Every job in this world carries some safety concerns with it, but construction might be one of the most dangerous jobs there are. After all, you can directly be injured in the environment you’re working in. Staying safe on the job and ensuring the workers have everything they need to avoid injury should be the main goal of all employers. Every construction worker has to know some safety tips in order to stay safe on the job, and here’s what you should pay attention to.
1. Open communication
Communication is important in every aspect of life, and the construction site is no exception. If the communication channels between the workers and the management aren’t open, things are bound to get chaotic very quickly. You, as a worker, should feel comfortable coming to your employer or manager to tell them about your concerns. The relationship should be built on trust and the management should help you overcome the concerns you have.
As well as that, management needs to listen when the workers deem something is unsafe. This can be achieved through safety measures such as lone worker alarms that allow workers to instantaneously raise an alarm to a monitoring team when they deem a situation unsafe. That being said, if an injury does happen, the worker should have the freedom to come to the employer for help. If the communication is open and relaxed between the two parties, the construction site stays much safer and all obstacles are overcome easily.
2. Maintaining the machinery
Construction work largely revolves around using heavy and complicated machinery. The most common causes of injuries in the workplace are caused by the misuse of the same machinery. Most of the time, the worker using the machine is completely responsibly and has done their job properly, but the machine is simply faulty. To avoid this, regular maintenance is necessary. This is especially true for forklifts, as they’re the most often used pieces of machinery on the construction site.
If the forklift fails, the consequences could even be fatal in some cases. Opting for regular forklift service can potentially save people from injury and can maybe even save lives. This is because all the potential problems are evident during maintenance. It’s much easier to fix a problem before it becomes an actual problem than it is to deal with the consequences. As well as that, regular maintenance gives the workers more confidence when handling forklifts and other machinery. After all, it’s much easier to work with something when you know there’s no chance you’ll get hurt.
3. Having enough people
Often enough, construction sites are understaffed. This means that a job that should be done with five works is actually being done by two. Employers often think that this is fine and that the workers can handle it. The bonus is that they have to spend less money on the workforce. The truth is, this is putting the workers in a world of danger. If a job is supposed to be done by five people, none of those five people are redundant. The number ensures the job is done safely and that no one is hurt.
So, one safety tip would be to always have enough people on a certain job. Even if it seems like three of them are doing nothing anyway, they’re contributing to the safety of the other two. Not only will the workers stay safe when the numbers are adequate, but they’ll also be finished with work much more quickly, thus contributing to the efficiency on the site.
4. Proper training
Training the workers is one of the most important safety tips, if not the most important one. Not everyone can work on a construction site, as they simply don’t know what the work entails. Just letting anyone handle equipment and do the work puts them and everyone else in a lot of danger. Without proper training, workers shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the site.
After the hiring process is completed, the training should begin. It doesn’t even matter if the worker already has some construction experience. They’ve never worked for this particular employer before and on this particular site, meaning that there are definitely some things they need to pay attention to.
Now, it’s also important to remember that just training the workers once isn’t enough. As technology advances, the skills needed to operate certain machinery also change. In order for the workers to stay safe, they need to be up to date with how the advanced machinery is handled. Thus, every time there’s an advancement in the field, the workers should be trained to handle it.
5. Encouraging safe behavior
It’s one thing to give the workers proper training and a whole other to actually enforce this new behavior. Often enough, workers simply don’t see the importance of acting in according to training. They believe they have more experience and that some measures they’ve been taught are simply unnecessary.
This is why every employer should encourage their employees to enforce safe behavior. This can be done by praising those who are following protocol and even giving them some rewards. If you’re a worker who’s already playing by the rules, you can even try educating your coworkers about the benefits and importance of acting according to protocol. Even changing one person’s habits is helpful as the rest are soon to follow suit.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a lot of factors to pay attention to when you’re a construction worker. Staying safe needs to be a priority. You’re more than likely to encounter dangerous situations on the job daily, which is why you need to be prepared. Even though your employers should give you a safe environment to work in, it’s up to you to stay informed on the latest safety protocols and to use your work equipment responsibly. We’re confident that nothing bad will happen to you as long as you follow these tips and stay level-headed and responsible while on the job.
