Managing safety on a construction project
Principle 2: Promote design for safety
Design safe construction processes
Prior to commencing construction, the constructor should develop safe construction methods to minimise safety risks on the project.
Review safety risk in design changes
Any changes to the design occurring during the construction stage should be examined to ensure that safety is not compromised—either in the design of the facility/structure or the design for construction—and any safety risks arising from the change should be recorded in the project risk register.
Principle 3: Communicate safety information
Communicate safety risk information to relevant stakeholders
Safety risk information should be communicated to all relevant stakeholders to ensure that all personnel are aware of the safety risks and the risk mitigation measures to be practised.
Provide regular safety performance feedback to project personnel
All project personnel—office-based, field-based and subcontractors—should be kept appraised of project safety performance.
Principle 4: Manage safety risks
Implement systematic risk management processes
This task is aimed at ensuring that the constructor implements the construction safety plan effectively and in the spirit of the project safety charter. The project manager should oversee the constructor’s performance in regard to contractual requirements relating to safety and work collaboratively with the constructor in analysing safety performance data with a view to further improving safety processes and performance.
Identify and rectify safety deficiencies
All identified safety deficiencies should be rectified by eliminating the hazard or managing the risk by changing the work environment or work processes.
Record risk information
All hazards identified above should be reported and recorded in the project risk register.
Principle 5: Continuously improve safety performance
Undertake regular measurement of project safety performance using leading indicators, climate surveys and lagging indicators
The major project stakeholders—the client, project manager, designer and constructor—should continuously monitor project safety performance and measure it against the agreed targets to identify trends and deficiencies.
Regularly analyse project safety performance data
The measurements undertaken above should be regularly analysed in order to determine trends.
Principle 6: Entrench safety practices
Continuously develop safety capabilities
During the construction stage, all stakeholders should continue to review, improve and implement programs for induction and on-the-job performance of staff (started in Stage 2) to entrench safety practices as an integral part of the safety culture.
Promote safety management practices within small to medium sized enterprise subcontractors
The constructor should proactively promote a safety culture in SME subcontractor stakeholders.
Implement safety mentoring system for SME subcontractors
The constructor should proactively promote a safety culture in SME subcontractor stakeholders.
Implement safety mentoring system for SME subcontractors
The constructor should proactively promote a safety culture in SME subcontractor stakeholders.
In this series:
- 6 principles of safety for construction projects
- Safety in construction design during the project lifecycle
- Managing safety on a construction project
- Post-construction safety for project managers
