Construction Safety Best Practices

Personal protective equipment (PPE) includes helmets, glasses, gloves, and steel-toed boots to protect workers from falling objects and other hazards. Make sure all team members are wearing the appropriate gear throughout the construction site and wearing it properly.

This may seem like an obvious tip, but nothing is too obvious when it comes to workplace safety. A PPE refresher for you and your team today could prevent a major accident tomorrow.

Improper use of scaffolding risks falls and collapses. Review the following best practices with your team:

• Never place scaffolds on uneven surfaces.
• Keep scaffolding at least 10 feet from power lines.
• Don’t leave materials or debris on scaffolding at the end of the day.
• Never use scaffolding in bad weather, especially in icy or snowy conditions.
• Never overload a scaffold.

Cleaning up after yourself on the jobsite can make a massive difference in overall safety. Cluttered work areas full of tools and discarded materials could lead to cuts, bruises, or even worse. Attention to detail on everyone’s part is the key to accident prevention. When a worker is leaving an area, the first thing they should do is gather their materials and double-check their surroundings.

Some construction work necessitates the handling of unsafe materials and chemicals, including lead, asbestos, perfluorinated compounds, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Be sure to label any chemicals properly to avoid confusion or misuse. Remind your team how to handle these hazards with the utmost care.

True safety isn’t a one-and-done lesson—it’s an ongoing process that should be an integral part of every company’s culture.

A pages-long list of safety procedures won’t amount to much without buy-in from the whole team. Ongoing employee training is a great starting point. And, because you can’t watch everyone every minute they’re on the clock, it also helps to work closely with team leaders who have their ears to the ground and eyes on the workers throughout the site.