Clearview National September 2019 - Issue 214 | Page 76

PROUD SPONSOR OF INSTALLER SUPPORT
INSTALLERSUPPORT
How to Foster a
Culture of Site Safety
in Construction
» » DESPITE HEALTH AND SAFETY
being a staple of every company’s policies and
procedures, accidents and injuries at work are
still commonplace. HSE (Health and Safety
Executive) recently published the results of the
annual labour force survey, which revealed that
between 2017 and 2018, there were 555,000
injuries at work. 144 of them were fatal.
As it stands, the construction industry
contributes to a large number of recorded
workplace injuries. In fact, HSE found that an
estimated 58,000 cases of work-related injury
occurred between 2017 and 2018. Around
2.6% of construction workers suffered an
injury in this time, roughly 50% higher than
the average of 1.8% across all industries.
Having a bad culture of health and safety hits
your profits as hard as it does your reputation.
In the construction industry alone, around 2.4
million working days were lost between 2017
and 2018 due to workplace injury and illness.
To put that statistic into perspective, that’s the
equivalent of 10,000 construction workers being
absent from work for a full year.
These absences add up to a staggering £1.06
billion loss, accounting for 7% of the total
cost across all industries (£14.9 billion).
“Health and safety in the construction
industry isn’t something that can be ignored
and picked up later,” says Daniel Ure from
76 » SE P 2019 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M
online PPE retailer Vizwear, “it’s a vital part
of everyone’s day to day work. By keeping
workers up to date with safety procedures,
health and safety will become a natural part of
their roles, rather than something they need
to remember. When your staff become more
aware, they’ll take fewer risks and make sure
any accidents are logged: two simple ways that
will keep everyone safer in the future.”
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF
POOR HEALTH AND SAFETY?
If you’re concerned that your own health
and safety policies aren’t up to standard, there
are a number of signs you can look out for:
• Poor accident reporting - If your team
aren’t properly reporting and logging
accidents in the workplace, then nothing
can be done to prevent it from happening
again in the future. Accident and injury
books aren’t just for serious cases: they
should be filled with any occurrences in
the workplace. Your staff may not feel like
their injuries aren’t worth the hassle, but
the next time it happens, it could have
more serious consequences.
• Blame culture - If your company blames
individuals for injuries and relies on
disciplining workers for accidents, you’re
promoting a negative view of health and
safety. You may be influencing employees
to avoid correctly reporting incidents due
to a fear of being reprimanded.
• Profitability over safety - When
a company values profitability at a
detriment to proper health and safety
measures, its culture of site safety will
inevitably suffer. This attitude will
actually end up costing you more in the
long run, as you’ll be forced to cover staff
absences when accidents occur.
• Lack of communication - Without openly
communicating the reasons behind new
safety measures with your employees, you’ll
create the impression that health and safety
in an afterthought. Your staff won’t take
policies seriously and you’ll make it difficult
to establish a positive culture of site safety.
HOW TO FOSTER A CULTURE
OF SITE SAFETY
When it comes to creating a successful culture
of site safety, it’s not as simple as creating new
safety procedures and calling it a job well done
- business leaders need to motivate their staff to
take safety into their own hands.
Only by ensuring everyone buys into their
own safety can management be confident that
their staff are taking the right measures to
cultivate a culture of site safety.