Beyond compliance, a construction company with a good safety culture is a daily reminder to employees that their well-being is the most important part of the job. The desire to get everyone home to their families at the end of each shift must begin with a simple and repeatable shared plan for safety to start each day. Practicing good habits, over time, with every member of your team will bring you closer to identifying as a company that puts safety first.
Here are three habits to practice every day that can positively shift the safety culture in your organization:
- Daily completion of a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA)
- Daily meeting covering JHA
- Daily encouragement of participation in the Near Miss & Observation program by all employees.
Complete the JHA
Within HCSS Safety, there are hundreds of industry-expert created JHA templates that are regularly updated. You have the option to also upload your own JHA, JSA, and AHA into the system. If you make a priority to complete a JHA every day, you are providing a plan to identify hazards, plan safety for the day, control what you know, and communicate with their crew. As soon as you complete a JHA, the software will automatically prompt you to schedule a meeting.
Start Every Day With a Meeting
You want to start your day, before any work, holding a daily meeting that covers the JHA. Daily meetings will keep your crew informed and on the same page before you touch your first activity for the day. The HCSS Safety program will guide you through your talk (no public speaking ability required), help you cover all that needs to be said, and at the end of the meeting, you can encourage your crew to speak up and be a part of the process – What did they notice from the day before? What else needs to be covered? What can they do to be safer today?
A habit becomes automatic when it is repeated enough times, and having a good safety culture is a series of good habits that protect your people and job sites from potential hazards. After you created your JHA, you are prompted to hold the meeting, and that kind of automation will help the foreman follow the templates, communicate what needs to be covered, and create a paperless record of who attended the meeting.
Regularly Encourage Participation
There needs to be daily encouragement of participation in the Near Miss & Observation program by all employees. Practicing good habits can often seem uncomfortable at first because they are working to overcome the existing habits that have been developed over time. Overcoming these barriers may require constant encouragement and assurance that this is how we protect each person. Reporting the near-miss and making observations adds another set of eyes watching your blind spot. When you see something that no one else can see, and you share that with the rest of your group, you are creating another layer of protection for the crew.
It supports the purpose of holding daily meetings, by bringing awareness before you start the day or the next day because something bad did not happen yet. At the beginning of the day, you still have the opportunity to protect what happens in your future. This is not just an effort from the highest level of management (although it should be fully supported), but this should be an effort that is encouraged and practiced by every crew member. Mentors should be assigned to coach newer members, and crew members need to listen to others and speak up when someone else can’t quite form the words to say.
We Are Here to Support Your Infrastructure
No matter what stage you are going through to become a safer company, HCSS is here for you, watching your six. We are constantly updating your HCSS Safety program with the latest JHA and daily meetings content from OSHA, MSHA, COR, USACE, and NAVFAC to make the process so easy and complete that your crews will be prepared for every shift.
If you need any help please let us know. HCSS Support is available to you all the time, every day at 800-444-3196. Support regularly updates our searchable how-to articles based on your calls, and you can find those at our Online Help Center. If you need training, we add new courses to the HCSS Academy that are segregated by product. If you feel like you need help with setting goals and learning how you can reach those goals feel free to reach out to your Customer Success Team at success@hcss.com.
