Last edited 01 Mar 2021

Safety management

Construction companies use a wide range of safety practices as part of their safety management programmes, with an increasing emphasis on creating a safety culture throughout the organisation.

Some of the practices that can be employed on projects to manage safety include:

Involving workers in the safety process, through toolbox talks, safety briefings, site inductions, offering safety incentives, and so on.
Analysis of potential site safety hazards during the preconstruction phase.
Adopting the principles of prevention: avoid risks where possible; evaluate those risks that cannot be avoided; put in place measures that control them at source.
Encouraging an open-door policy for workers to report accidents, injuries, hazards and near misses.
Conducting thorough near miss and incident investigations to ensure effective action is taken.
Employing specific personnel assigned to manage safety.
Designating health and safety duties to on-site staff, such as a first aider.
Conducting regular project safety audits.
Developing a site-specific health and safety plan.
Site specific training programmes for workers and subcontractors.
Proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Safety management is a very broad subject. Some of the articles on Designing Buildings Wiki that provide an introduction to the practices, principles and regulations involved include: