We all know how important workplace safety is. Each and every employee who leaves his family in the morning to make ends meet should come back to their family in the evening safe and sound. And I know how distressing it is to wait for your loved one to come home every day hoping that they come back in one piece — the fast heartbeat and the goosebumps on your skin when it’s late in the evening and they’re not home yet. Every day, you wish that you won’t receive a call saying that your father is in the hospital due to a workplace accident.
Last 2019, an incident took place in a construction site in Manila when a tower crane’s cable holding a cement-filled bucket crushed a construction worker to death. If this news made you gasp, think about the other 150,000 construction site accidents that occur every year.
As a human resource employee, your job is to ensure that workplace safety is being followed by each employee. This is especially important for construction businesses. However, no matter how many safety guidelines you’ve set in place, they won’t work if your employees are not invested in following them. So here are 12 workplace safety tips for HR employees to ensure that all employees are obeying your safety guidelines and procedures.
Effective Workplace Tips for Construction Businesses
1. Train employees well to ensure workplace safety
They say that prevention is better than cure. To do this, you must prepare a comprehensive training to establish safety in the workplace. Make sure that all your employees completed all safety training before their first day at work.
2. Make sure that every corner is clean and organized
Slipping and tripping are common accidents in construction sites. You must strictly require all the workers to organize tools and equipment at the end of their shift. Let them know that there is a corresponding penalty if they fail to follow this rule.
Read: 7 Important Functions of Office Management
3. Store combustible materials safely
Combustible materials are serious fire hazards, especially when they’re not stored safely. Make sure that any spills with these sorts of materials are wipe cleaned right away. After use, store it in places with proper ventilation.
Read: 7 Techniques When Recruiting Top Construction Talent
4. Always wear personal protective equipment for workplace safety
It doesn’t hurt to be extra cautious. Whether it’s something as small as earplugs, make sure that your workers are wearing PPE to keep them safe from injury.
5. Clearly label hazardous zones
Dangerous areas and equipment should be clearly labeled at all times. Also, you must assign workers to highlight walkways with the necessary signage. It also helps to mark hazardous zones with black and white stripes. Doing so will keep employees aware of dangerous surroundings.
6. Avoid assigning the same tasks to the same employees
Studies show that repetitive tasks can be strenuous to one’s body and mind and may cause occupational overuse syndrome (OOS). Symptoms include weak muscles, uncomfortable aches, swelling, and numbness.
Talk to the construction manager about the risk of repetitive tasks to construction employees. Explain to them the need to vary employee activities to keep them from doing the same task for a long time.
Read: 6 Things to Consider Before Embarking on a Construction Project
7. Encourage stretch breaks
One thing you can do to avoid occupational overuse syndrome is to take a five-minute break to do simple stretch exercises. Encourage all employees to stretch for five minutes to loosen their joints and ease their muscle tension. It’s also a fun way to lighten up the mood in the workplace.
8. Workplace safety tip: keep safety procedures updated!
Another way to establish safety in the workplace is to update your safety procedures. This is relevant especially when your company purchases a new machine. Make sure that your employees are informed about the new safety procedures that go along with the new changes.
Read: 7 Tips to Improve Client Communication for Construction Firms
9. Stay hydrated
Living in a tropical country like the Philippines, you are aware of how strenuous working at a construction site can be due to heat. To combat dehydration, you must provide water stations at every site and enforce your workers to drink lots of water every day. Additionally, tell them to avoid coffee, alcohol, and other salty and sweet foods as they make chances of dehydration more severe.
10. Inspect your machinery and tools regularly
Servicing your tools and machinery should not only happen when they are close to breaking down. Take note that not only will machinery break down cost you money, but somebody could also get hurt in the process. Make sure to hire someone to thoroughly inspect, test, and measure the equipment. Also, remember that not just anybody can maintain the equipment; you need to subcontract people who can deal with specific pieces of tools and machinery.
11. Provide first aid kits and training
Providing your construction employees with first aid kits and training goes a long way towards safety in the workplace and dealing with emergencies. The first step toward a safe workplace is to assess the risks lurking in your workplace. Once it’s done, you can go on and take needed precautions, like regularly stocking first aid kits and equipping your staff with relevant first aid skills.
As a rule of thumb, keep in mind that you need one first aid provider for every 25 employees in high-risk businesses like construction.
12. Have regular meetings about workplace safety
Last but not the least, your department must have regular meetings to review safety procedures and discuss preventive measures. After all, it never hurts to be overprepared.
As an HR staff, part of your role is to enforce safety guidelines and make sure that your employees are abiding them. By being prepared and following these workplace safety tips, you are saving people from accidents and even deaths. And little did you know, you are saving your employees’ families from worries and heartbreaks.
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