BUILDERS’ BUSINESS

Health and safety on site

Builders’ Business is a column by builders for builders. Its objective is to provide a forum, particularly for small business operators, in which to share knowledge, experience, tips and ideas

Q: What do you do to ensure health and safety on your sites?

Firm: Home Trends Builders Ltd

Principal: Peter de Gouw

Location: Christchurch

Staff: 12

We are very prudent with health and safety and run a tight ship, so nothing slips through the cracks. Everyone must be up to date with Site Safe guides and undergo frequent performance meetings to check they’re adhering to the correct methods. Focusing on the day-to-day basics is important to ensure we have strong foundations, and then we build from there.

I’ve got a certificate in health and safety and like to stay proactive on that front, keeping up to date with where the industry is failing in safety and what new methods are being introduced. I think it’s important for health and safety to start right at the top, which then allows me to communicate better with the team.

It’s also important to us that we discuss topical safety issues with everyone as they come up in the news, as this offers a good chance to learn from what’s going on — good and bad. This also acts as a another method of training that doesn’t just involve giving out instructions.

Firm: High Country Carpentry Ltd

Principal: Lain Hellmrich

Location: Lake Tekapo

Staff: 10

We start by emphasising personal responsibility for health and safety in our business. This creates accountability, and everyone must understand that if they create a hazard, they must deal with it. This is done to instill a good habit of being safety conscious and teaching the team that safety starts at the individual, which leads to helping the whole crew.

We understand that it can be tempting for workers to ignore safety measures if they fear it will get in the way of achieving their targets. To combat this way of thinking, we tell our crew that it’s okay to take a little longer if it means they’re complying with safety standards. This starts by having everyone fill out their hazard forms and identifying hazards before carrying out the work.

It also helps having the likes of HazardCo provide an easy, accessible system for our staff to refer to, if they’re unable to ask anyone else or want to learn on their own time, when they aren’t sure of something.

Firm: Shore Build Ltd

Principal: Ash Hare

Location: Auckland

Staff: 33

We have just had our induction pool to refresh our team on health and safety and get up to speed. WorkSafe and HazardCo do a great job in keeping us up to date — HazardCo has a system that works for everyone, with easy-to-understand documentation.

We implement a health and safety ethos with regular staff breakfast meetings to discuss and coach our team and educate our workers. Our foremen complete regular Site Safe courses and undergo annual updates on their safety knowledge to maintain our standards.

Establishing a robust health and safety culture relies on a consistent approach, as you can’t expect workers to hear something once and remember it their whole career. It may take three to four months of repetition, so it’s useful to keep educating the crew and nailing the right processes time after time in your daily work.

Now have your say…

What do you do to strengthen your team culture?

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Email your answer with your full name, contact phone number, company name, number of full-time staff and the city or town in which you’re based to editor@pmundersconstruction.co.nz. All responses must be submitted by 25 November 2019. The answers to this question will be published in Under Construction December/January 2019.