Staying Vigilant Reduces Risk

In any industry, there is a feeling of “that’s not my job” that can open up unexpected risk for any company. When we start talking about the construction industry, the idea of vigilance saving lives and reducing risk is extremely important. A construction company would never ask any worker to do more than is what expected of them. But when workers take on a sense of vigilance and take responsibility for work site safety, then that goes a long way towards reducing risk and saving the company a lot of money.

Site Visitors

Most workers try to not acknowledge visitors to the job site as everyone has their own job to do. But construction companies should train their workers on the basic procedures taken with visitors so that workers can alert their supervisors is something seems wrong.

For example, if workers know that visitors are supposed to be wearing a visitor’s badge where it can be seen, then that would help empower workers to question the presence of people on the job site who do not have those badges. Workers should also feel empowered to remind any visitor to wear their hard hat and be on guard for any kind of safety issue at any time.

Repeated Dangerous Activity

When the noon hour comes around, many workers get the impression that the job site safety rules go on break with the workers. The noon hour is the time when the majority of construction accidents happen, and that is because workers feel they can ignore safety rules when they are on break.

If a worker notices that other workers like to go to places on the job site that are normally considered unsafe, or if there are workers that spend their lunch time in parts of the building where they do not belong, then that worker should feel that they can report those activities. Workers who feel that safety policies take a break at the noon hour can become significant risks for the entire company.

Employee Theft

Many people do not see employee theft as a risk hazard, but it definitely causes problems on a job site. Something as simple as workers taking home bandages from the first aid kits so they don’t have to buy their own leaves the first aid kits unprepared for a job site emergency.

Site supervisors and workers rely on equipment and materials being where they are supposed to be when the work day starts. Employee theft can postpone work for hours and force workers to have to search the job site for the missing items. These are the types of disorganized moments that can lead directly to a worker injury, which is why everyone on a job site should be vigilant about reporting employee theft.

Why should an employee care about remaining vigilant and helping to reduce company risk? Because incidents of high risk cost companies money, and that extra money being paid out for risk mitigation could mean less money to hire workers.

The financial future of the company should be in the interests of the workers as well. Whether the workers are union or non-union, there still needs to be a company in place to hire those workers. By being vigilant about reducing risk, workers do their part to make sure they have jobs waiting when the next project starts.