The risk of increasing costs is firmly at the forefront of construction firm’s minds, keeping tight control over the purse strings is more important than ever. One of the best ways to do this is to make sure that they have processes in place so that they can escape any potentially expensive pitfalls caused by avoidable mistakes.

Here are our top tips on avoiding four of the most common mistakes in construction.

1 – Scope creep

Of all of the expensive issues that are likely to arise on a construction project, scope creep is undoubtedly one of the worst. Scope creep is defined as expansion or changes to the initial scope of the project that takes it beyond what was initially intended. There are a number of factors that can contribute towards scope creep. These include:

• Poorly defined scope to begin with, with not enough emphasis on details.
• Incomplete plans and specifications.
• Poor communication between the owner and construction company.
• Mismanagement of change orders.
• Project owners changing their mind about what they want.

While not every change order will necessarily result in additional costs or extensions to the project timeframe, there is no doubting that some do, adding thousands of dollars or weeks of work to an already tightly budgeted and scheduled project.

The best way to prevent scope creep is to ensure that your construction project contract clearly states how any work that falls outside of the original scope should be requested and documented. Insist that the request is authorized by the client, and agree, in writing, on any additional costs and extensions to the project timeline before any work commences.

2 – Failure to document workers on a project

Although construction sites are primarily manual workplaces, just like any other business, there is a lot of administration involved in keeping things running smoothly. One of these is documenting the actual workers who are carrying out the project. Subcontractors come in many shapes and forms, but each should be properly trained, certified and onboarded before being let loose on the site. The reason for this is simple – safety. A worker who hasn’t achieved the right qualifications and who hasn’t had the necessary training is a huge risk, both to themselves and to other people around them.

The nature of construction work means that site offices are often set up in a hurry, which can make organising the paperwork and documentation needed to comply with regulations, keep records of procedures and safety checks and communicate with your team extremely difficult. Failing to monitor the hours of workers accurately is another common pitfall in construction. Unless they are logged on the day, every day, it can be hard for workers to remember the times that they worked. Since they are more likely to over-estimate than underestimate, it could add unexpected costs to your construction project.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be. Technology can take much of the administrative strain out of construction projects and help business owners to avoid potentially expensive financial pitfalls associated with poor organisation. For example, ���Ĵ�ý is an SAAS solution that provides a single, central and accessible place for all documentation, from safety certificates and worker compliance records to onboarding information, videos and more. ���Ĵ�ý can be accessed anytime, from anywhere in the world and enables safety teams to easily see if worker documents, qualifications are expiring soon so they can address it before it happens. This also helps to avoid project delays that could cost you time and money. Meanwhile, ���Ĵ�ý integrations can control site access, making sure that only people who should be on site are and keeping accurate records of hours worked.

3 – Failing to qualify subcontractors

Pre-qualification is an important process that ensures that you’ve selected the best possible subcontractors for your construction projects. Great construction firms have detailed prequalification processes that not only help them to choose the right subcontractors, but that also help them to mitigate risk. One of the best measures of a company’s safety record is their EMR – experience modification rating. EMR is a number that insurance companies use to gauge both the costs incurred due to past injuries and the chances of any future risk.

Mistakes on construction sites are extremely expensive, especially when they relate to health and safety and the failure to properly qualify subcontractors. In May 2021, a and costs after a worker was injured when an air conditioning plant fell on him. It transpired that none of the workers had any formal training on carrying out lifting operations or slinging loads. The client was unaware that one of the contractors had subcontracted the construction work and hadn’t done their due diligence during qualification. Again, implementing a software solution like ���Ĵ�ý can be beneficial as once you’ve pre-qualified your contractors, all paperwork they’ve provided in relation to the pre-qualification can be uploaded, creating a central hub of records that can be referred to should you need to refer to them.

4 – Bidding mistakes

The financial success of some construction projects is won, or lost, before any workers have even set foot on site. Bidding is one of the most important aspects of any build, and good bid preparation is crucial if you are to accurately estimate costs and make a profit.

You need to make sure that you are carefully calculating measurements, materials and quantities, as well as the amount of labour required to finish the job. Inaccuracy will cause you to miscalculate the amount of materials and labour needed, and you could end up underestimating and then undercharging, leaving you out of pocket. Contractors also need to keep track of the estimated costs versus their actual costs, particularly during times of inflation.

Access is another important area to factor in, as many sites have unique conditions that result in additional expenses for things like transportation and equipment. Failure to account for these when creating your bid could cost you dearly, both in terms of paying out any additional access costs, as well as the time it takes to organize them.

While every construction company worries about unexpected costs, you can avoid expensive mistakes on construction projects by utilizing the tools that are available, including ���Ĵ�ý. Learn more about how top construction companies are using ���Ĵ�ý to eliminate paperwork and solve access control and badging issues.

The post How To Avoid 4 Expensive Pitfalls: Guidance for General Contractors appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

With such demand fuelling the industry, construction firms will need to prioritize hiring the skilled workforce needed, not only to meet it but to ensure that they maintain the highest levels of workmanship and quality. However, construction roles require a great deal of skill and training, meaning that you can’t just get anyone to fill the gaps in your workforce – far from it. With a limited talent pool available, how do you go about attracting talent in construction?��

And it’s not just hiring that you need to worry about. Retention should also be a priority, both for your existing workforce and any new employees that you plan to take on. This is because the hiring process in itself is time-consuming and expensive. A from the Society for Human Resource Management estimated that companies spend an average of 42 days to fill a position and spend approximately $4,129 per hire. That’s a LOT of money to waste if your new hire isn’t a good fit and doesn’t stick around for very long. The cost of hiring an employee also goes beyond just their salary but also includes the hiring process itself, training and development, benefits, and more.����

Here are 3 of the best ways to make sure you attract and retain talent in the construction industry.

Build an employee-focused culture

What is the focus of your workplace culture? Behind every great construction business is a team of dedicated and talented people who put in the hard graft to get the job done. With the team being the driving force behind your business, it’s crucial to invest in them and to build an employee-focused workplace culture if you are going to attract and retain candidates for your construction business.��

There are a huge number of ways in which you can build an employee-focused culture in your construction company. Here are just a few of them.

• Demonstrate that you value the safety of your workers. Safety is a controllable factor and one that should be at the forefront of every task performed on a construction site, no matter how menial. However, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t fit most worksites, and so it’s essential that safety training and PPE is accessible and inclusive across the entire workforce. For example, ���Ĵ�ý enables safety teams to upload onboarding and training documents in a variety of different languages – something which is very important for diverse construction crews. Meanwhile, companies like have launched tailor-made PPE for females working on construction sites.��
• Create goals and help your workforce to achieve them. Workers want to be employed by companies who are prepared to invest in them, and with the creation of many new innovations, techniques, and technologies, businesses need to ensure that their workplace is one of continued learning so that they can advance their most valuable asset – their people. By taking the time to identify what skills different employees want to and would benefit from learning, you don’t only increase the capabilities of your workforce, but you also increase the likelihood that they will stay with you. Research from , shows that 94% of employees would be prepared to stay in their current role for longer if they felt that the business invested in their professional development.��
• Communicate effectively with your employees. Poor communication is one of the most common complaints among workforces, particularly in industries where employees are spread over a wide area and do not spend much time, if any, in front of a screen. On a construction site, it can be particularly challenging to get information to workers, but they can quickly become frustrated if they are left in the dark. Make sure that you invest in the time and technology to communicate effectively with your workforce in whatever ways you identify as most effective. Use clear, simple words, positive body language (if delivering it in person), and make sure that your workers understand by following up with questions. Your employees will value your efforts to ensure that they are included and this reinforces the team ethos that should underpin your work environment.����

High-caliber candidates need more than just the promise of a good salary and other functional benefits to getting them on board. A by Glassdoor found that company culture plays a significant role in attracting and retaining talent in a competitive job market like the construction industry, particularly among millennials. Their study revealed that 66% of millennials place culture above salary. Meanwhile, 75% of people interviewed would consider a company’s culture before applying for a job. With company culture such a critical factor for both getting and retaining staff, it’s essential to make sure that construction firms clearly define and communicate their culture, while also proving that they are living up to it.��

Involve employees in the recuting process

An increasing number of employers are choosing to involve their existing workforce in the recruitment process. This is because your employees act as one of your biggest assets when hiring high-caliber candidates. While any construction firm can offer the same salary and benefits that you do, the people who work for you and your work environment are unique to your business. Demonstrate a great team and workplace culture and you could convince candidates to choose you over your competitors.��

There are several ways in which employees can prove invaluable in the recruitment process.��

• Your current employees know the construction tasks your candidates will need to work on and are best placed to identify those that should be able to deliver on them. They can also call on their past experiences to ask questions relating to situations that may arise, asking candidates how they would react or deal with them.��
• Current employees may have different viewpoints, which helps to reduce the risk of unconscious bias during the hiring process.��
• Using current employees shows candidates that you value and respect the opinion of your workforce. You’ll also be demonstrating to your current workforce that you have them in mind when making important decisions, which could increase the sense of value and community that they have and improve your retention rates.��
• You allow your candidate to meet a number of your current workforce, which helps them to get a feel for the type of people that they will be working with.

Exactly how you involve your employees in the recruitment process really depends on your business. Many construction firms choose to do this informally, simply by having a select few employees meet new candidates and chat with them for a few minutes. Others choose to several employees to sit in on the interview process so that they can consider how they feel the candidates will fit with the rest of the team. Another option is to ask candidates to work with an existing employee or two on a collaborative task. Your workers can get a feel for the level of skill that the candidate has, as well as how well they can work with others. Figure out the best way to get your workforce involved in the recruitment process to help ensure that you choose the right candidates for the job and for the rest of your team.��

Keep your construction business up-to-date with the latest technology

Investing in technology can also help your business attract and retain the best talent in the construction industry. This is because, with the right tech tools, you can keep your workers engaged, motivated and happy in their job. You can even enhance their skills and abilities by using tech to help train them.��

As we know, new candidates aren’t only content with a good salary and benefits. They also want to work for construction companies that are committed to their ongoing professional development, and technology can be a valuable tool to support this. For example, ���Ĵ�ý enables safety managers to create bespoke, effective onboarding programs that can be accessed remotely and tailored to the individual requirements of each role and each worker. This helps new hires to reach their full productivity faster, ensuring construction projects stay on track and within budget. ���Ĵ�ý also lets you assign training that can be completed remotely, helping your workforce enhance their skills and abilities and showing them that your construction company is invested in their future.��

, who are used to the convenience and efficiency of digital solutions. For example, there’s no need to ask employees to clock in and out of site anymore when integrations with digital platforms like ���Ĵ�ý enable businesses to control site access remotely and log employee attendance digitally. With Gen Z accounting for the majority of new workers, ensuring that you can offer them the solutions that they expect to streamline their work life is essential to both attract and retain them.��

Do you want to learn more about how top construction companies are using ���Ĵ�ý to onboard and train workers across projects of all sizes? Contact us today to .

The post How to Attract Talent in Today’s Construction Industry appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

This partnership will digitize the construction company’s entire project and safety orientation process for McCarthy craft and trade partner workers. ���Ĵ�ý’s onboarding and worker management platform creates safer projects, reduces the common risks associated with worker onboarding and management, and streamlines and standardizes the worker onboarding process.����

“���Ĵ�ý is excited to partner with McCarthy to roll out our digitized worker onboarding solution across their workforce,” said John Naughton, ���Ĵ�ý CEO. “Right from our early proof of concept program with the organization, we saw firsthand that McCarthy is an industry leader in safety and construction innovation. McCarthy and ���Ĵ�ý share an absolute commitment to making construction safer for all workers.”��������

“By utilizing ���Ĵ�ý’s digital Safety Orientation Program we have been able to improve efficiencies in our onboarding process, benefiting both individual workers and our project management teams,” said Rob Graham, McCarthy Vice President, National Safety. “Workers now have immediate access to our orientation information, helping to streamline this process while still maintaining our safety culture that is critical to our overall Safety Program.”����

Advancement in site operations and access to worker level data��

Every day on construction worksites worldwide, workers are contracted to work on construction and infrastructure projects. These individuals arrive at the site and receive an orientation, which serves as a way for construction companies to record who is on their site, provide necessary safety training, and collect required worker credentials.��

“Because onboarding is a traditional, everyday activity done on a worksite, it can be easy to overlook some of the risks associated with the process,” said John Naughton, ���Ĵ�ý CEO. “Safety orientation isn’t just a box that gets checked; it’s a way to foster a Safety Culture, prevent incidents on the worksite, and collect worker information. When not managed properly, the onboarding process can lead to project delays, efficiency losses, and increased financial risk. More importantly, inconsistent or insufficient worker site orientation and onboarding is a safety risk to every worker on a jobsite.”��

���Ĵ�ý takes this in-person process online, allowing workers to complete their orientation and register all information on a laptop or mobile device, even before they step foot on the job site. Workers have the option to take their site onboarding in their own language and at their own pace, allowing workers from diverse backgrounds and with different learning styles to fully comprehend and retain critical safety information.������

McCarthy, who recently piloted ���Ĵ�ý’s digital solution as a part of the , will transition their orientation operation to a digital format hosted on ���Ĵ�ý, with the goal of being 100% digital by 2022. This enterprise agreement with ���Ĵ�ý comes as part of McCarthy’s commitment to digital transformation by identifying and implementing emerging technologies within the built world.����

“COVID-19 introduced a host of new challenges for our company and our projects,” explained Dave Burns, McCarthy Vice President Emerging Tech and Project Delivery. “The NEXT Coalition, and the ���Ĵ�ý partnership that came out of that, presents a great success story for knowledge-sharing and innovation. ���Ĵ�ý has tackled problems relating specifically to COVID-19, and we fully expect it to deliver value for our workforce well beyond that.”����

About ���Ĵ�ý��

���Ĵ�ý enables construction companies to take their worker and subcontractor onboarding and orientations online. Workers can register, upload regulatory documents, and complete safety training from any smart device, before they ever set foot on the jobsite. This helps improve the onboarding process while assuring standards and compliance for all workers, no matter their primary language or learning style. Used by both small and large general contractors throughout the US and Europe, ���Ĵ�ý is committed to ensuring health and safety on construction jobsites. Learn more at ���Ĵ�ý.com.��

About McCarthy ��

is the oldest privately held national construction company in the country – with more than 150 years spent collaborating with partners to solve complex building challenges on behalf of its clients. With an unrelenting focus on safety and a comprehensive quality program that span all phases of every project, McCarthy uses industry-leading design phase and construction techniques combined with value-add technology to get the most out of potential outcomes. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work and Healthiest Employer, McCarthy is ranked the 13th largest domestic builder (Engineering News-Record, May 2021). With approximately 5,000 salaried employees and craft professionals, the firm has offices in St. Louis; Atlanta; Collinsville, Ill.; Kansas City, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Denver; Dallas, Houston; and San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento, Calif. McCarthy is . More information about the company is available online at .

The post News: McCarthy Signs Enterprise Agreement with ���Ĵ�ý to Digitize Subcontract Worker Onboarding appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

But onboarding isn’t just a box to check off the to-do list before work starts on a project– it’s a time for your HSE teams to communicate your companies safety plans, document all workers, and more.��

When companies mismanage their subcontract worker onboarding and induction process, they open themselves up to risk. Poorly managed onboarding processes can lead to project delays, inefficiency, and even dangerous and deadly scenarios.��

In this article, we uncover the top six hidden risks found in most onboarding processes.��

Risk #1: The Problem with Collecting Subcontractor Paperwork in Onboarding

What percentage of your worker documentation are hard copies of essential documents and certifications? Are you scanning IDs when workers arrive on-site?��

If you’re still doing manual or even semi-manual onboarding, you likely have boxes and boxes of worker information sitting somewhere in, around, or near your worksite. Physical paperwork is a hassle, and it puts you at risk for more than just paper-cuts!��

This creates risk because paperwork is vulnerable to:

• Accidental destruction
• Unauthorised accessing of personal information
• Poor organisation and filing practices

Paperwork also has a significant impact on how quickly you can access information.��

There’s nothing quite like hearing stories from the field about worksites that get a stop-work order because of an incident, only for that work stoppage to continue longer than needed because someone can’t quickly find a worker’s records for the accident investigation.

By moving your records into a digital format, you can reduce these issues and add a layer of tracking, transparency, and accountability that can only really exist with digitised information.

Hidden Risk #2: Lack of Standardisation in Subcontractor Onboarding

Standardisation in onboarding is the process of making sure that every worker is delivered the same base level training regardless of the date they come on-site, who is doing the training, their primary language, or their aptitude for information retention.��

Standardisation is a hidden risk if you rely on individuals for the daily delivery of your worker onboarding.��

Every day, in-person training brings different challenges—workers with varying language barriers, different learning speeds, and different specialties and trades.��

Trainers have to deal with all of these individual differences between workers while coping with their own sets of stressors. Workers arriving late or in the middle of training, not being multilingual when their workforce is, or the general stress from spending time doing the training while the worksite is in total production all add up.

When onboarding isn’t standardised, workers are less safe on-site – if a worker doesn’t fully understand a training, if it went too fast for them, or if the trainer forgot to present a section of information, that worker is inherently less safe on your worksite.��

Hidden Risk #3: Data Security

Any company, construction or not, knows that having their data secured is critical to protecting their business from significant risk.��

We’ve seen a trend with hackers taking over entire cities’ databases and holding that data for ransom. We also know that hackers are looking for vulnerabilities in corporate systems as well. When it comes to the onboarding of subcontract workers, it’s critical to recognise that you are collecting personal��information from your workers and subcontractors that must be kept confidential and secure.��

If you are using an internal operation for onboarding subcontract workers, how do you know your data is secure? Is your internal solution trained in, or does it have the bandwidth to keep up on data security regulations and new or ongoing threats? Is it able to run penetration testing on their system to find and patch holes?��

Suppose your business uses third-party systems that were not built specifically for your use case or the construction business. In that case, you have to make sure you have someone on your team who is dedicated and trained to keep your solution secure, operational, and protected.��

Hidden Risk #4: The Timing of Onboarding

When new workers show up to start projects, it means vital safety personnel are conducting safety training, collecting documents, and filing paperwork for the first couple of hours of their workday.��

When a site’s foreperson or superintendent is in charge of conducting worker onboarding, you create additional risk for rework because they miss the critical first hour or two of the day when they need to observe and correct workers.

When your safety teams are stuck spending their time in a trailer or classroom, they can’t be looking for hazards and potential safety issues.��

Digital onboarding, whether it’s homegrown or through a platform purpose-built like��GoContactor, can cut down the amount of administrative time your safety team has to spend away from the active job site, a massive win for safety.��

Hidden Risk #5: Scaling and Supporting Your Onboarding Process

Manual onboarding does not scale. Meaning, you will have to keep adding people to the problem as you bring on new projects. Your safety personnel can’t be in two places at once, so you’re going to need to hire as your project count grows. People who understand this are often the ones that end up using a professionally created technology platform, mainly because they know that by paying for someone else to build, maintain and support a needed technology, they are also freeing themselves up to focus on what they and their business do best.��

At ���Ĵ�ý, we have an easy to reach, readily available support team to help answer basic questions that workers, subcontractors, and general contractors have. These can be anything from logging in to the platform, access certain training materials, or setting up onboarding for a new project.��

Hidden Risk #6: Your Industry Reputation with Workers and Subcontractors��

Finally, our last hidden risk is an interesting one – your reputation and brand within your industry with workers and subcontractors.��

As a general contractor, you are affected by the shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry. In the US alone, we’re looking to be between 400,000 to 1,000,000 workers short of what construction companies need to complete their projects on time and without rework.��

Construction workers today own smartphones and use the internet to make certain aspects of their lives more manageable than without technology. A majority of the workforce that companies are trying to attract into the construction world are “digital natives,” meaning they have no experience living in a world without the internet and have an innate reliance on computers and technology.��

This coveted group of desperately needed recruits for the construction industry will be looking to their employer to provide digital tools to complete their work wherever possible. Onboarding should be one of the first impressions you have on any worker, and in turn, will be the first step in a worker or even manager deciding if they want to work on future projects with your organisation.

We’d argue that a digital onboarding that allows these workers to complete their onboarding and training at their own pace, in their language, and at a time and a place they choose will leave a better impression on those workers.��

Taking your onboarding online is a solid step in that direction and will help you build a stronger employer brand over the long term.��

With ���Ĵ�ý – a digital onboarding and induction platform specifically built for construction teams – Contractors are able to onboard their workers and subs before they ever step foot on the construction site. Ensuring that workers are 100% compliant and that worker data is stored digitally are just a few of the ways that ���Ĵ�ý reduces risk and removes the headaches of onboarding. and speak one on one with an onboarding expert about how ���Ĵ�ý can help your construction business.

The post 6 Hidden Risks in Your Subcontractor Onboarding appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

The importance of safety training as part of the onboarding process

Before you can allow contractors onto the site to begin work, they need to receive the appropriate information and training, particularly regarding safety conduct. Failure to do so can dramatically increase the risk of an accident or injury occurring. It has been reported that approximately 50% of construction employees who have been injured on-site have been on the job for six months or less (Pinnacol Assurance).��

All employees who face occupational hazards on job sites should receive comprehensive and appropriate safety training before starting work. This includes everything from emergency preparedness to personal protective equipment and should be included in the onboarding process.��

For decades, safety training for construction sites has generally been completed in-person and on-site. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way in which many construction processes take place, including the induction of any new contractors and teams. Not only do safety managers have to worry about keeping team members safe, but they also have to mitigate the risks that exposure to illness can have on the success of each construction project. For example, a single worker exposed to COVID-19 could cause significant and costly scheduling delays that affect the outcome and potentially even the profitability of the build. However, digital onboarding can eliminate many of these headaches.��

What is digital onboarding?

Digital onboarding transforms the conventional onboarding process that takes place when inviting new contractors to work on a construction site. Rather than being performed in-person and on-site, workers are instead required to complete the process at home before showing up to the job site. This is completed using a digital platform such as ���Ĵ�ý.com. Safety teams can work with ���Ĵ�ý’s Customer Success team to upload videos, PowerPoints, and other essential safety and onboarding documents to the online platform. Workers and subcontractors are then able to login remotely, and complete all of their assigned tasks, such as uploading their Safe Pass for example. When that worker arrives on-site, the Safety Manager will be able to see whether 100% of tasks have been completed and if the worker is cleared to be on-site.��

Digital onboarding standardises site inductions and helps avoid project delays and risk. One of the key benefits is that safety teams can focus their efforts on doing site inspections and actively ensuring that workers are following safety guidelines, rather than spending valuable time completing administrative tasks.

Barriers to digital onboarding

No matter how fast technology is evolving, some safety managers remain hesitant about entrusting such an important process to a digital platform. There are several perceived barriers to digital onboarding. These include:

1. A preference for in-person training. For many years, onboarding was always carried out both in-person and on site. Many people, including safety managers, are more comfortable carrying out training in-person, where they can directly see and interact with the individuals and teams that they are onboarding. While this is a valuable approach to life, it’s simply not the fastest and most productive way to onboard workers in a growing world of technology. In a world where we have seen a need for social distancing, it only adds to the value of using digital tools to avoid project delays and to help follow government guidelines.��

2. Concerns over technical access and ability. Some safety managers and project owners suggest that not all workers have access to the necessary access to digital devices in order to perform digital onboarding. However,�� 78% of construction workers admit to using their smartphones during work hours, meaning that at least this percentage, if not more, do have access to a digital device to complete the onboarding process remotely. For any worker that presents this issue, a computer or internet connected device of any kind can be found on any job site, so this is no reasonable excuse.

3. Fear of change. It can be hard to move away from long-standing conventional processes and embrace newer alternatives, particularly for highly experienced managers. After all, there is always a comfort with familiarity and routine. But can you name one piece of construction machinery that didn’t take some time to adjust to?

Why should you use ���Ĵ�ý for your digital onboarding process?

���Ĵ�ý is a digital platform specifically designed to make onboarding workers in the construction industry easier, safer, faster and more compliant.��

Creation of safety questionnaires. ���Ĵ�ý enables safety teams and managers to create custom safety questionnaires that ask the questions that are important to ensure the safety and security of your workforce and construction site. Workers can complete the questionnaires at a time and location that suits them, and all results are recorded for your personnel files. ���Ĵ�ý will automatically notify administrators of the app (usually safety managers) if a contractor answers a question in an unexpected way, so that safety managers can take the appropriate action immediately.��

For example, many safety managers are using ���Ĵ�ý to carry out pre-arrival COVID-19 screening assessments. If you have a worker who answers ‘yes’ to a question about being in close contact with someone who has COVID-19, or ‘yes’ to whether they have any symptoms of the virus, safety managers are notified immediately so that they can send the right workers home and contain the disease.��

Upload your onboarding documents. Every construction project is different, and this means that the safety training and other onboarding information also varies between work sites and staff. ���Ĵ�ý enables safety managers to create a custom platform that is specific to both your construction company and each individual project. You can then assign the correct onboarding documentation to each worker based on their project and their specific role within it.��

Workers can complete their onboarding process online, at a time and location to suit them. You can even create language-specific onboarding so that every worker has the access to training that they need in order to be able to complete their job to the highest and safest standards.��

Safely store all documentation in one place. Keeping manual personnel files is every safety-manager’s biggest headache as information about training, experience and compliance can become difficult to organise and keep track of. ���Ĵ�ý removes the time consuming task of organising and filing paperwork by providing a single, centralised record of worker documents, all stored securely online and accessible from anywhere. You can even set alerts to let you know in advance when each contractor’s individual compliance is up, so that you can act promptly to revisit it and prevent potential project delays.��

��

In the age of technology, construction safety teams are finding new ways to keep workers safe, while making their day to day life easier. Find out today how ���Ĵ�ý can help workers onsite quickly and offsite safely – of this powerful worker onboarding platform today.��

The post Common Misconceptions About Digital Onboarding in the Construction Industry appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

Respiratory illnesses occur when workers breathe in harmful substances. One substance that is often abundant on construction sites is silica dust. The effects of silica dust inhalation can be very harmful – so much so that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have created new rules in relation to protecting workers who may be exposed to it. This article will highlight everything you need to know about the dangers of silica dust and why it is essential for construction safety managers to enforce the OSHA silica standard.

��

What exactly is silica dust?

Silica dust comes from crystalline silica – a common mineral found in the earth’s crust. Crystalline silica is found in sand, stone, concrete, and mortar. It’s also used in the production of artificial stone, bricks, ceramics, pottery, and glass. When materials like concrete and stone are drilled, cut, or crushed, respirable crystalline silica is produced. These tiny particles are at least 100 times smaller than ordinary sand and are released into the air where they can be inhaled by anyone who comes into contact with them. Studies estimate that .��

Unfortunately, silica dust inhalation has been shown to increase a worker’s risk of developing fatal diseases including:

• Silicosis, which is an incurable lung disease that causes disability and can lead to premature death��
• Lung cancer
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Kidney disease����

The British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) has stated that around . Silica is also thought to contribute to around 4,000 deaths from COPD each year and believes that around 75,000 cases per year could be prevented if action was taken. There are also concerns that COVID-19 could be accelerating the rate of deaths in those workers with respiratory diseases – something which has marked those with conditions like COPD as extremely clinically vulnerable in the current pandemic.��

Unsurprisingly, construction site projects involve many activities that can produce silica dust. These include:

• Abrasive sandblasting
• Sawing concrete and brick
• Grinding mortar
• Sanding or drilling into stone and concrete
• Cutting or crushing stone
• Manufacture of brick, concrete blocks, and more

Since silica dust is virtually invisible to the naked eye, the dangers it poses are easily overlooked. To help protect workers from silica-related diseases, OSHA has created the following rule on respirable crystalline silica:

��

What is the OSHA Silica Standard?

The OSHA Silica Standard requires those employers whose work is covered by the standard to determine the levels of respirable crystalline silica that employees are exposed to and take the appropriate steps to limit this using respiratory protection where necessary.��

To create this new standard, the OSHA performed a number of common construction tasks that produced dust in a controlled environment and then measured how much dust was produced depending on how the task was done. This information has been used to tell construction employers and safety teams how a task should be performed and/or the minimum personal protective equipment (PPE) that should be worn while doing it.��

For example, the OSHA standard states that cutting should be carried out using saws equipped with an integrated water delivery system that continuously feeds water to the blade in order to minimize dust emissions. PPR should also be worn when using a hand saw for more than four hours. You can read the full compliance guide for the Respirable Crystalline Silica Standard for Construction .

��

The importance of PPE for protecting workers from silica dust inhalation

Personal Protective Equipment, better known as PPE, is a basic safety requirement on all construction sites. Exactly what PPE workers need will depend on the tasks that they are involved in, the length of time they are working for and the environment they are working in, and can include items such as protective headwear, gloves, masks and aprons. In the case of silica dust, respiratory PPE should be worn in line with the OSHA standard and recommendations. This may involve the use of disposable respirators, particulate filters, and face masks. Consult the standard for more specific information on PPE.

��

Silica-disease lawsuits can be very costly��

Most occupational respiratory diseases take months or years to develop, but that doesn’t mean that a lack of safety and PPE during construction projects won’t come back to bite you. Compensation claims are already going through for claimants who have contracted respiratory issues as a result of construction employer negligence. In July 2019, a was approved by courts in South Africa, following a long legal battle by miners to win compensation for illnesses that were reported to have been contracted over decades due to negligence in health and safety.��

Meanwhile, in Australia, WorkSafe insurers have accepted a The claimant will now receive weekly payments and compensation for related medical expenses and intends to sue their former employer for negligence.��

And in 2019 in the UK, Lancashire contractor (approx. $27,000) for failing to provide adequate control measures for silica exposure, putting the health of their employees at risk.������

With more lawsuits likely to follow unless action is taken, it’s more important than ever for construction companies and construction safety teams to follow OSHA’s rule on respirable crystalline silica.

��

How can ���Ĵ�ý help?��

Construction site safety is a serious responsibility and with many elements involved, safety managers have their work cut out for them when it comes to staying organised and ensuring all workers are up to date with their training and compliance, even when OSHA’s Silica Standard is concerned. ���Ĵ�ý helps to streamline all safety processes into one highly accessible, custom platform that is designed not only to suit your company, but also the needs of each individual project.��

Checking the training and compliance of workers couldn’t be easier. ���Ĵ�ý lets you store all worker records on one, centralized platform that can be accessed 24/7 from anywhere in the world. Set reminders to show when each worker is out of compliance so that you can address this ahead of time, before their ability to work lapses and puts your project schedule back. ���Ĵ�ý even synchronizes with access software, helping you to control which workers are allowed on site and which are denied access. Safety managers can even control this on their smartphones, making sure only trained and compliant workers can enter.��

���Ĵ�ý also lets safety managers upload bespoke training that is language, role and project-specific and can be accessed remotely, enabling your workers to get the training that they need, before they even step foot on site. This keeps your safety teams supervising on-site and avoids unnecessary repetition. With proper training, workers will understand how to comply with OSHA’s Silica Standard and this will reduce the risk of your employees developing silica-related and other respiratory diseases.��

Find out how ���Ĵ�ý can help your construction business ensure all workers on site are trained, certified, and have the proper documentation to stay safe on site. .

The post OSHA’s Silica Standard: Why Safety Managers Need to Enforce It appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

• The of all construction injuries in the United States is estimated to be more than $11.5 billion.��
• In 2019, of work due to injuries, wreaking havoc on project timelines.��
• The OSHA estimates that that they invest in safety programs.

have reported on a 2017 study by the Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index estimates that serious, nonfatal workplace injuries now amount to nearly $60 billion in direct U.S. worker’s compensation costs per year.

Understanding the most common injuries and how they occur is one way to help mitigate the risk of injuries occurring. Every time these incidents happen, construction firms are at risk of being hit with huge insurance claims and litigation costs that can occur if you are found to be at fault for any safety issues and injuries or loss of life that is sustained during your construction project.

��

10 most common causes of injuries on construction sites

There are many different factors that can contribute to an accident or injury on a construction site. Here are the ten most common:

1 – Falls. Falls account for one of the most common injuries on a construction site, with hazards such as open floors, incomplete roofing, and uneven or unsupported flooring all being commonplace. Falling can also occur from height, such as from ladders or scaffolding. In the UK, a construction worker has recently been awarded a after being seriously injured when falling just 8 meters in height at work.

2 – Electrocution. Unsurprisingly, working with electricity is extremely dangerous and some of the most serious long-term injuries occur as a result of electrocution. Earlier in 2021, with state utility regulators following an electrocution death in Northampton County in 2016.��

3 – Fires/explosions. There are usually many different flammable materials and chemicals that can be found on a construction site, and unless they are stored and handled appropriately, there is considerable risk attached to their presence and use.��

4 – Crush injuries. Crush injuries can be sustained in a number of ways, from becoming trapped between two objects such as a vehicle and wall, to having something fall on top of you. Crush injuries may not cause as much visible damage as other types, but the internal consequences can be horrific.

5 – Machinery/equipment incidents. Heavy and dangerous machinery and equipment is found in abundance on construction sites. Knowing how to operate these safely is absolutely crucial, not only for the user but also for everyone else working on site.��

6 – Trench/ground collapse. These can occur when excavations have caused the ground and surrounding area to become unstable, putting workers at risk of the ground collapsing beneath them or falling in around them. In June 2021, The Perecman Firm, P.L.L.C on behalf of a union construction worker who sustained serious injuries when the wall of a road trench collapsed in on him while working to repair a water pipe.

7 – Manual handling issues. Manual handling injuries can occur as a result of workers trying to move objects that are too heavy, or by failing to use the correct techniques for lifting, pushing, pulling, and carrying.��

8 – Excessive noise and vibrating power tools. Ear defenders should be standard safety wear on any construction site, to help protect against problems like hearing loss and tinnitus. The use of vibrating tools can also have consequences for workers’ health.

9 – Vehicle accidents. In addition to crush trauma caused by vehicles, there are other types of accidents that can occur when lack of training or concentration, poor organization of the site, or inadequate signage can lead to injuries.��

10 – Inadequate safety management. Last, but not least, the single most common cause of any accident or injury occurring on a construction site is a lack of proper safety management. This includes many elements, from a comprehensive onboarding process for new workers to successfully managing worker compliance and training records, and more. In 2016, construction firm and ordered to pay additional prosecution costs after two men, unconnected with the construction company and building site, fell to their deaths as a result of inadequate safety hoarding. and was levied after they were found guilty of corporate manslaughter and a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

��

How to avoid injuries on a construction site

With the responsibility of the safety and well-being of everyone on-site, construction safety managers don’t have an easy role. Fortunately, there are tools that can help you to do your job and reduce the risk of injuries occurring on your construction site. One of the most beneficial is safety management and onboarding software, like ���Ĵ�ý.��

In a typical construction company, being a safety manager involves onboarding and training new workers while they are on-site. At times throughout the week, safety teams have to turn their attention to delivering training. This is time in which they could be supervising and completing walk-throughs, where their presence is truly valuable to the safety of the workers on any given project. Record keeping is also an important element of safety management as you are responsible for ensuring that workers have received the relevant training and are compliant. Failure to do so could put workers at risk, resulting in devastating injuries and expensive insurance claims, and litigation costs.��

Here are just a few of the things that safety teams can do to reduce the risk of injury on construction sites and how software like ���Ĵ�ý can help.��

Remote onboarding and training. When onboarding training is accessible online, workers can complete the necessary induction without even stepping foot on the job site. Accessible anytime and anywhere, ���Ĵ�ý lets safety teams upload site and role-specific training materials in an array of languages, meaning that there is no barrier to a fully comprehensive onboarding process. Meanwhile, safety managers can spend their time on-site supervising the workforce and minimizing the risk of accident and injury.��

Training record storage and administration. With so many elements of comprehensive training and onboarding, manually keeping track of which workers have completed which training modules can be tricky. However, going digital, such as by using ���Ĵ�ý, makes admin tasks much simpler and more straightforward. There are some key benefits of using ���Ĵ�ý for training record storage and management.

• ���Ĵ�ý provides one central, digital location for all worker documents, which can be accessed remotely, anytime, and anywhere.
• ���Ĵ�ý allows safety teams to quickly see if worker documents, qualifications and training are expiring ahead of schedule, so that you can get their compliance back on track before it impacts your project timeline.
• ���Ĵ�ý even syncs with site access controls, enabling you to ensure that everyone is properly trained and registered before they can come onto the job site. Better still, ���Ĵ�ý lets you view worker qualifications and grant or deny access remotely too.��

Daily health screening. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, daily health screening has become the standard in many workplaces, including construction sites. By asking workers to complete daily screening checklists, you can protect them from contagious viruses and other illnesses that could compromise your workforce and project. Stopping unwell workers from entering the site can also reduce the likelihood of accidents and injuries occurring. This is because people who are sick usually find that their concentration levels are affected by being unwell. Software like ���Ĵ�ý can automate daily health screening so that it can be completed remotely, while also keeping detailed records of the responses.��

��

Construction site safety is extremely important, and safety managers and teams should explore all of the potential tools at their disposal to help mitigate the risk of accident and injury. Find out about how safety professionals use ���Ĵ�ý to reduce the risks on their construction projects by scheduling a free demo today.��

��

Resources

��

��

The post The 10 Injuries that Cost Construction Companies $11 billion annually appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

The importance of safety training as part of the onboarding process

Before you can allow contractors onto the site to begin work, they need to receive the appropriate information and training, particularly regarding safety conduct. Failure to do so can dramatically increase the risk of an accident or injury occurring. A study by Pinnacol Assurance found that approximately 50% of construction employees who have been injured on-site have been on the job for six months or less.����

All employees who face occupational hazards on job sites to receive comprehensive and appropriate safety training before starting work. This includes everything from emergency preparedness to personal protective equipment and should be included in the onboarding process.��

For decades, safety training for construction sites has generally been completed in-person and on-site. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way in which many construction processes take place, including the orientation of any new contractors and teams. Not only do safety managers have to worry about keeping team members safe, but they also have to mitigate the risks that exposure to illness can have on the success of each construction project. For example, a single worker exposed to COVID-19 could cause significant and costly scheduling delays that affect the outcome and potentially even the profitability of the build. However, digital onboarding can eliminate many of these headaches.��

What is digital onboarding?

Digital onboarding transforms the conventional onboarding process that takes place when inviting new contractors to work on a construction site. Rather than being performed in-person and on-site, workers are instead required to complete the process at home before showing up to the job site. This is completed using a digital platform such as ���Ĵ�ý.com. Safety teams can work with ���Ĵ�ý’s Customer Success team to upload videos, PowerPoints, and other essential safety and onboarding documents to the online platform. Workers and subcontractors are then able to login remotely, and complete all of their assigned tasks, such as uploading documents or training cards example. When that worker arrives on-site, the Safety Manager will be able to see whether 100% of tasks have been completed and if the worker is cleared to be on-site.��

Digital onboarding establishes a standard process for site orientations while helping project teams avoid delays and risk. One of the key benefits is that safety teams can focus their efforts on doing site inspections and actively ensuring that workers are following safety guidelines, rather than spending valuable time completing administrative tasks.

Barriers to digital onboarding

No matter how fast technology is evolving, some safety managers remain hesitant about entrusting such an important process to a digital platform. There are several perceived barriers to digital onboarding. These include:

1. A preference for in-person training. For many years, onboarding was always carried out both in-person and on site. Many people, including safety managers, are more comfortable carrying out training in-person, where they can directly see and interact with the individuals and teams that they are onboarding. While this is a valuable approach to life, it’s simply not the fastest and most productive way to onboard workers in a growing world of technology. In a world where we have seen a need for social distancing, it only adds to the value of using digital tools to avoid project delays and to help follow government guidelines.��

2. Concerns over technical access and ability. Some safety managers and project owners suggest that not all workers have access to the necessary access to digital devices in order to perform digital onboarding. However,�� 78% of construction workers admit to using their smartphones during work hours, meaning that at least this percentage, if not more, do have access to a digital device to complete the onboarding process remotely. For any worker that presents this issue, a computer or internet connected device of any kind can be found on any job site, so this is no reasonable excuse.

3. Fear of change. It can be hard to move away from long-standing conventional processes and embrace newer alternatives, particularly for highly experienced managers. After all, there is always a comfort with familiarity and routine. But can you name one piece of construction machinery that didn’t take some time to adjust to?

Why should you use ���Ĵ�ý for your digital onboarding process?

���Ĵ�ý is a digital platform specifically designed to make onboarding workers in the construction industry easier, safer, faster and more compliant.��

Creation of safety questionnaires. ���Ĵ�ý enables safety teams and managers to create custom safety questionnaires that ask the questions that are important to ensure the safety and security of your workforce and construction site. Workers can complete the questionnaires at a time and location that suits them, and all results are recorded for your personnel files. ���Ĵ�ý will automatically notify administrators of the app (usually safety managers) if a contractor answers a question in an unexpected way, so that safety managers can take the appropriate action immediately.��

For example, many safety managers are using ���Ĵ�ý to carry out pre-arrival COVID-19 screening assessments. If you have a worker who answers ‘yes’ to a question about being in close contact with someone who has COVID-19, or ‘yes’ to whether they have any symptoms of the virus, safety managers are notified immediately so that they can send the right workers home and contain the disease.��

Upload your onboarding documents. Every construction project is different, and this means that the safety training and other onboarding information also varies between work sites and staff. ���Ĵ�ý enables safety managers to create a custom platform that is specific to both your construction company and each individual project. You can then assign the correct onboarding documentation to each worker based on their project and their specific role within it.��

Workers can complete their onboarding process online, at a time and location to suit them. You can even create language-specific onboarding so that every worker has the access to training that they need in order to be able to complete their job to the highest and safest standards.��

Safely store all documentation in one place. Keeping manual personnel files is every safety-manager’s biggest headache as information about training, experience and compliance can become difficult to keep track of. ���Ĵ�ý removes the time consuming task of physically managing and filing paperwork by providing a single, central record of worker documents, all stored securely online and accessible from anywhere. You can even set alerts to let you know in advance when each contractor’s individual compliance is up, so that you can act promptly to revisit it and prevent potential project delays.��

��

In the age of technology, construction safety teams are finding new ways to keep workers safe, while making their day to day life easier. Find out today how ���Ĵ�ý can help workers onsite quickly and offsite safely – of this powerful worker onboarding platform today.��

The post Common Misconceptions About Digital Onboarding in the Construction Industry appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

Safety managers truly have their work cut out for them when it comes to keeping track of who’s on site. This includes understanding whether each subcontractor’s training is up to date, if they are compliant, and if they have completed all of the necessary onboarding prior to their arrival. One could argue that people management, alone, is a full-time job. Fortunately, there are digital tools like that help safety teams with each of the aforementioned responsibilities.

Here are some of the ways in which a digital onboarding and safety management app like ���Ĵ�ý can help streamline administration tasks and maximize the safety of your construction site.

��

1. Carry out a digital health check before worker’s arrival on site

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, pre-arrival health screenings for employees have become the norm for most businesses. Not only do you have a duty of care as safety manager, but each individual worker also has a personal responsibility to ensure that they aren’t coming on site when they could be unwell or have been in close contact with someone who has been confirmed as having Covid-19.��

Fortunately, using tools like ���Ĵ�ý makes it possible for you to ask all workers to carry out a pre-arrival health screening questionnaire on a daily basis, which should help mitigate the risk of there being an outbreak of the virus on your construction site. Here are some common health screening questions that you can include on a questionnaire:

• Do you have a high temperature (or feel hot to the touch on your chest or back)?
• Do you have a new, continuous cough?��
• Have you experienced a loss or change in your sense of taste or smell?��
• In the last 14 days, have you been in close proximity to anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19?
• Have you been tested for Covid-19 and are waiting for your results?
• Have you been vaccinated for Covid-19?

���Ĵ�ý allows you to set up your own surveys like this, and workers can access them on their app and answer the questions before they walk on site. The results will then get emailed to you, so that you can approve or restrict access based on their answers. This streamlines the entire process and gives you a central record of the results that you can refer to at any time.

��

2. Allow workers to complete remote onboarding

Before you can allow workers to start their jobs on site, they will need to complete the onboarding process. A study by Pinnacol Assurance showed that more than 50% of workplace injuries involved people who had been on the job for less than a year. This cost businesses over $60 billion in 2018, alone. This statistic indicates that perhaps, proper onboarding hadn’t taken place prior to the commencement of work, increasing the risk of accident or injury in a workforce that is constantly moving from project to project, with new hazards, site setups, and people to interact with.

Onboarding is crucial for site safety and provides workers with proper and comprehensive training on site protocols, safety procedures, reporting, equipment handling and more. This can dramatically help to reduce the number of accidents and injuries on site, keeping your construction project on track and within budget. ���Ĵ�ý enables safety managers to upload their own onboarding documents and processes in a variety of formats and languages, making them accessible anytime, anywhere and able to be completed remotely before your workers even arrive on site.

��

3. Check and monitor worker compliance with ease

As a construction safety manager, worker compliance will undoubtedly be one of your biggest priorities as you need to ensure that all workers on site are in compliance with all outside regulatory and legal requirements, to help to mitigate risk. Fortunately, you don’t have to keep track of worker compliance manually. Digital solutions like ���Ĵ�ý provide a centralized system for which all compliance can be logged, additional training can be assigned, and reminders can flag workers whose compliance is about to expire.

��

4. Enable or restrict site access with contactless check in and out

In the light of the pandemic, safety managers are also expected to minimize touchpoints in and around their construction site. ���Ĵ�ý supports this approach by enabling contactless check in and out access using simple QR codes. Your site security scans the ���Ĵ�ý QR code on your worker’s mobile device, and this enables them to gain access or clock out at the end of their shift.��

If there are any issues with a worker’s compliance or the results of their pre-arrival health screening, you can restrict access to prevent them from entering the site with the touch of a button. This keeps the remainder of your workforce safe and enables you to do contact tracing if necessary.

��

Are you ready to find out how digital solutions can help you most effectively onboard and manage safety on your construction site?

The post 4 Ways To Improve Construction Site Safety Before Workers Arrive Onsite appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

Part of a safety manager’s role is to ensure that those both on site and off are aware of the safety procedures and that they have everything that they need to run a safe and secure site. However, it’s also important to note that each individual worker also has their own responsibility to complete all necessary onboarding and training requirements to help achieve this.��

Using the ANSI/ASSP A10.33-2020 safety standards found , and utilizing cutting-edge construction onboarding and safety training software like ���Ĵ�ý, your safety team can make sure that everyone is always on the same page with regards to on-site safety.��

Unfortunately, project managers and site executives can often, unwittingly, derail the hard work that has been done by safety managers. This isn’t done on purpose, but simply happens because they don’t necessarily see what is happening day-to-day from a safety perspective. Safety on construction projects should be number one on everyone’s mind, but as a project manager with lots of different priorities to juggle, it’s not surprising that sometimes safety issues slip down the list. Communication with your safety team and having the proper resources for your project to run smoothly, is essential. This is where having a great safety management and documentation system comes in handy.

To help you support your safety teams in doing their job, it can be valuable to understand the issues that they face. Here are five of the most common things that can make the jobs of safety teams more difficult, and how you can solve them and be an important contributor to on-site safety in your construction project.

1. Positive reinforcement can go a long way

Discipline is vital when safety measures are ignored, and the danger is real. Project managers who ignore those who properly practice safety protocols, while only paying attention to the rule-breakers are sending a negative message to their workers. Encouraging better behaviors with positive feedback and doing that regularly will help cement it into the contractor’s daily life. This in turn, will make it easier for the safety team to do their job effectively.

2. Digital tools can save time and reduce mistakes

Modern-day sites can often have multiple onboardings, across different sites, with various types of subcontractors. The management of the documents, reports and safety protocols can feel never ending. Safety manager’s need to know where those documents are and who is legally allowed on site. Using ���Ĵ�ý’s app and management system, you can make sure that all documents are uploaded to one place, your contractors are safe, and their training is up to date. You can even get reminders to let you know if a worker’s compliance is expiring, so that you can address the issue quickly, before they are no longer allowed on site. This can help prevent delays and keep your construction project on track.

3. Safety teams are partners in your project’s success

When everyone from the executives to project managers down to the construction workers are aware of the procedures, it makes the safety team’s lives so much easier.��

If an executive or manager is not on board, the dissatisfaction can drip down to the team members and construction workers resulting in safety measures not being followed and more importantly, the safety of the workers being compromised. Using constructive feedback to voice any concerns is necessary to make sure the right rules are implemented. Construction safety is paramount and best practices are constantly being worked on to provide the best protocols for the construction site.

4. When it comes to safety, focus on the details

Don’t just focus on the end goal, when project managers have tunnel vision about the final project completion, it puts the safety manager under more pressure to ensure no incidents take place and that everyone is compliant. Changing behaviors and strategies – use of daily toolbox talks and software such as ���Ĵ�ý can help that goal be achieved on schedule. Getting everyone clear on the objectives and the route to reach that goal are imperative to good site management.

5. Corporate culture should not trump safety

Project managers and site executives – this one is for you. Making sure that everyone is aware of the safety team’s final goals – projects are run safely, incident costs are cut and working conditions are improved is so important.��

As part of your role, you should make sure that workers, contractors and office staff are aware of the procedures, have a safe place to discuss any concerns they have and that managers are empowered to keep everyone safe and on track with their projects. Compliance will become a problem when you put your profits over people and see your staff as a commodity.

How can you more easily manage and streamline safety on your construction project?

As a great project manager, there are things that you can do to empower and support safety teams on your construction project. Using a digital worker onboarding tool like ���Ĵ�ý is a great way of helping your safety team to do what it does best; keep everyone safe on site, reduce time lost through incidents and arrange training if necessary. The app includes valuable tools such as checking everyone’s training status, their legal compliance and enables your safety team to prompt training and keep everyone’s documents in one place.��

Your safety team can upload customized training and onboarding that is role, project and language specific, ensuring accessibility across the team. Meanwhile, all workers will be able to get notifications regarding their status, any new or additional training that needs to be completed, along with other notices you need them to be aware of. ���Ĵ�ý even synchronizes with powerful integrations for access control, giving your safety team full control over who is on site.

To find out how ���Ĵ�ý can help you work more efficiently with your safety team,

The post 5 Things Every EHS Team Wants Their Project Managers to Understand appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

But what makes someone successful at ensuring the health and safety of everyone on site? Here are 4 signs that you are an effective safety manager.

1. You are a role model for safety

Nobody on site is going to take your enforcement of safety rules seriously if you don’t practice what you preach. The most effective and respected construction safety managers are those who model the behavior that they need to see in their teams. This means remembering to follow every procedure accurately, and every rule to the letter. Being management by no means mitigates your risk, so even if you are simply passing through an area on site, make sure you have the relevant PPE in place.

Your responsibility for safety extends to any visitors to site, and it’s advisable to keep a supply of disposable earplugs, safety glasses and any other standard PPE required, so that you can be prepared to supply them to any guests or replace any missing equipment among your teams.

2. You are prepared to embrace technology

Technology is changing the face of every industry, including construction. As a safety manager, the health and wellbeing of everyone on site falls primarily to you. But with so many different contractors and risks, keeping on top of everything can feel a little overwhelming. Fortunately, many of the technologies that have been developed are designed to make your job easier and you a more effective safety manager. For example, a construction safety manager who uses ���Ĵ�ý can use the technology to:

See a list of everyone on site in real time. This will enable you to see, in real time, who is present at any one time.

Control access to site. ���Ĵ�ý can integrate with other technologies, like access control, to ensure that only the workers who are 100% compliant get access to your site.

Store training records for every contractor online. This gives you access to vital records at the touch of a button 24/7, enabling you to see which contractors are adequately trained to perform certain tasks or handle specific equipment. You can also monitor if any documents, qualifications or training certifications are expiring before they have lapsed.

Enable contractors to complete training online. By enabling contractors to complete essential orientation and safety training online, it frees up your time for other important tasks that require your real-time attention, such as toolbox talks or site inspections. Additionally, online training improves your company’s brand by showing that you are adopting modern technology, which is key to attracting and retaining younger, skilled workers.

Upload and store PowerPoints and videos. Health and safety resources should be readily available to all contractors, both as part of the onboarding process and for them to use as a refresher at any point.

Create quizzes. These enable you to monitor the knowledge of contractors so that you can identify any gaps in training that need to be filled.

3. You have up-to-date knowledge about trade and OSHA standards are regulations

Construction is a fast-paced industry and with new tools, techniques and technologies being developed all of the time, it can be hard to keep up with the latest standards and regulations. However, an effective construction safety manager is a busy individual, so ideally, they should be able to recall crucial information about the trade that they are working in and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines for it as easily as reciting the alphabet. It’s not geeky, it’s safety.

A great safety manager will also be committed to staying up to date with any changes relating to health and safety legislation within the industry, whether this means subscribing to updates published online, reading articles in a health and safety publication or attending any online or in-person courses or seminars that could be beneficial to your role.

4. You welcome participation from employees

The best people to make suggestions about how health and safety in a workplace can be improved is those that work there. An effective construction safety manager will welcome or even actively encourage contractors to make suggestions or raise concerns over site safety. Although they may not be up to date on current safe practices, their comments may raise issues that might have been overlooked. Even if any concerns are unfounded, showing that you value the opinion of the workforce will earn you respect, meaning that they are more likely to listen to you and instructions that you give.

Rewarding contractor participation is also a sign of an engaged and effective construction safety manager. Just a few words of thanks and encouragement can go a long way to making contractors feel that their input is valuable and appreciated by management, while praising employees when they choose safe behaviors is proven to be much more effective than reprimanding them when they fail to consider their safety and that of others around them.

An effective safety manager uses all of the tools at their disposal to take care of everyone working on site. Watch how safety professionals use ���Ĵ�ý on their projects.

The post 4 Signs You’re an Effective Safety Manager appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

One of the biggest challenges of multi-employer construction sites is that each individual employer will likely have their own safety protocols, work methods and best practices and these don’t always align with one another across the construction site. This means that unless you take action, you’ve got workers adhering to differing safety standards across your project – a definite recipe for danger. As the construction safety manager in charge of the site, the overall safety of everyone on site regardless of their employer is your responsibility. So, how can you be sure that all workers are operating safely and understand their responsibilities to identify and mitigate the many risks associated with working on an active construction project?

Here are ���Ĵ�ý’s top tips on how to enforce safety guidelines while keeping your construction project running on schedule.

1. Follow ANSI/ASSP A10.33-2020 US safety standards

The newly revised A10.33-2020 voluntary consensus standard from the American Society of Safety Professionals sets out general safety and health program requirements for multi-employer construction sites and projects while also identifying specific project entities, roles and responsibilities. While this is a US standard, these safety practices are globally applicable. Here are the defined responsibilities of some key roles according to these guidelines:

The owner has a responsibility to show a commitment to safety throughout the duration of the project.

The project constructor maintains responsibility for managing contracted works and creating an efficient and executable project-specific safety and health plan that is effective at maintaining the safety of everyone on site, both on paper and in practice.

The construction manager is responsible for implementing processes that ensure that the owner’s requirements for safety are incorporated into each stage of the project, from the design specifications down to the final construction.

Contractors must ensure that they carry out work in accordance with the information set out in the project-specific safety and health plan.

Suppliers must also liaise with the project constructor to maintain safety when delivering materials for the project to site.

You can check out the full safety standards .

2. Carry out daily risk assessments and toolbox briefings

Tight deadlines also mean that new tasks are carried out virtually every day on construction projects and with each new activity comes a range of new potential hazards that everyone on site needs to be aware of. Construction safety managers on multi-employer construction projects should ideally carry out daily risk assessments based on the works to be completed and risks that they pose. This information can then be successfully relayed to construction managers and supervising contractors to pass onto their teams, ensuring efficient communication throughout the workforce.

3. Maintain control over site access

To minimize unnecessary risk, every worker should be properly trained and registered before they are granted access to the site. Unqualified workers pose considerably more danger, especially on multi-employer projects where there are often many more parts than normal, and it isn’t always clear who should and shouldn’t be on site. Cutting edge construction onboarding and safety software like ���Ĵ�ý integrates with other technologies like remote access control, which enables construction safety managers to verify worker qualifications from their mobile device, giving them total control over who can access the site at any point of the project.

4. Implement a reporting system

This is an effective way in which any worker can quickly communicate any health or safety concerns directly to you. Additionally, it can be even more efficient if you reassure workers that any issues raised will be treated in confidence. You could even implement a way in which workers can report hazards or worries anonymously.

In addition to reporting, try and involve workers who have demonstrated a clear understanding of the construction site conditions that create hazards and have insights into how they can be carefully controlled. You may be able to identify these workers from past issues that they have raised or because they have shown a specific interest in health and safety.

5. Provide training on the safety and health plan

For any safety and health plan to be effective, managers, supervisors and workers all need to understand the goal of the plan and how this is going to be achieved. This training can include important information such as:

– Who they should contact in the event of an emergency

– How to report any concerns they have relating to health and safety

– Their employers’ responsibilities under the program

– What their rights are under the OSH act (Applicable to US companies)

– Who they should direct any questions to about the safety and health plan itself

– Confirming that workers can report concerns without fear of reprisals

Training should be created in an inclusive and accessible format and completed as part of the onboarding process for any workers. Monitoring exactly who has completed this training is easy when you utilize a construction management tool like ���Ĵ�ý which can store training records online, making them accessible from any device anytime. Construction safety officers can upload their own training videos, PowerPoints and other resources, collating all necessary training resources in one place. Meanwhile, you can use the reporting option to find out who hasn’t completed training and get this sorted quickly, before it has an impact on your construction schedule.

You can even check the effectiveness of the training provided by asking workers to complete a custom quiz to test their knowledge, which is another valuable feature of the ���Ĵ�ý software.

Maintaining safety on a multi-employer construction site doesn’t have to be painfully complex, especially when there is project management software to take care of many of the most time-consuming tasks on your behalf. Find out for yourself and schedule your demo with ���Ĵ�ý today.

The post How to Enforce Safety and Stay on Schedule on a Multi-Employer Construction Site appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.

The construction process is usually divided into four distinct phases: planning, pre-construction, construction and close. The planning and contract phase is defined as the management of all activities involved prior to the commencement of actual work on site. Here’s why your safety team should be involved with your construction project from the very beginning.

A safe construction project is a successful construction project

The success of any construction project relies on a variety of different factors. One of these is ensuring that all work is carried out safely, and that there is minimal risk of an accident or injury occurring during any stage of the project.��

Studies have shown that including safety as a key topic of discussion in the contract stages of any construction project has a positive effect on worker safety. A safer workforce can perform their roles more effectively, and this can also help ensure that the project runs both on time and within budget – something which all project owners hope to achieve.

There are a number of actions that teams including construction safety managers can do to help eliminate issues that may occur during the contract stage and to improve overall health and safety on the project. These include:

• Developing a logistics plan prior to issuing bid documents so that subcontractors can bid on a realistic process.
• Preventing commitment to unrealistic or unnecessary safety resource levels to win the project.��
• Ensuring that the project owner clearly communicates safety expectations for the project for proper allocation of resources.��
• Actively participating in the bidding process, often referred to as “putting it on the street”.
• Making sure everyone understands the site rules, particularly relating to access, use of equipment and fire and emergency arrangements.��
• Creating a checklist of common safety issues which will help contract managers and safety professionals to remember to include necessary items in the final contract.��
• Updating boilerplate subcontract language to incorporate new safety regulations
• Encouraging clients to test their spaces early for hazmat (asbestos, lead paint, contaminated soil). Remediation can derail a project’s schedule and budget, so the sooner you find out, the better your options will be for handling it.
• Use your logistics plan to create a realistic budget for safety measures, such as temporary stairs, guardrails, or scaffolding

Your safety team should comprehensively go through all documents and contracts at the very beginning of a project, before work has commenced. This gives them the opportunity to identify any safety concerns, raise them and ensure that they are appropriately addressed prior to the project starting.

The importance of site history in safety planning

Site history is another thing to take into consideration in the planning and contract stage of any construction project. Depending on where you are building, there may be unusual features which could pose a potential hazard risk. For example:

• Asbestos or other contaminants
• Overhead power lines or underground services
• Unusual ground conditions
• Public right of way across the site
• Nearby roads, railways or footpaths
• Any other activities that could be going on near the site

The project will be much more likely to run smoothly, efficiently and profitably if any site hazards have been properly predicted, planned for and included in the contract. Being unprepared for them could mean that it is necessary to halt work, wasting time and money.

Use the tools available to you

Everyone on a construction site has a responsibility to make safety a priority, but this is particularly true of the construction safety manager. Fortunately, there are tools available to make it easier for you to juggle the many different components of managing safety on a busy worksite, such as ���Ĵ�ý.��

���Ĵ�ý is a construction onboarding and safety training software that can streamline many aspects of site safety and compliance. Implementing ���Ĵ�ý at the start of any construction project is an ideal way to help ensure the highest levels of workforce safety before anyone even steps foot on site. For example:

Online site orientation and training

Focus on reducing project risk from the outset using ���Ĵ�ý’s online training and site orientation services. These help you to make sure that everyone involved in the project is properly trained and onboarded before they even arrive on site. You can upload training assets at any time, meaning there’s never any reason for workers not to have received the latest education and information. Better still, ���Ĵ�ý has the flexibility to deliver role, project and language-specific onboarding, enabling everyone to get the training that they need to do their job safely.��

Site access

You need to make sure that everyone who has access to the site is properly trained and registered. ���Ĵ�ý’s check-in/check-out QR codes enable safety managers to verify workers from their mobile device.��

Worker compliance

Making sure that workers and subcontractors are compliant is simple thanks to ���Ĵ�ý, which has a central worker qualification database that stores crucial information about each individual, regardless of their area of work. You can even set alerts to let you know when specific qualifications for individuals require renewal, ensuring nobody slips through the compliance net.��

Covid-19 risk management

Unsurprisingly, Covid-19 risk management (and in the future, protection against other contagious diseases) is a very real concern on busy construction sites. ���Ĵ�ý offers the ability to create unique daily screening checklists, letting you automate the process of asking health screening questions before they come onto site. You can even keep detailed records of responses, should you need to refer to them in the future.��

Find out more about how ���Ĵ�ý construction onboarding and safety training software can help you manage safety on your construction site by.��

By including safety management in the earliest possible stages of planning and negotiation of a construction project, it’s possible to prevent many safety issues from occurring during the build.

The post Your Construction Project: Why The Safety Team Should Be Involved Right from the Contract Stage appeared first on ���Ĵ�ý.