Four Steps To Ensure Your Contractors Work More Safely
If you own a construction business, one of your main challenges may be encouraging your contractors to work safely. As the business owner, you are surely concerned with preventing accidents and insurance claims, but your workers do not always share this concern. How do you get them to wear their hardhats, harness themselves properly, and abide by other safety regulations? You can start by following these steps.
1. Have Regular Safety Meetings
It's somewhat standard in the industry to have safety meetings once a year. For many companies, this is just not enough. You need to have safety meetings often enough that safety remains in the forefront of your workers' minds. Once a month is a good starting point. The meetings do not have to last long -- an hour or two is enough. Make sure employees attend. If someone misses the meeting, require that they make it up on another day. This will prevent workers from dodging meetings by taking sick days.
2. Issue a Safety Manual and Have Employees Read it Together
Hopefully you already have a safety manual that you hand out to new hires and reference from time to time. If you do not, take the time now to find one or have a custom one printed. The problem with safety manuals is that workers rarely read them. They get tossed in the back seat of a car or on a desk, and then forgotten about. Make sure your employees read the manual by requiring that they bring it to safety meetings. Spend the last 10 or 15 minutes of each meeting reading the manual together. Also, assign them reading "homework" and ask some basic questions about the assigned reading at the next meeting.
3. Be Present on the Job Site
If you are rarely on the job site, workers may think they can get away without following safety guidelines. On the other hand, if you make regular appearances and they know you'll be on the lookout for safety, they are more likely to comply. Do call out workers who you see fail to follow safety regulations. Write up employees who continue to ignore safety after their first warning.
4. Encourage Others to Report to You
Encourage your employees to let you know when they see another employee who is not following safety regulations; this will encourage workers to comply because they may fear their coworkers will turn them in.
Follow the steps above, and your workers will soon adopt safer habits. To learn more, visit a website like safetymadesimple.biz.
Share