Be it a regular or big-ticket project, every project in the construction or engineering industry involves a high level of risk. Management can minimize risks and prevent accidents from taking place before the project takes off. However, there needs to be a fail-proof safety plan in place.
Why is project safety planning important?
To borrow the words of American polymath Benjamin Franklin, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” A lot of things can go wrong when you don’t have a formal and binding safety plan. Your workplace becomes more conducive to work when you make sure your facilities and systems all contribute to the safety of your workers. And when your workers are fully protected from hazards, they can focus on completing the project.
Building a plan around the safety concerns of a project is essential for the following reasons:
- You can anticipate possible dangers and address them before your workers are deployed to the site. The best way to solve a problem is addressing it at the root, or in other words, resolving it right away before it progresses into a bigger problem. Drafting a safety plan allows you to consider all the safety issues from all sides of the project and come up with a ready set of solutions.
- You’ll be able to contain negative repercussions of an accident as they come. Fire hazards are always lurking in different corners of every workplace. That’s why workplaces have fire extinguishers and water sprinklers are placed in key areas in case a fire breaks out. This safety measure helps prevent the fire from spreading and further harming the workers. In terms of readiness in the face of a fire accident, a company can conduct regular fire drills. The purpose of this is to teach workers proper response towards such situations, diffuse panic, and help them to safely get out of the building. You can consider other possible dangers and come up with strategies to contain their negative effects on the workers and your building when you carefully draft a safety plan.
- You can identify vital policies and controls. When you determine the potential dangers related to your project or the hazards that can occur in your workplace, you also need to identify the policies and controls to enforce safety. An example of policy you might need to consider to reduce your workers’ exposure to risk is enforcing the use of personal protective equipment in and around the site. Controls when dealing with electrical wiring and hazardous chemicals may also be applicable.
- You can explore a project-specific approach. No two projects are the same in nature. Therefore, it’s necessary to create a safety plan for each project. A Toronto project safety planner can help you in making a safety plan that’s tailored to the nitty-gritty details of a specific project at hand. It’s crucial to follow the exact plan you’ve written on paper to ensure you’re only doing the necessary tasks and avoid overlooking aspects that are of primary importance.
- You can provide proper training and communication to your workers. Most importantly, when you have a safety program in place, you can empower your staff to look after their own safety and that of others. Proper training and orientation on their roles and responsibilities is critical. Make sure every worker has a firm understanding of the plan and their role in upholding safety throughout the project.
