Managing Health and Safety

Working on a construction site isn't for everyone; there are many risks and hazards:

The work environment, the equipment, the materials, the tasks, and workers, the schedules, the hours, and even company management are all potential sources of danger.

It's simply the nature of the business, as the principal contractor or employer, it's your responsibility to ensure the prevention of work accidents and occupational diseases on the job site, and not just because it's the law, but also because these accidents can have a significant impact on your productivity as well, as on your workers and their families.

Managing occupational health and safety means implementing a prevention program an action plan adapted to your reality as a member of the HSE department, you have access to a number of existing prevention programs within your company, each program has its own set of action sheets each sheet identifies a risk that could be present on your job site, and for each risk there are details of what preventive measures and control methods you can put in place to protect your workers, a prevention program is a great starting point but managing occupational health and safety is a never-ending process of continuous improvement.

 

You must continually identify, correct and control all hazards in the workplace if you hold off on identifying the hazards until it's time to start the job, you can count on unwelcome surprises that will prevent the job from getting underway, what you need to do is identify the hazards during the planning stage, when identifying a hazard, the most important thing to do is analyze each aspect of the work to be done, the equipment and materials to be used, the tasks to be performed, the work environment, and yes! even your workers, two good tips for identifying hazards one consult your register of accidents incidents and first aid and two listen to what your workers have to say, once you've identified the workplace hazards, it's time to take action and correct the situation.

Start with the hazards that can have serious and immediate consequences on your workers, such as those considered zero tolerance, then correct the most frequent hazards, and finally all other hazards you can correct the situation by putting in place corrective measures that (1) eliminate hazards at the source, (2) minimize the likelihood of accidents or lessen the severity of potential injuries there are many solutions to choose from you can substitute materials or equipment, (3) implement engineering controls, (4) increase awareness, introduce administrative controls or (5) provide personal protective equipment, it's often necessary to combine several solutions in order to ensure effective results for each one that you select, it's important to first establish a time frame and designate a person in charge before implementing the corrective measures once the hazards have been corrected it's time to put the controls in place this step helps ensure that the chosen solutions are both effective and sustainable because even if the chosen solution is the best one it might not be properly understood or enforced by your workers.

So it's important that you properly inform and train your workers and establish a monitoring system to ensure that the new controls are enforced the prevention programs provided by the HSE department which are indispensable when it comes to planning a safe and secure job site.

 

But remember every job site is unique and workplace hazards can change and evolve as activity progresses, that's why it's important to follow the identify correct control process to ensure proper management of occupational health and safety; this will help reduce work accidents and occupational diseases and increase productivity.

 

Prevention is a team effort and everyone's responsibility it never ends, and remember HSE Management and advisors of your company are always here to help.

Here are below some related resources:

• An Introduction to Health and Safety
• Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969
• Five steps to risk assessment
• Management of Health and Safety at Workps
• Managing Health & Safety
• Reduce risks -The real Costs of Accidents and Ill-health
• Safety Signs and Signals
• Safety Signs in The Catering Industry
• Successful Health and Safety Management

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