Safety Audit in the Construction Industry
Introduction
The construction industry in various nations has put in place safety management frameworks and auditing structures to upgrade its workers' safety and maintain safety standards. Reacting to the need to improve safety measures, critical industrial players have proposed key measurements and access to their current or ongoing safety interventions to protect workers. Most of the safety auditors in the construction industry use various steps to ensure that construction sites are safe from harm. Some carry out an analytical analysis of the area, followed by a thorough assessment of the environment before any work can proceed (Dessler, 2018). This paper will demonstrate the safety level on a construction site by reviewing a checklist containing complex core issues on safety.
Construction Safety Measures
According to OSHA standards, every construction site, falls are responsible for two-thirds of the fatal accidents in the industrial sector. If a construction industry has two or more people working more than 6 feet above the ground, the company must offer the worker's safety gear to ensure their safety in case of a fall. Based on this particular statement, most construction workers are geared up whenever they work above 6 feet. Even though some of the gears might seem worn out, the workers donned them, indicating that the construction industry follows through with the workers' safety regulations. Also, some workers lack a fitting harness to keep them from falling. More so, some of the construction sites lack lifelines or guard rails to prevent accidental falls from occurring.
One of the unique mechanisms used for ensuring that workers remain safe in the ever-changing construction site is setting up communication systems. From observation, most construction sites enact communication systems depending on the size of the site. Even though overlooking an elaborate communication network is risky to the workers. Communication systems at construction sites are often ignored because they assume that they can shout at each other and communicate whatever they want to without harming each other. However, sometimes, accidents can occur due to miscommunication (Dessler, 2018). For example, according to OSHA standard guidelines, communication systems are meant to ensure construction workers are well informed of any hazardous chemicals on construction sites or even workspace. Employers are to mark dangerous chemicals and communicate with the workers.
Identified Risks in the Construction Industry
Even though workers are aware of the safety measures to keep them safe from harm, their behavior cannot keep them safe. Most construction workers are not concerned about the safety of other workers or even their own. Thus, their employers have not raised enough awareness of how they should conduct themselves in security matters while on site. For example, some workers assume that fellow workers can handle the same amount of workers as them hence overloading the wheelbarrows and other trolleys. On the other hand, the construction industry deals with incomplete contracts, among other numerous issues. More so, construction is a risky venture. Each construction project has its problems and dangers (Wasilkiewicz et al., 2016). Defining common challenges in construction sites might help to anticipate or even mitigate the risks. For instance, in some construction industry, protective gear is not compulsory, while in some, protective gears are available but not worn consistently. Careful management and implementation of projects often lead to the misinterpretation of safety regulations. Sometimes the performance or the project setting might lead to more safety issues because the employer might fail to put safety measures in place. While working, most workers are not supervised hence increasing chances of accidents occurring while on site. The construction industry also lacks a detailed, consistent manner of assessing whether the workers adhered to the safety measurements outlined. In addition, construction sites do not have marked entry and exit openings. People assume that they can pass through any door. Nature and grit associated with construction sites make the job ignore safety measures because they seem petty compared to the physicality of the actual appointment. Thus, on the site, the workers often do not adhere to the construction rules and guidelines as stipulated by construction companies, which reveals no reliable connection between the company and the workforce sent on the site. In other words, the risk factors are connected to site conditions, type of building materials used, and unanticipated risks. Sometimes the construction industry experiences a reduced workforce, forcing the companies to overwork the rest of the personnel (Wasilkiewicz et al., 2016). Whenever these risks manifest in long and short-term impacts, workers might die, or the project might stall. In the long run, some of the defined risks need to be mitigated to save lives and enable people to carry out their work effectively.
Safety Recommendations
The first step is creating a conducive working space where the workers can foster a safety zone while working. This can be enabled by supervising the workers and advising them to adhere to the stipulated rules and regulations on construction matters. Most of the workers need to work under close supervision so that they can conform to all the laws. Many people are termed as effective if they work in unison and follow all the safety measurements based on the regulations (Schwatka et al., 2016). More so, all the workers are supposed to be trained on matters about safety measures and awareness on how to handle accidents so that in the long run. Secondly, all the workers are to wear protective gear at all times so that they can prevent an accident from fatally injuring them. More so, given the conditions under which construction, the project should begin after an induction. Lack of installation might cause an unforeseeable accident to occur from time to time. Hence, everyone should be familiar with the job's manner and how each position should be handled during the entire working session. An induction will also determine the safety measurement people should follow once they are working on the site.
Furthermore, the inauguration informs when to start and when to regularly leave the job, hence providing enough insight into how the job should be handled in the long run. An additional recommendation that is often overlooked is keeping the construction site clean. The debris should be collected and then disposed of off the site (Dessler, 2018). An untidy site often misleads and causes missteps to occur hence may lead to an accident. A messy site can only generate more openings for the occurrence of accidents. A tidy construction site marks the safety sites, and the no go zones for the workers. In terms of maintaining safety, the supervisor should mark all the dangerous places in the site in order to prevent accidental slip up or falls. This way, all workers can design places to work and where to avoid in the long run.
Conclusion
The construction industry dynamic projects has resulted in the creation of more than one safety measurements. For instance the organizations should provide safety gears to workers operating beyond 6 feet above the ground level. Also, all the workers are to be inducted and oriented before the work begins. Construction works has to label the construction site so that all the workers can identity danger zones.
References
Dessler, G., (2018). Human Resource Management 16th ed.
Schwatka, N. V., Hecker, S., & Goldenhar, L. M. (2016). Defining and measuring safety climate: a review of the construction industry literature. Annals of occupational hygiene, 60(5), 537-550.
Teo, A. L. E., Ofori, G., Tjandra, I. K., & Kim, H. (2016). Design for safety: theoretical framework of the safety aspect of BIM system to determine the safety index. Construction Economics and Building, 16(4), 1.
Wasilkiewicz, K., Albrechtsen, E., & Antonsen, S. (2016). Occupational safety in a globalized construction industry: a study on Polish workers in Norway. Policy and Practice in Health and Safety, 14(2), 128-143.
