If you were a kid growing up in the city, you may remember looking through a knothole in the wooden fence surrounding a construction site. Fortunate kids got to see a hive of activity – earth moving equipment, scaffolding, iron erection, and workers climbing, riveting, pouring concrete, and more. It was fun to watch.
As adults, the amount of coordination is spine-tingling as project managers on construction projects can make sense of the chaos and create an atmosphere of purpose that keeps projects on schedule.
One area of coordination that stands out are safety problems – left unresolved they can delay or stop a project.
Safety Related Issues
Any worker on your site has the right to a safe workplace. If an employee reports a situation that endangers workers the construction company must investigate and remove the dangerous situation. In a perfect world, this would be the end of the story. Alas, it isn’t. When the dangerous situation is not fixed, any employee has the right to report the problem to the Occupational Health & Safety Administration. This triggers an on-site visit from OSHA and paperwork to complete. While confidentiality is important, management may have a strong suspicion concerning who file the OSHA report. Whistleblowers are a protected class under federal law, accordingly, any action perceived to be retaliatory in nature must not be taken. Keep job site safety topmost in your approach to construction and avoid the hassles and delays caused by a safety inspection. Ensure your site is safe by performing the following important safety inspections often:
- Do a site walk-through to identify any potential or real safety risks
- Mark hazardous materials
- Inspect equipment that includes harnesses, scaffolds, cranes and more
- Check that all needed safety equipment is available and in use
- Post emergency procedures including where exits are found
- Make sure that all necessary barricades and signage are in place
Safety is one area where technology and software help construction managers. Others include:
- Disorganized work sites
- Lackluster workers
- Being a good influence on the neighborhood
Construction Managers are Like Orchestra Conductors
It must be hard for a symphony orchestra conductor to inspire every orchestra member to give the best performance they can. But, they always make the effort.
- Orchestra conductors make sure that there are the right number of instruments in each section (brass, string, and percussion) and skilled performers to play them.
- The job of the orchestra is to give the most inspiring performance the audience has seen. Usually, orchestras meet the challenge, but, sometimes they miss their mark. When this occurs, the conductor investigates the cause, works with the performer to correct what took place so that it won’t happen again.
Construction managers must be sure that the proper workers are in place and has the equipment and building supplies to get the job done. Prior to the start of construction, they are responsible for collecting data and completing forms for licensure and permitting. When there is a safety incident they must investigate, fix the cause, and if needed retrain employees about equipment and job site safety.
Assignar is a company devoted to helping clients in high-compliance industries run better by using advanced technology to help meet tight deadlines. In addition, Assignar is a workforce and asset allocation and planning. Assignar Assignar has worked with contractors and help them tighten operations and gain higher profits. See how Assignar can offer you a complete suite of construction management tools.
