How to Get Ready for Construction Season this Summer

The snow has melted, and spring is upon us! That means the summer construction season is fast approaching, and new projects will soon commence across the region. Are you prepared for the busy season ahead?  

It’s important for all employers to take the necessary steps to help ensure a safe and successful work environment. There are many things organizations can do, but we want to help you get ready for upcoming projects with the following short list of things you can start doing now.

1. Hire enough certified workers, including third-party contractors

Labor shortage has been plaguing the construction industry for some time now. In fact, the industry needs “two million more workers over the next three years”, as mentioned in Business Insider. This is due to multiple factors including the pandemic, employees retiring from the field, and the fact that many workers are leaving the industry altogether for several reasons. This has led to a limited number of skilled workers.  

Therefore, it’s crucial to start looking for skilled workers now to have enough members to complete upcoming projects. Don’t limit your team to only in-house workers but expand your circle to include third-party contractors as well. Once your team is assembled, make sure all workers are properly trained with your organization’s policies and procedures to conduct their job tasks safely.  

2. Make sure all equipment is checked and maintained

It’s important to ensure all equipment and machinery needed, is readily available to help you complete your upcoming projects. Stock up on supplies and PPE and double check your inventory to ensure all elements are in order. 

Employers must also work to maintain and inspect all pieces of equipment to check for any deficiencies to avoid injury or illness on-site. Having a digital asset inspection tool to help proactively protect against equipment malfunction or failure across multiple sites, can help quickly mitigate risks and protect your people. This can also help to avoid downtime and ensure business efficiency.   

3. Look at past safety data to mitigate future risks

Another way to help business continuity and efficiency is to look back at past safety data to help minimize injuries and illnesses on-site. Employers should be able to spot trends and patterns in past years’ safety performance records and track data such as total recordable incident rates (TRIR), lost time injury rates (LTIR), and days away restricted or transferred (DART), to name a few. 

With a strong reporting and analytics tool, organizations can have full transparency into leading causes of incidents and injuries to work towards preventing these in the future. This way leaders can take a more proactive approach to safety, rather than a reactive one. Fewer incidents and injuries on-site means less lost time and greater productivity.  

4. Do what you can to strengthen your safety culture

A strong safety culture can help workers recognize their value to the company, as their employers truly care about their safety and wellbeing. Employers must help the workforce understand the part they play in creating a safe work environment and how everyone, from boardroom executives to front-line workers, are responsible for each other’s safety. Building this type of environment is something that employers can start doing, if they have not already, at their organization.  

Not only will this help to create a safer workplace, but it will boost employee morale and retention rates as they know they are valued. When employees feel like they are a part of an organization that truly cares about them, they will give their all to their work.  

5.Use a digital safety solution to help simplify safety and processes

Having a digital safety solution at your fingertips can help boost productivity and efficiency during the upcoming busy season. With certain processes streamlined and safety simplified, workers can be more engaged and inclined to participate. Take the time to consider the budget needed for such a solution and how you could get C-suite buy-in.  

A cloud-based safety solution is a one-stop shop for all your safety needs! With all safety forms, documents, and data centralized in one easily accessible location, employees can easily find what they are looking for. It can also help to streamline communication as it helps to break down silos and accelerate certain processes. 

Picture this: A hazard assessment is easily accessed by an employee on the safety solution, completed, and digitally submitted to their supervisor. The supervisor is notified when the form is completed and by whom, then can easily review it and assign follow-up tasks and corrective actions to the worker. With such processes streamlined, workers can complete such tasks easier and with less hassle, leading to greater productivity. 

How EcoOnline Can Help

Alcumus offers a suite of solutions to help support your safety, sustainability, and supply chain needs. With our mobile-first platform, we can help you centralize all information and data as well as grant greater visibility into the hidden gaps of your safety and asset management programs. Check that all third-party contractors are up to industry and company standards and that your organization is compliant with current legislation.  

And that’s just the beginning! Curious to learn more? Fill out the form below or speak to an EcoOnline representative today.