Wael Khalil, Vice President, Director of Safety & Health, Lovell Safety Management
For small construction firms and subcontractors, having a usable safety and health plan is not just a formality, it’s a necessity for safeguarding their workforce. Regardless of a company’s size, it’s crucial to have a clear, effective strategy to mitigate workplace hazards and ensure employee safety.
Many small construction business owners believe that extensive field experience can substitute for a formal safety and health plan. This perception often stems from their day-to-day involvement in operations, which they feel gives them direct control over safety issues. Many others have the approach that a safety and health plan is only a document needed when bidding for new work.
However, this informal approach lacks the structured benefits of a documented plan.
A concise and relevant safety and health plan is more than a compliance measure, it organizes essential safety protocols and serves as a practical guide for employees. It helps standardize responses to high-risk tasks and ensures consistent safety practices among all workers, thereby enhancing overall site safety.
Safety and health plans should encompass a variety of elements tailored to the specific needs and risks of the workplace. Key components should include hazard identification, risk assessment, control measures, emergency procedures, and employee training. Plans should clearly outline responsibilities and provide a framework for reporting incidents and near misses, which is crucial for ongoing improvement and prevention strategies.
Moreover, the plans should facilitate compliance with relevant OSHA standards and other legal requirements, but they must also remain practical and directly applicable to the daily operations of the workers they are designed to protect. For instance, topics like proper handling of tools and materials, specific protocols for working at heights, and guidelines for the use of personal protective equipment are essential for construction sites. Each procedure outlined should be actionable and devoid of unnecessary complexity that could hinder its real-world application.
The prevailing trend steered by larger general contractors often emphasizes voluminous safety documentation, valuing quantity over quality. This leads to overly extensive safety plans that are cumbersome and impractical for actual field application. Rather than improving safety, these exhaustive documents primarily serve to shield the job site from potential litigation, rather than ensuring the actual safety of workers on the ground. Additionally, general contractors frequently employ third-party vetting firms, which contribute further to the complexity of subcontractors’ safety and health plans.
For instance, I came across a drywall contractor that was required to have a crane and rigging policy, a demand imposed by the general contractors but disconnected from the subcontractor’s actual work. This mismatch exemplifies the disconnect that arises when safety plans are dictated by entities removed from the specific realities of the job site.
Instead of one-size-fits-all documents, safety plans should be dynamic, living documents that are updated regularly to reflect actual job scope and hazards. This approach not only enhances compliance and safety but also fosters a safety culture that values input from employees, making safety an observed priority every day.
For real improvement in workplace safety, the industry needs to assist small construction firms and subcontractors in crafting straightforward, pertinent safety and health plans. These plans should focus on actionable, relevant safety measures tailored to the specific needs of the job and the workers. By moving away from unwieldy documents to more manageable and applicable plans, we can ensure that safety protocols are not just theoretical requirements but practical tools that significantly enhance safety on construction sites.
Larger general contractors have a significant responsibility to prioritize the relevance and effectiveness of the safety and health plans they require from subcontractors. It’s imperative that they shift their focus from merely mitigating litigation risks to genuinely enhancing on-site safety. This approach ensures that the safety and health plans demanded are not just formalities or overly cumbersome documents but are instead practical, applicable tools that subcontractors can realistically implement and maintain. This change will foster a safer workplace environment, where the actual safety of employees is the cornerstone of all safety protocols. By aligning safety documentation with the real-world needs of those on the ground, larger contractors can play a pivotal role in promoting a culture of safety that transcends legal compliance and truly protects workers.
At the end of the day, training employees on a 250-page safety and health plan filled with information that doesn’t directly apply to their tasks or the specific hazards they encounter is not just difficult, it’s ineffective. Workers are far more likely to understand and adhere to safety protocols when they are presented in a straightforward, relevant, and concise manner. Complex, overly lengthy safety plans can overwhelm employees, obscuring the key safety measures that directly impact their day-to-day work. Streamlined, tailored plans make training simpler, helping employees retain critical information and apply it effectively, creating safer job sites where every worker feels protected and empowered.
For more information on this issue and other safety related concerns you may contact Wael Khalil, VP & Director of Safety & Health, Lovell Safety Management at wkhalil@lovellsafety.com or 917-692-9108. You may also visit online at www.LovellSafety.com.