Construction Safety Week: Keeping everyone safe

Every construction company should be dedicated to the safety of its workers — making sure every man and woman goes home in the same condition in which they arrive every day. The construction industry has always based the safety performance of a company on statistics from past incidents. But they only tell part of the story.

Innovative thinking and a commitment to safety from contractors, owners, workers, and the entire construction community are at the forefront of preventing jobsite injuries and fatalities.

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) has determined that there are 20 key components to improving safety performance, including but not limited to: pre-planning, new employee orientation and training, setting policies, responsibility and accountability, safety resources, protective equipment and programs, enforced participation, inspections incident investigation, reviews, substance-abuse programming, record keeping and documents.

Applying world-class processes dramatically improves safety performance among participants regardless of the company size or type of work.

With this in mind, ABC implemented the Safety Training Evaluation Process (STEP). An analysis of participants against the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics industry average of Total Recordable Incident Rates shows STEP participants are safer than the industry average by 770 percent.

A commitment to world-class safety takes tremendous effort and is fraught with leadership challenges. Transforming a company is difficult. Transforming an industry is daunting.

The current statistic of three deaths per day in our industry is simply unacceptable. This safety week we are working with companies to analyze their safety and prevention programs to positively affect their “safety culture” and put safety at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Jonathan Rendon , Safety and Workforce Development Coordinator, Associated Builders and Contractors Florida East Coast Chapter, Inc. Send your 150-word letter to letters@ sunsentinel.com. By mail: 333 SW 12th Ave, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442. Include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and become property of the Sun Sentinel.