Construction site safety starts with creating the right kind of culture. Learn the key characteristics of a safe site here.
The presence of multiple hazards and risks that can lead to serious injuries means maintaining a safe working environment on a construction site is absolutely essential.
With 123 worker fatalities across the UK in 2021, the total number of people killed on construction sites is four times the national average for all industries.
How do you create a safer Construction Site?
Better onsite safety comes from an understanding of the risks and how they can be mitigated. But maintaining a high level of safety throughout a project comes from creating a culture of safety, and by promoting a number of key characteristics that place an emphasis on workforce and colleague well-being.
Having worked on construction sites as a security subcontractor for over 20 years, our team has had responsibility for maintaining the safety of our own colleagues, as well as those of our clients.
We have drawn on this experience to outline what we consider the five most important qualities every site should have to maintain worker safety.
1. Strong Leadership
A culture of safety starts at the top, without management buying into the importance of health and safety, it is difficult to engage the rest of the workforce.
Leadership teams set the tone of a project, and from the very outset, managers can conduct risk assessments to forecast any safety challenges likely to occur throughout the project.
While most site managers will have received safety training, some may feel daunted at the prospect of conducting a risk assessment. To assist, WCCTV has created a free template that you can download and customise for your sites.
2. Workforce Attitude
Health and safety has never been one of life's most exciting subjects, and there are many negative connotations around health and safety 'gone mad'.
With this can come a lackadaisical attitude to a subject that while not particularly exciting, is absolutely vital.
How to create that culture and attitude of taking health and safety seriously will vary from site to site, but one of the most effective measures is to appoint experienced or senior team members to act as mentors.
Hearing safety advice from one of their peers, rather than from an external trainer, is likely to resonate more with younger and more inexperienced team members.
It's not just younger team members who are at risk though, older and more experienced staff may become complacent following years of working on sites, and believe that an accident will never happen to them.
These attitudes need challenging via regular training and engagement to ensure safety is always a key focus.
3. Spot Checks and Inspections
The best way to ensure your health and safety protocols are being followed is to run regular inspections. This helps keep everyone on their toes, maintain safety focus and eradicate any sense of complacency that may creep in.
Below, we have produced a handy infographic that details the most common accidents that occur on construction sites, the root cause of these accidents and some of the ways they can be mitigated.
4. Regular Staff Training
Ongoing education and assessment of learning are critical in ensuring everyone who works on your site knows how to perform their jobs in the safest way possible.
Health and safety training focuses on several areas:
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How to identify and control risks
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Site speific training
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Machinery specific training
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Environment awareness
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Toolbox talks
WCCTV has completed its own guide on the best ways to manage health and safety when working on a construction site. Click the link below to learn more.
5. Continual Evaluation
The make-up of your site is likely to change dramatically over time, often from day to day. With every change comes the possibility of new risks being introduced.
This means the risk assessment you put in place at the start of the project will quickly become outdated, meaning regular evaluations are required.
These evaluations will again keep everyone on your site engaged and focused on the overall objective of getting home safe every day.
Managed CCTV Solutions for Construction Site Security
We're the UK's leading provider of managed CCTV systems for remote and temporary construction projects.
As well as helping deter thefts, our CCTV cameras are proven to improve construction site health and safety.
Our marketing-leading CCTV Towers are provided as part of a comprehensive construction site security service that includes a survey, equipment installation, regular maintenance, remote video monitoring, proactive response and monthly reporting.
We can install our CCTV systems whether or not you have onsite power and internet availability as they are completely autonomous solutions.
Ready to find out how Rapid Deployment CCTV can work for you? Get in touch today at 0800 470 4630 or request a call back
