40 | AUGUST 2019
Installer Support
Installer Support is
sponsored by Kayflow
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 construc-
tion industry contributes to a
large number of recorded work-
place 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 aver-
age 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 con-
struction industry isn’t something
that can be ignored and picked
up later,” says Daniel Ure from
online PPE retailer Vizwear, “it’s
a vital part of everyone’s day to
day work. By keeping workers
up to date with safety proce-
dures, 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 every-
one 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 re-
porting and logging accidents
in the workplace, then noth-
ing 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 com-
pany blames individuals for
injuries and relies on disci-
plining workers for accidents,
you’re promoting a negative
view of health and safety. You
may be influencing employees
to avoid correctly reporting in-
cidents 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 communicat-
ing 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 manage-
ment be confident that their staff
are taking the right measures to
cultivate a culture of site safety.
Here are a few small steps
you can take to make sure your
business is optimising its culture
of safety:
1. Communicate
A lack of communication can
hamper any attempts to develop
your culture of workplace safety.
Being open and honest with your
employees about why new chang-
es are being implemented at work
is the easiest way to help them
understand the necessity.
The more transparent you are as a
manager, the more likely your staff
will help health and safety updates
run smoothly. However, it’s not just
about communicating changes to
your team: all current health and
safety guidelines should be easily ac-
cessible to ensure everyone remains
knowledgeable and up to date.
2. Mental health support
Construction workers have
seen a serious problem with the
condition of their mental health
which has been a continuous issue