Regular and consistent site safety assessments, consisting of both safe and unsafe observations, completed by a trained inspector provide the basis for the program’s safety performance metric.We recommend that:
- Assessments are comprehensive of all trades and tasks, and are conducted on a regular basis (a minimum of one per week; ideally, daily).
- Assessments focus on both the safe and unsafe physical working conditions and practices.
- All unsafe working conditions or practices observed during walkthroughs are discussed with all involved and a plan for fixing the situation is established immediately. Follow up observations should be conducted to ensure that the plan has been implemented.
Regular communication of safety performance to foremen and workers is the key component of the program.
We recommend that:
- A summary report of all safety observations for each subcontractor is distributed to foremen ideally within 24 hours of the assessment. Foremen are strongly encouraged to share and discuss the observations with their workers;
- The overall site safety score are announced publicly at least once per week when all workers are present; and,
- Site safety scores, including both the overall site score and individual subcontractor scores, are tracked weekly on a centrally located poster on-site.
The whole site is recognized if and when the site safety score exceeds the safety threshold score at the end of a month. Your site will establish a threshold safety score that is based on inspection data from previous sites of similar size and scope (see Generating your site’s safety threshold score). You can determine what reward would most interest workers at your site.
We recommend the following three-part reward:
- An all-site lunch that enables public recognition of the entire team’s commitment to meeting a high standard of safety performance;
- A “high value” reward such as a raffle for a free one-month parking pass at a nearby lot or a gift card; and,
- Foremen certificates from site management that recognize the foremen’s role in leading a team with high safety performance. A copy of this certificate can be sent to the foreman’s company office.