Owner involvement fosters a healthy safety climate part 2

The previous safety blog discussed the importance of owner involvement. Without it, fostering a strong safety climate is nearly impossible. What steps can owners and top management take?

1. Active Presence

Owners and top management presence on-site demonstrate safety buy-in and provides the foundation for a strong safety climate:

1. Participate and lead employee orientation; site orientations help familiarize employees with potential hazards they may face on the job site.
   1. Orientation also helps establish a foundation for two-way communication between project owners, clients, contractors, and employees about safety issues.
   1. Workers are more confident that participating in safety efforts is important when employees see project managers and owners demonstrate that they value safety.
   1. Devote adequate resources to implementing safety programs and enforcing policies.
      1. Make available adequate resources to those managing the safety plan.
      1. Safety policies and plans are meaningless unless they are effectively implemented, enforced, reviewed, and if necessary, modified.
   1. Create mechanisms for contractors to voice safety concerns.
      1. Create a climate where contractor concerns are heard and those who identify hazards are recognized.
      1. Offer contractors alternative ways to communicate with owners about potential hazards including:
         1. Suggestion boxes;
         1. Surveys; and
         1. Informal, non-threatening interviews.
      1. Join daily strategy meetings and safety walk-arounds and ALWAYS wear appropriate PPE!
         1. Participate in daily pre-task planning meetings and joint site safety inspection with contractors’ management and employees;
         1. Ask workers on the ground for solutions to safety-related issues; and
         1. Act upon good ideas that are feasible.

Project owner’s participation in safety activities and following safety rules helps employees trust the values that management talks about. “Do as I say, not as I do.” will just create distrust and annoyance.

• Design and planning

Incorporate safety throughout the design and planning phases of the project:

1. Take safety into account when selecting and evaluating contractors.
   1. When pre-qualifying a contractor for a project, review the contractors’:
      1. Safety program;
      1. Policies; and
      1. Safety performance.
   1. Review bids for:
      1. PPE;
      1. Safety supplies; and
      1. Training.
   1. Data on lagging indicators (e.g., injuries) may reflect under reporting rather than a strong commitment to safety.
   1. Responsibilities, expectations, and evaluation metrics based on safety climate indicators should be specified in the contract, and selected contractors should be held accountable for meeting those expectations.
   1. Make sure a proper training course is being implemented for immigrants lacking English proficiency.
   1.  Use Prevention through design methods.
      1. Train in-house and contracted architects and engineers on strategies they can use to exclude hazards from equipment, structures, materials, and processes that may negatively affect employees and end users.
      1. Factor in the prevention cost through design engineering and the scheduling involved.
2. Accountability
   1. Project owners and subcontractors should participate in regular safety committee meetings.  
      1. Rotate leadership roles; project owners or subs should periodically take the lead as the safety committee chair. 
      1. Project owner and management should have an open-door policy for contractors to discuss safety issues and ensure that their representatives in the field comply with all safety rules.

The final topic in this series on safety climate will highlight special consideration for immigrants. Hispanics alone form 30% of the construction industry; failing to take them into account can leave a massive weakness in your safety program and negatively impact safety culture.