Fostering HSE in construction: Omar Rashid, BSI Group

Apart from the enormous grief caused by accidents, there are a lot of undesired expenses that crop up in the form of treatment, downtime, and repairs. In the construction industry (where accidents have been fairly common), health and safety (HSE) concerns have always been paramount. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the US, the leading causes of worker deaths on construction sites were falls, followed by struck by object, electrocution, and caught-in/between. These common death causes are popularly known as the “Fatal Four” in OSHA, and have been responsible for more than half of the construction worker deaths in 2013.

Job-sites are complex environments, with workers from multiple trades interacting in challenging physical environment. One of the best ways to avoid injuries and minimise costs is through good planning and co-ordination — both before and on the job. This should start with the conception of the project and follow through all the stages, along with the parties associated with the work. The size of the job doesn’t matter — the system does.

In order to increase the adoption of safety practices in the industry, players from across the industry must engage in promoting the use of safety management practices. Here are five ways to implement HSE in a construction worksite:

1) Avoid the risk by eliminating the hazard through conducting risk identifications and assessment in order to identify all the relevant hazards proactively and set necessary control to eliminate the risk of injury.

2) Substitute the cause of the hazards with something less hazardous. Such practices are usually introduced during the design and work planning stage where the selection of material or equipment is done considering the reduction of risks.

3) Provide engineering controls during the work design phase as the aim is to reduce the potential risk at the source.

4) Maintaining reports such as safe job practices, codes of practice, and safety procedures, all of which indicate safe methods of carrying out tasks. All these forms of reports are used as references where workers can always refer to. The availability of these documents are vital for implementing them effectively.

5) Provide the right personal protective equipment to employees, making sure they are used properly to reduce the impact of the hazards (and thus reducing the risk of injury). This control is always considered as the last line of defence.

The above controls are the most commonly referred to when aiming at protecting employees. However, in order to gain the most effective impact of these controls further systems are essential. Systems including:

• Management leadership through conducting regular safety meetings at various levels of the organisation, with a strong emphasis on communication and ensuring provision of necessary resources.
• Promoting safety practices through involvement of workers in hazard identification and risk assessments, conducting site specific training programmes for workers, appointment of safety personnel on site, promoting near miss reporting and conducting safety audits and regular inspections.
• Project safety through developing site specific health and safety plans, establishing measurable safety goals and objectives, tracking leading safety metrics, utilising effective policies and procedures, and implementing safety mitigation in the design process.
• The integration of construction safety with construction quality when reviewing project results and performance metrics. Doing re-work as a result of low quality job means exposing the workers to more hazards. Furthermore, injuries at the worksite mean stoppages and delays of the job which is a negative quality indicator.

Investing in strong HSE management programmes and adopting safe practices not only reduces injuries on job-sites, but also gives an overall positive impact on the business with better control over construction activity.