Archive for April, 2012

Teaching Construction Site Visitors Safe Practices

April 16th, 2012

A construction site is one place where keeping track of visitors is essential. However, beyond tracking and documentation, you’ve also got to ensure that your visitors are familiar will be safe, and that involves educating them:

  1. Make sure they review a manual on visitor safety – a basic safety manual should be read by all visitors before entering a work area. Additionally, they should also be verbally briefed by a site worker that can tell them about more specific things to watch out for.
  2. Have them sign that they understand the safety regulations- visitors will better understand the importance of the issue if they have to sign a document that confirms they read and understand the manual.
  3. They should never leave their escort – visitors should always be escorted throughout the site. Ensure that they understand what the repercussions could be if they choose to wander. Note where they will be when on the site, and with whom, in a visitor management system.
  4. Be sure they know not to interrupt the staff – individuals  working on a construction site need to remain focused, or accidents could occur. Visitors cannot be distracted in this way.

By putting a couple of major security protocols in place at any construction site you’re running, you can keep visitors and staff alike safe.

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Preparing for Corporate Visits on Job Sites

April 9th, 2012

There comes a time in any construction project when the corporate bosses with the company behind the initiative will stop by to check out the site’s progress. This can be stressful, as these are the people that your staff is reporting to. However, a little preparation goes a long way:

  1. Have the foreman or a site supervisor escort the visitors – this is for the sake of safety, and effectively informing the corporate executives visiting your site. Ensure that someone is available to greet them, so they don’t end up wandering through the site on their own, which can be dangerous and frustrating.
  2. Ensure that they have been informed about safety protocols – no one should ever be allowed on the site until they have been briefed on safety protocols. Ensure that anyone who hasn’t been on the site before receives this necessary guidance. If any massive changes have been made to the job site, it is important that they are informed of these as well from a safety perspective.
  3. Have the appropriate equipment ready – you can’t expect that all executives will show up with the correct safety gear, so have it handy. This means hard hates, reflective vests, and steel-toed boots if necessary.
  4. Log them in – just because they are integral people to the project doesn’t mean they shouldn’t sign in and go through the typical protocols. It is essential to safety to know who is on the site, for how long, and why. Use a visitor management tracking program, so you also have the opportunity to review visitor history retroactively if necessary!

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Who Should Be Allowed to Visit a Construction Site?

April 2nd, 2012

Construction site visitors

There are always going to be visitors to a job site, but where there’s construction there is also danger. So it is important to limit the quantity of visitors, and that means setting parameters regarding who is welcome.

Below are some of the common people that can often be found on job sites. Some have a good reason to be there; others should not necessarily be allowed unless  there is a good reason.

  • Owners – owners and executives that work for the company the construction is being done for will want to tour the site periodically. For safety sake, it is wise to try and schedule these times when they can be escorted around the site, and it is possible for someone to answer any questions they may have about the site’s progress.
  • Inspectors – throughout the process, there will be inspections conducted by the city for permits and more. There is no option to ban them from the site.  You will need to accommodate them when they appear. But do not let them wander by themselves.
  • Family members – employees may find it tempting to bring their children to visit at the job site, but even with guidelines, it is safer to keep them away. Even when family members are coached on safety guidelines it becomes more likely that an accident will happen. Children can also be distracting to other workers that need to focus on completing dangerous tasks.
  • Other contractors – if another contractor comes to the site to complete a job that is not familiar with it, they should be escorted by a supervisor initially. This ensures that they are aware with established protocols and what’s happening around them. Just because someone is used to working in a construction environment, doesn’t mean that they should be given free reign off the bat.

It’s also important to keep track of all visitors on a job site.

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