7 Ways to Improve Safety Culture on a Construction Site

Workplace safety and health is always regarded with importance in Singapore, encouraging several employers to exercise a positive workplace safety culture.  To support this, the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Act covers the safety, health, and welfare of people working in a workplace.

• A workplace is any place where a person carries out work.
•  WSH act also lists the responsibilities of various stakeholders from employers to the occupiers, manufacturers, vendors, employees, and self-employed to adhere to and maintain the safety standards.

It is therefore essential to be enforced, as it reduces workplace accidents and enforces a positive workplace safety culture.

Workplace culture is an organizational culture that gives significance to safety, beliefs, values, and attitudes, and these are shared by the employees working within the organization. As a safety professional, it is a good practice to regularly assess the importance of safety in your company and how to develop a good safety culture. Here are some tips and benefits of promoting a positive workplace safety culture:

1. Safety culture as part of company's foundation

An organization that stands for the security and protection of its workers will ensure this is reflected in its vision and core values. By prioritizing the welfare of its workers, the company is deemed admirable and respectable in the industry. Employees would also feel assured working in a conducive and safe environment where they are protected and cared for.

2. Good management and leadership

Executives and managers must lead by example - exemplifying the company values, following the safety procedures, and implementing these across teams. They should also be responsible for guiding workers towards a safe environment, and provide support to employees when needed.

3. Clear work procedures and policies

Workplace hazards can be minimized through an effective safety standards program. This program should encompass course of actions to deter perils at work and reduce the number of injuries and fatalities. These risk-mitigating methods must be communicated clearly to its employees. Employees should also be aware of how to tackle safety concerns at work. Safety-related policies must be written and shared in an easy-to-read manner, along with specific consequences for any non-compliance. This list of policies serves as the foundation guiding workplace safety culture.

4. Active Employee Participation

Workers must be engaged with safety and embrace safety efforts at work. Engaged employees should practice honesty and openness. For instance, when they have witnessed unsafe conditions, they should confidently raise their concerns and know they can do so without fear.

Another good exercise is to update current processes through feedback. Recommendations can come from regular focus groups, individual interviews and surveys, where employees can actively participate and suggest improvements.

5. Adequate training to enforce positive safety attitudes

WSH reports suggest the construction industry is one of the most dangerous work environments to work in. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)  even has a set of standards specifically and solely for construction. It is one of the four major groups under OSHA standards. It is imperative then that training and workshops must be provided and conducted frequently, at the least annually, to remind employees of the company's safety policies, procedures, and hazards at the site and safe work practices.

6. Inspection, Monitoring, and Evaluation

After implementing safety standards and keeping workers abreast of policies, it is also crucial to monitor and review the current processes. Conduct safety inspections always to check if all preventive measures are effective and put in place. Create a list of actionable points from each inspection exercise and make sure that these are addressed thoroughly. At the end of the evaluation process, the learning points should be shared internally to acquire new safety information and increase safety awareness.

7. Consider AI technology for workplace safety

Safety officers spend a lot of time and effort conducting safety checks around the workplace. These manual patrols and tedious documentation are time-consuming, prone to human error, and unstandardized. AI-powered video analytics technology can solve such issues. By integrating the AI software into the worksite's existing cameras, it can detect anomalies, understand human behavior and send real-time alerts when a violation is detected. Safety officers can advise workers timely on safety breaches while enforcing rules and regulations to keep everyone safe at work. This reduces the workload and number of accidents on site.

In Invigilo Technologies , we believe that our behavior-based technology can save human lives at the workplace. Our video analytics software SAFEKEY can detect 90% of common hazards. These use cases are readily applicable to key industries; manufacturing, maritime, logistics, warehousing, etc.

Developing positive safety attitudes takes time, but fostering it will reap benefits in the long run to improve the workplace safety culture. It supports a zero-accident and risk-free work environment. Most importantly, it provides peace of mind for safety officers, knowing that safety standards are carried out to make workers safe at all times.

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