By Michael Zalle, YellowBird

Safety is a critical challenge for employers across the country and construction remains heavily regulated. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), in 2020 alone, the three main general safety and health inspections totaled more than 1,300 recorded violations . Each of these violations can cost between $14k and $135k, a hefty expense for subcontractors. The citations, along with potential injuries and fatalities, can be avoided by following safety programs, implementing training sessions, and seeking out environmental, health and safety (EHS) expertise. As the construction industry intensifies recruiting efforts, you should consider safety a valuable recruiting factor, implementing simple steps, and leveraging new tech solutions. Here are five ways you can ensure your subcontracting company is compliant, keeps workers safe, and saves thousands of dollars.

1. Make Safety One of Your Company’s Top Values
Due to the amount of physical labor required in construction jobs, it’s imperative that the workforce be properly trained. To avoid incidents, fatalities, and fines from various government agencies, compliance should be a top priority. This should be a sincere effort and a constant reminder for workers of all ages, sexual orientations, and genders.

2. Host Safety Sessions Mandatory to All Workers
Your employees will do what they see management do. Training sessions are no exception. Your company management team can set an example and show that safety is for everyone, not just for frontline workers. Demonstrate that the entire company is invested in the safety and health of all employees.

3. Ensure Access to PPE
The construction workforce is more open to injuries when access to the right PPE and safety protocols are lacking. This happens because new (and veteran) employees underestimate the risks involved in apparently simple tasks. But access to PPE is not enough. Make sure the protective equipment is well fitted for all workers, and that it is adequate for women, for example.

4. Site Safety Management
Not all construction contractors can afford a full-time EHS professional to enforce regulations and policies. Your company can still stay compliant and have safety oversight by leveraging emerging technologies. If your company is too small to have a full-time EHS professional on staff you can hire on-demand expertise for fall protection training, first aid programs, confined space training, and more.

Hiring EHS expertise on-demand allows you to use data points to quickly search candidates for a specific location, which greatly impacts the project timeline. In addition to saving time, you also reduce costs, since you can get the safety protocols assessed quickly and pay by gig. Compared to hiring through staffing and temp agencies, using on-demand service reduces costs by as much as 25%. But perhaps the most important benefit for construction contractors is that the on-demand marketplace allows them to accurately find candidates with the credentials they need. 

5. Mock Safety Audits and OSHA Inspections
A mock OSHA inspection helps you identify workplace safety and health hazards that need remedying to make sure your company follows OSHA’s rules and regulations.

A safety audit, on the other hand, is an objective analysis of the programs and strategies a business has in place to help keep workers safe. A safety audit provides documented findings that the company’s management team can implement to improve safety. Audits are typically conducted from an external point-of-view, which is why many audits are conducted by EHS professionals. During an audit, an EHS professional will help you answer key questions such as:

• How effective is my company’s EHS recordkeeping?
• Are our safety programs and strategies compliant with current safety regulations?
• Is our hazard communication effective?
• What weaknesses are evident in our safety programs and strategies, including training documentation, incident and accident documentation, and policy/procedure reviews?

Even organizations that are compliant may still have weaknesses. A safety audit can help you learn how to improve safety programs and strategies and provide the most protection possible to your employees, worksite visitors, and overall operations. Employers in the construction industry should consider having weekly or daily safety audits and reviews of the company’s safety plan. 

The audit can cover a wide range of safety needs within your company. Some subcontracting companies need an OSHA safety audit, or a general site safety audit, or perhaps a third-party safety inspection for their insurance provider. Whatever the needs are, an EHS professional can help assess and identify areas of concern. The audit can be completed within a day or be scheduled weekly, which will ensure your workplace is safe and compliant while making your management team aware of potential OSHA citations. Employers can also opt to have an EHS professional on site daily to perform inspections while the project is ongoing.

The EHS professional will focus on all aspects of safety compliance, including recordkeeping reviews, training documentation, OSHA log review, incident and accident documentation, as well as policy/procedure reviews. Finally, it is important to perform a thorough facility walk through to identify safety gaps that a regulatory compliance agent may notice. The professional will observe safety details such as egress, safety signage, evacuation routes, chemical storage, and employee safety behaviors. The consultant will then document observations and compliance gaps, then provide you with a comprehensive compliance report detailing all aspects of the visit. This report can be used as a roadmap to better compliance.

In essence, your workers’ safety is too much of a risk for small businesses to be overlooked. If your organization is too small to have a dedicated professional, consider engaging a qualified EHS professional to address your safety and compliance needs while keeping your business financially healthy.

About the Author

Michael Zalle is the founder and CEO of YellowBird, a gig-economy marketplace that quickly and easily connects Risk and Safety professionals with businesses on-demand. By providing a fast and efficient method for insurance companies, business leaders and skilled professionals to consult, YellowBird matches the right people, in the right location, with the right experience for the job. A career tech entrepreneur, Michael has accumulated successful exits throughout his 25-year career. He attended San Francisco State University and Pepperdine University with a focus on Business Management. He is a husband of 20 years and father of two great kids, Nicholas (16) and Josephine (12).