such as hard hats and eye protection and as well as a reflective vest. More importantly, employers should allow workers to take a break to keep them at their best condition while at work.

As the construction business being the riskiest, most accident-prone and probably the most dangerous industry, the business owner needs to guarantee that his construction business follows health and safety rules religiously before starting operations. By doing so, the company is sure to reap the benefits in the long run.

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