Communication and Coordination

Creating a strong safety culture is crucial for maintaining an accident and injury-free work environment. Discussing safety topics and known hazards in the “morning huddle” safety meeting is an effective way to instill a strong safety culture and to communicate hazards in the workplace.  Pre-shift meetings between General Contractor and sub-contractors helps to address new concerns and bridge any communication gaps in an effort to improve safety and to stress its overall importance.  These two-way conversations also help us identify hazards that we must document in our safety plans before we can proceed with our work.  

Things we should consider prior to work beginning:

Is the work you are currently performing written on your JSA or PTP?  Changes in the construction industry happen fast, we need to review our plans and act fast when we notice those changes.  Writing management of change (MOC) to document additional safety concerns not previously mentioned should be the top priority, prior to work beginning.

Were new safety hazards discussed during the morning huddle that was not identified yesterday?  If we need to walk down the area as a group to get a full understanding of the hazards, then we must do so.  Changing weather, changing jobsite conditions, or change of work scope should all be considered and well documented due to its ever-changing nature. 

We all want to be as productive as possible and stay on schedule, but how productive and on schedule are we if our jobsite is delayed due to an injury, near miss, or incident?  The answer is simple…we’re not!

These are setbacks that no jobsite wants to endure, but with good communication and coordination, all injuries and incidents can be avoided.  Communicating changes helps keep workers in the know, leading to increased jobsite safety, and increasing our chances of a safe return home.