Answer:
“Title: The role of the Construction Manager in ensuring safety on site”
The construction industry plays a major role in economic development. It is the main contributor of gross domestic products in most countries. Apart from this, it is very important to consider that many construction activities are risky, including activities such as working at significant heights, working in confined spaces, manual handling of loads, handling hazardous substances and many other activities. At construction sites, it can be seen that construction managers play a significant role in promoting the health and safety on sites. A common myth in the construction industry is that health and safety are measured in terms of costs (Golovina, Jochen and Nipesh 2016). It is the responsibility of construction managers to ensure that correct health and safety measures are provided to all the employees as it will assist them in increasing employee productivity, enhancing their morale and boosting overall profitability of construction operations. These managers continuously strive to implement effective safety practices by enhancing the safety culture in order to reduce the work-related injuries in risky environment of construction industry.
In constriction industry, it is a significant task of managers to ensure the safety of staff as it is very dangerous. This industry is among the top three industries in terms of workers fatalities. As per the given data, it can be stated that workplace death is a significant problem for the broader economy and for construction sites. The below table shows that in the year 2016, the workers’ fatality rate in construction sector is 19% (Safe Work Australia, 2016). However, the rate has been decreased from past years. Thus, construction Managers have a responsibility to take on a proactive role, implement all necessary health and safety policies to avoid any accidents. There are various roles which are needed to be played by construction managers for ensuring health safety.
(Source: Safe Work Australia, 2016)
In order to overcome these issues and reduce the fatality rates in this industry, the construction managers have some significant roles. One of the major roles of manager is to conduct effective training and development programs for new workers on sites. It is their responsibility to determine and implement the overall health and safety policies on the construction site. Adequate health and safety depends on the actions of managers in promoting correct health and safety on site. The construction manager is ultimately responsible for handling situations and reducing the incidence of unfortunate accidents on building sites (Patel, et al, 2018). There are various cases in which it has been seen that workers are died on sites due to lack of information on the correct use of tools and machines. So, it is vital for the top management to make sure that their workers have a complete knowledge about utilization of resources and machines. It is the responsibility of managers to ask the top management for conducting training for fresher workers and encourage them to work safely. A manager should provide guidance regarding health and safety procedures, in order to eliminate hazards before they result in serious accidents (Mushayi, Claire and John 2017). They need to ensure that correct processes are used to make sure that there are no accidents and work injuries.
Managers can take preventive steps to raise awareness of safety on site, in order to reduce the number of accidents and the death rate of workers on sites. In order to achieve this, managers organise Construction Induction Training (CIT). This type of training has been a good step in improving safety awareness among staff (Bahn and Barratt-Pugh 2013). Occupational Safety and Health Regulations 1996 provided some compulsory requirements for this training for the employees who are engaged in construction work. While hiring new workers, it is the responsibility of managers to make sure that they have proof of having construction induction training in this sector (Ganah and Godfaurd 2015). In this way, conducting this training can help the managers to reduce the accidents and workplace deaths in construction industry.
Moreover, inspection of construction sites is another important role of construction managers to promote health and safety (Zhou, Goh, Li, 2015). These inspections can be conducted on a daily, weekly or monthly basis on construction sites. It is a routine work of managers to audit the sites and analyse the health and safety of employees on sites. Some managers also conduct weekly inspections, in which they record the results and take any corrective actions needed to ensure safety on the site. These inspections help to reduce the number of accidents (Tetrick, Perrewé and Griffin 2017). It is observed that managers analyse the results of safety inspections or audits. The manager usually takes photographs of unsafe conditions on sites, and brings these photographs to the attention of subcontractors in order to highlight any actions that need to be taken regarding health and safety. The managers do this to protect workers from potential accidents. Analysis of unsafe conditions is useful for making workers aware of any potential hazards and encouraging them to perform their work safely (Zhou, Goh, Li, 2015). Photographs of unsafe conditions help to spread awareness and create a powerful image of potential threats in the minds of workers. Inspection on a weekly and monthly basis protects workers from potential accidents and keeps contractors aware on construction sites (Holt and Allen 2015).
In addition to above, construction managers play a crucial role in preparing Personal Protection Program for workers. A Personal Protection Program is necessary to develop a safe working environment that protects workers from accidents. The construction manager makes the plan to ensure the safety of a site. However, a Personal Protection Program is necessary to undertake this plan (Choudhry, Fang and Ahmed, 2008). It is the responsibility of the Construction Manager to analyse the quality of equipment available on the jobsite. The Construction Manager must ensure the appropriate use of PPE by all workers on construction sites. The construction manager also carries out regular inspections of PPE in order to reduce the use of defective equipment. The manager is responsible for preparing the checklist for inspections, equipment that needs to be replaced, and for any follow up required to ensure the safety of workers. The managers are also responsible for providing adequate information regarding the correct use of PPE during the training period (Choudhary, Fang and Ahmed 2008). It is also required that workers who use equipment shall be recorded and compared to the actual standards set by the contractor. This is an important measure for avoiding potential accidents and injuries in areas involving factors such as the use of dangerous chemicals or working in areas of great height. To reduce the risk of accidents, the Construction Manager trains the worker in the area of hazard communication in order to ensure that every worker is aware of the information on the chemicals listed on the labels. It is the responsibility of the manager to ensure that banners are placed on dangerous sides of work locations so that they can prevent them from going to that side and being involved in potential accidents (Zhang et.al 2015).
Furthermore, it can be stated that at construction sites, the managers have the role of organizing safety talks during the rest times of workers. In order to reduce the risk of accidents, it is necessary to provide instruction to workers on safety matters during meetings with the workers. Jobsite training, meetings and inspections/audits are all required to make the subcontractor aware of who is failing to meet the required standards on the worksite (Holt and Allen 2015). It is required that activities on the jobsite are to be suspended until the subcontractor implements successful safety measures. Suspending activities is a necessary step for reducing accidents. Some managers make a record of the number of issues that arise so that they can increase the awareness about accidental risks on construction sites. It is evident that managers talking to workers about the number of accidents and potential issues that have come to their attention are beneficial for the workers in encouraging them to prevent future accidents. Discussing these issues on the work site helps to raise awareness among the workers and encourages them to take steps to prevent further incidences (Wang, Sijie and Jochen 2015).
Thus, it can be concluded that construction managers have vital role in encouraging health and safety on construction sites. There are different types of risks which the employees confront while working on sites. So, it is very important for the managers to take actions to reduce the accidental risks. They play significant role in different aspects like conducting training programs, communicating the issues, preparing PPE and inspecting the construction sites. It is very important for the managers that they understand that construction industry is very challenging. So, they should take serious actions to prevent the workers and reduce the workplace death rate in construction industry. They can guide the workers in context of handling of hazardous chemicals and utilization of machines that will lead the site towards reduction of serious injuries and deaths. They are engaged in developing different policies and regulations so that they can improve the conditions of sites. They need to ensure that all the employees are complying with the regulations and policies. In this way, construction managers play a substantial role in ensuring the health and safety of workers on construction sites.
References
Bahn, Susanne T., and Llandis G. Barratt-Pugh. 2013. “Improving Safety Culture: The Impact Of The Construction Induction Training On The Construction Industry In Western Australia.” Paper presented at 27th AIRAANZ Conference, Fremantle, Australia, February 6-8. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1390&context=ecuworks2013.
Choudhry, Rafiq M., Dongping Fang, and Syed M. Ahmed. 2008. “Safety Management in Construction: Best Practices in Hong Kong.” Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice 134 (1): 20–32. doi:10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2008)134:1(20).
Ganah, Abdulkadir, and Godfaurd A. John. 2015. “Integrating Building Information Modeling and Health and Safety for Onsite Construction.” Safety and Health at Work 6 (1): 39–45. doi:10.1016/j.shaw.2014.10.002.
Golovina, Olga, Jochen Teizer, and Nipesh Pradhananga. 2016. “Heat Map Generation for Predictive Safety Planning: Preventing Struck-by and near Miss Interactions between Workers-on-Foot and Construction Equipment.” Automation in Construction 71: 99–115. doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2016.03.008.
Holt, Allan St. John, and Jim Allen. 2015. Principles of Health and Safety at Work. 8th ed. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Mushayi, Tafadzwa, Claire Deacon, and John Smallwood. 2018. “The Effectiveness of Health and Safety Training and Its Impact on Construction Workers’ Attitudes, and Perceptions.” 8th International Conference on Engineering, Project, and Product Management (EPPM 2017), 235-244. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-74123-9_25.
Patel, Dhruvi D., Neeraj D. Sharma, Neetu B. Yadav, and Hiren Rathod. 2018. “Recognition of Safety & Health Issues to Improve Safe Working Environment at Construction Projects.” Journal of Recent Activities in Infrastructure Science 3 (1). https://matjournals.in/index.php/JoRAIS/article/view/2337/0.
Safe Work Australia. 2016. Work Related Traumatic Injury Fatalities. Canberra, Australia: Safe Work Australia. https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1710/work-related-traumatic-injury-fatalities-report-2016.pdf.
Tetrick, L., P. Perrewé, and Mark Griffin. 2017. “Employee work-related health, stress, and safety.” In Handbook of employee selection, James L. Farr and Nancy T. Tippins, eds., 530-553. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317426387.
Wang, Jun, Sijie Zhang, and Jochen Teizer. 2015. “Geotechnical and Safety Protective Equipment Planning Using Range Point Cloud Data and Rule Checking in Building Information Modeling.” Automation in Construction 49: 250-261. doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2014.09.002.
Zhang, Sijie, Kristiina Sulankivi, Markku Kiviniemi, Ilkka Romo, Charles M. Eastman, and Jochen Teizer. 2015. “BIM-Based Fall Hazard Identification and Prevention in Construction Safety Planning.” Safety Science 72: 31–45. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2014.08.001.
Zhou, Zhipeng, Yang Miang Goh, and Qiming Li. 2015. “Overview and analysis of safety management studies in the construction industry.” Safety science 72: 337-350.
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