What are the main types of hazards in construction?
In 2019/20, the HSE reported the deaths of 40 construction workers, with 81,000 others suffering from work-related ill health. Construction workers are exposed to a range of hazards that can increase their risk of injury or death. Risks to construction staff include falls from height, machinery malfunctions, electrocution, falling objects, and structural collapses – to name a few.
To keep your construction site safe, read our guide to lone working.
As an employer, it may be tempting to cut corners to save money; but with workplace-related injuries being the cause of over 1.6 million lost workdays annually, it’s in everybody’s best interest to prioritize construction site safety.
What are the main causes of death on construction sites?
What are the main causes of injury on construction sites?
Download our free guide to lone worker safety to find out more about protecting your staff
How do you improve health and safety in construction sites?
There are several ways to improve health and safety in your workplace, and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. We’ve put together 7 essential questions that need to be asked to make sure construction workers are safe at work.
1. Do your employees wear the correct protective gear?
Wearing the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) could mean the difference between a minor injury and a long-term injury or even a fatality.
It’s important to provide your employees with the appropriate PPE relative to the type of work being carried out. This can include helmets, ear protection, safety goggles, knee pads, and hi-vis jackets. If they become worn or unfit for purpose, they need to be replaced immediately. Make sure they wear them, too!
2. Is scaffolding correctly constructed and maintained?
When erecting scaffolding, there should be no shortcuts or improvisations. It should be built on stable ground with solid footing to eradicate the risk of it collapsing. Be sure to maintain and repair any damage or inconsistencies in the structure, as well as ensure that all employees using the scaffolding have an adequate level of scaffolding safety training; falls from height account for 47% of construction worker injuries.
3. Do all employees have the right health & safety training?
Construction workers operating in high and medium-risk environments are required to have sufficient construction health and safety training. They should be fully competent and aware of the risks associated with their actions, especially when working at height, with machinery, or in confined spaces. It is also advised that they have an appropriate awareness of first aid and can administer basic life-saving techniques if necessary.
4. Are all signs on your site displayed clearly?
Construction sites are full of potential dangers, not just for workers but for the public too. It’s important to highlight any hazards with signs and posters, warning everyone nearby to take precautions. Signs are a cost-effective way of reducing accidents, which could indicate dangers such as falling objects, turning large vehicles, or the presence of gas/chemicals.
5. Are your employees making the right use of technology?
In today’s technological world, almost every adult in the UK owns a mobile phone and a majority of these are smartphones.
A lone worker safety device is a discreet tool, which allows employers to locate employees quickly and easily in an emergency and send immediate help. The EcoOnline Lone Worker App offers life-saving features including a panic button, check-in, low signal mode, and low battery reminders.
Lone Worker gives employers visibility of the location and safety status of lone workers during a period of lone work or travel and allows them to check in safely once they have finished this session.
If an employee fails to check in safely during a session or raises a panic alert in the app, monitoring agents, either within the organization or at an external monitoring service, will be immediately alerted. They will quickly verify the alert and dispatch the appropriate assistance to the employee.
The app also features a man down alarm that will send an alert through the hub if a lone worker has not moved for a prolonged period and may have had an accident and be unable to call for help. Lone working devices are an excellent way to enhance construction site safety and protect staff that may be working in potentially high-risk sites.
6. Do you make sure tools and equipment are inspected regularly?
Construction workers rely on their tools to work efficiently and get jobs done. If their tools are unsafe or broken, there are higher risks of serious accidents including the loss of limbs. Around 2.8% of workers in the construction sector suffered from an injury in 2019/20 – statistically, this is significantly higher than the all-industry injury rate.
Equipment should regularly be inspected to ensure there are no equipment malfunctions or defects. It is both the responsibility of the worker and the employer to highlight issues with defective equipment.
7. Does everyone on your construction site communicate clearly?
Communication is a major factor in keeping employees safe. Staff should communicate with each other and with any alternative party if they identify potential risks. Those working onsite should be aware of existing potential hazards but also have a conscious awareness of other dangers.
HSE guidance states employers must check in with lone workers and keep in touch. Make sure staff clearly understand any systems and procedures used which can include:
– when supervisors should visit and observe lone workers
– knowing where lone workers are, with pre-agreed intervals of regular contact, using phones, radios, email, etc
– other devices for raising the alarm, operated manually or automatically
– a reliable system to ensure a lone worker has returned to their base once they have completed their task
All systems and emergency procedures should be regularly tested to ensure lone workers can be contacted if a problem or emergency is identified.
How do you manage health and safety hazards in the construction industry?
Ensuring safe practices not only protects employees on site but also facilitates reliable construction processes and successful project completion. Make the following questions part of your regular project planning to manage health and safety hazards on your construction site. For more construction health and safety tips, take a look at the HSE guide to Managing Construction Health Risks.
What are construction workers’ responsibilities for health and safety?
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 from HSE state that workers must:
– only carry out construction work if they have the relevant skills, knowledge, training, and experience – or they are provided with the training and supervision that enables them to do it safely and without risk to health
– make themselves aware of the health and safety risks involved in work on every site and the way those risks are managed
– always follow site rules and procedures
– cooperate with other duty holders, such as the contractor in control of their work and the principal contractor (who controls the overall project when there is more than one contractor)
– report any risks they find to whoever controls the work on site, whether the risks affect their own health and safety or anyone else, including other workers and members of the public
What are the legal responsibilities for safety on construction sites?
Construction site supervisors or managers have the moral and legal responsibility to monitor the safety of their workforce. They are responsible for ensuring that all jobs are correctly planned and monitored and that everything possible is done to ensure that no one is hurt on the job. Legal responsibilities include:
– thorough risk assessments
– working practice guidelines for work undertaken such as working from height guidelines
– the correct tools, safety gear, and training to complete the job
– undertaking CITB Site Supervisor Safety Training
This HSE flowchart outlines the roles and responsibilities of managers and workers to maintain safety on your construction site.
How do you manage construction site safety?
Employees should be regularly asked about what they think could make their job safer and have the opportunity to report any accidents or near-misses. Staff do not always feel comfortable reporting an accident at work – so it is important that you create a positive safety culture in your workplace. To ensure that you comply with health and safety legislation, you should also ensure that you have completed thorough risk assessments for all your places of work.
As part of your risk assessment, you may find you need to provide a better way for your construction workers to communicate with you and be located quickly in an emergency.
How can technology help construction site safety?
Technology is the simplest way to ensure construction worker safety; with options including a mobile app, integrated wearable tech, and satellite tracking, the StaySafe Lone Worker app is trusted by construction companies worldwide to keep their employees safe.
Site safety is easily monitored through the lone worker hub, providing you with real-time updates on the safety status of your lone workers. Construction workers can easily raise distress signals using the mobile app on their phones, and the app can also be paired with a range of discrete panic alarms which can also be worn or carried by staff.
The app also provides 16% more signal coverage than any other app via our low signal mode, which comes as standard for all app users. When low signal mode is active, the app only needs a 2G connection to maintain communications with the monitoring hub. In addition, missed check-in alerts still signal in the Hub even if the employee has lost signal coverage completely.
Monitoring and escalation of alerts can be done in-house by the trust or at a team level or outsourced to our 24/7 professional monitoring partners. Ensuring a smooth rollout and high usage levels of the app is also taken care of by our dedicated Customer Success Team.
The EcoOnline Lone Worker App and cloud-based monitoring hub are used by hundreds of clients and tens of thousands of users worldwide who testify to its ease of use, reliability, and flexibility.
