Civil Engineer Expert

Written by Barbara Mulhern

For Roger Friede, saving more than $12,000 per employee in workers’ compensation premium costs over the past ten years only partially explains his strong commitment to safety.

How Your Construction Company Can Make Safety Pay

Friede, president of Friede & Associates, LLC, a thirty-employee commercial construction firm in Reedsburg, WI, says what drives him the most in emphasizing safety is that “I don’t ever want to have to explain to somebody why that person’s father or husband isn’t coming home that night.”

On May 15, 2009, Friede’s company, which has never had a job-related fatality, celebrated six and a half years with no lost-time incidents. In an industry where serious hazards are an everyday part of the job, Friede & Associates’ example shows that making safety part of your company’s corporate culture can significantly reduce costs and save lives.

“Most people look at small businesses and see safety as being challenging because of resource issues. This is understandable. They are resource limited,” said Mei-Li Lin, executive director of research and statistical services at the National Safety Council. “However, small businesses are a lot more sensitive to safety and health outcomes. If there is an injury, they do not have the luxury of having somebody to replace the injured person. Also, every loss has a huge impact on small businesses.”

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Are your company vehicles incidental or primary to the business? Do they cost too much money to operate or are they actually a benefit to your overall business operations?

Construction Vehicles: Assets or Liabilities?

There are two distinct groups of company vehicles-primary and incidental. The primary vehicles are those that can be used to generate income for your business by being able to establish charges for their usage, which is billed to the customer. Incidental fleets or vehicles are those units that generate no operating charges, yet are essential for company personnel to conduct business, such as those company-owned vehicles that are assigned to job foremen, superintendents, project engineers, sales, maintenance staff or material delivery personnel.

These vehicles may be costing your company more than the fuel, insurance and upkeep that it takes to maintain them. Did you know that in addition to the normal expected costs, job-related vehicle accidents are the leading cause of work-related fatalities and lost-time injuries, which cost companies millions of dollars in additional expenses? Your company may have a safety program in place with policies and procedures intended to protect your employees from workplace hazards and exposures related to the job activities associated with your operations. But does your company safety program, or risk control measures, address the necessary steps to afford the same level of controls and protection for the company vehicles that are provided to employees in order to carry out their day-to-day activities?

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Low Cost Ways to Improve Construction Safety

Unfortunately, in today’s economic climate many construction companies face diminishing revenues and uncertain future. As a result, budgets tighten and many initiatives, including those for safety, are put on hold or cut. However, it’s important to realize that significant safety improvement does not require substantial investment.

To be effective, safety must be managed like any other company function, regardless of economic conditions. Safety, quality and productivity must be held in constructive tension with one another. Focus on just any two and the third suffers. When production and quality control budgets are adjusted, the safety budget must be equally affected. Balance is the proven driving force behind success.

In searching for the most effective and time-tested method of improving safety, the traditional process found in all safety programs is based on compliance. Focus is on the minimum safe standards established by OSHA or industry best practices.

Focusing on compliance, the safety program stands alone, and safety is seen in the field as “something else we have to do.” Construction personnel, management and crafts-level employees are paid based on performance. When employees choose between productivity and safety, safety loses.
A New Foundation

Successful safety efforts must begin with active involvement of craft-level personnel with activities that are meaningful to the individual. Increasing employee participation in the safety process is the common denominator of sustained, continuous improvement efforts. This is the antithesis of the management by decree or directive methodology. It is also my experience that, although widely used, the directive method is the least productive.

Consider the following example, and ask yourself which has the potential for long-lasting change.

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Introduction to Health and Safety in Construction covers the specific challenges faced by the construction industry as well as the basics of occupational safety and health in general. The coverage of this book has been directly matched to the Certificate course in Construction Safety and Health from NEBOSH.

Health and Safety in Construction,

However, the comprehensive coverage of health and safety topics in a construction context make it relevant for other courses in Construction Design and Management, Construction Safety and Health, and the Built Environment, both in the UK and overseas, as well as for construction professionals who are looking for an introduction to health and safety which addresses the specific problems encountered in their industry.

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While there are many things important to concrete construction, such as quality work and making a profit, safety must always be the No. 1 priority. For that reason, we are starting with safety to emphasize its importance as critical to a successful project.

Most accidents are preventable. Accidents are often due to carelessness and not thinking through what you are doing. You MUST plan for safety. The following list of things to watch out for on a concrete construction jobsite is not intended to be comprehensive. It does, however, serve to alert you to some of the more common safety in concrete construction:

* Fresh concrete can cause eye injuries and skin burns. When working with fresh concrete, wear protective clothing (a long-sleeved shirt, rubber boots, and rubber gloves) and eye protection to avoid getting fresh concrete on your skin or in your eyes. If you do get fresh concrete on your skin, wash it off with clean water. And remember that the tool clean-off bucket is not clean water.

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Quality control and Construction Safety represent increasingly important concerns for project managers.

 Weak quality control leads to defects or failures in constructed facilities, thus result in very large costs. Even with minor defects, re-construction may be required and facility operations impaired. Increased costs and delays are the result. In the worst case, failures may cause personal injuries or fatalities. Accidents during the construction process can similarly result in personal injuries and large costs. Indirect costs of insurance, inspection and regulation are increasing rapidly due to these increased direct costs. Good project managers try to ensure that the job is done right the first time and that no major accidents occur on the project.

As with cost control, the most important decisions regarding the quality of a completed facility are made during the design and planning stages rather than during construction. It is during these preliminary stages that component configurations, material specifications and functional performance are decided. Quality control during construction consists largely of insuring conformance to these original design and planning decisions.
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