COVID-19 strengthened the world discussing—and acting on—workplace safety. This National Safety Month let’s use the momentum to go beyond the important work of limiting disease transmission and address other safety challenges in the workplace environment together.

Every year roughly 340 million occupational accidents and 160 million victims of work-related illnesses occur across the United States, according to the International Labour Organization. To turn these numbers around, construction leaders need to provide strong workplace safety protocol and create a culture that champions safety day in and day out. As ILO data confirms, promoting a safety-forward culture in the workplace plays a vital role in reducing work-related accidents and disease spread, while helping improve employee well-being, engagement and morale.

By giving all construction workers the confidence to do their best work safely, construction leaders can help fuel business productivity and performance—ultimately helping keep projects on track to enhance client value and satisfaction.

Unispace recently brought these values to life in a series of stand-down sessions across U.S.-based construction sites. For each of these events, teams stopped what they were doing to discuss questions about how they, together, could improve workplace safety.

Useful questions to ask in your safety stand-down

Individual accidents and injuries can have repercussions that affect all team members, from disrupting workflow to inadvertently elevating others’ chance for injury before mitigation has taken place. Looking at the challenge from a community perspective and through dialogue within the team can help foster the invaluable sense that your employees are in this together.

To prepare for your own stand-down event, start by reviewing case studies, current statistics and existing safety procedures in your own organization to pinpoint incident trends and/or uncover areas of need.

Now that you have the data you need to broach workplace safety conversations for industry employees, the following are some questions to help frame a productive conversation:

1. What should you do if you notice a hazard or witness an accident? “If you see something, say something,” is a great place to start, but make sure employees actually know how to speak up when they see a slip, trip hazard or near-miss incident. Provide a process for team members to alert each other about a potential hazard, and quickly report it to the appropriate site or office manager.
2. What can site-based workers do to stay safe when working at height? A range of safety measures can help reduce risk for at-height tasks, from conducting assembly work at ground level whenever possible, to using mechanical access like PECO lifts. When using equipment like mobile tower scaffolds, ensure safe access and waist-high barriers. When ladders are the only access, always reiterate and follow established safety protocols, such as specifying points of contact and limiting work time to 30 minutes or less.
3. What are potential risks for office-based work? In construction, it’s easy to assume people wearing hard hats and working at height are the only ones at risk but the reality is accidents can happen anywhere. From reaching for an item on a high shelf or rushing through a crowded hall to get to a meeting, even the simplest of actions can cause injury. Outline common desk-job safety hazards your employees have experienced, then brainstorm as a team, ways to avoid them.
4. What processes are in place in the event of an emergency evacuation? Every employee and contractor should know where their nearest emergency exit is and know where and how to reconvene once they’ve exited a building or site. Schedule regular practice drills and confirm people who work from home have a good emergency plan, too.
5. What lessons can we draw from past incidents? From facility issues like sprinkler floods to human error, every past incident can serve as a teachable moment. Break down incidents to analyze what happened, the health and business impacts, the circumstances that allowed the incident to occur, and ways to improve in the future.
6. What should you do if you see someone acting in an unusual or unsafe manner? It can be hard for people to know what to do when they believe someone may be acting irrationally or irresponsibly. Every company will have its own way of addressing sensitive situations, but a good place to start is reminding one another of the importance of mental health and the sense of commitment to each other’s safety as colleagues.

Turn workplace safety ideals into action

The best way to run a business is to put people first, making workplace safety a critical baseline for organizational success. This strategic mandate demands an all-hands-on-deck approach that begins at the top but includes everyone at all levels who together define your firm’s success.

By taking time to stand down for workplace safety, we can help shape a more human construction industry, together.