Best Practices To Keep Your Construction Workers Compliant

Best Practices To Keep Your Construction Workers Compliant


Best Practices To Keep Your Construction Workers Compliant



INTRO

Organizations like the Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) and the European Agency for Safety & Health at Work (EU-OSHA) have very strict compliance and safety guidelines that must be met in order to perform construction work. These governing bodies have the ability to create and enact new policies, new laws, and also have the legal authority to levy fines and punishments on private companies that don’t comply. Companies are always looking to minimize the effect of audits, fines, and other violations.


THE CONSEQUENCES OF NON-COMPLIANCE

Consequences for non-compliance can be huge depending on the severity, the industry, and the number of violations for the company in one calendar year. There are many types of OSHA violations, including errors with fall protection, communicating hazards, scaffolding protection, and lockout/tagout - just to name a few. According to OSHA, a first-time, serious violation can carry a fine of up to $13,653. In 2016, OSHA recorded almost 43,000 serious violations -- approximately $500M in fines. Consequences are swift, severe, and can completely cripple a business. That’s why compliance matters.


WHAT DOES CONSTRUCTION COMPLIANCE MEAN?

Construction compliance means being able to show, or prove that your workers are doing their jobs the right way -- safe and according to all rules & regulations. This means any worker on your job-site must be properly trained, the jobs they work on fully documented, and any issues reported immediately to management. That way, if an OSHA auditor or other regulatory body shows up, you’ll be ready to give them what they require. If your company is following all the rules and can prove it, you should have nothing to fear.



BEST PRACTICES FOR INDIVIDUAL WORKER COMPLIANCE

Worker compliance can be hard to achieve at any job-site. For instance, people might forget to bring their certifications when they get onboarded, or a manager might forget to ask for a subcontractor’s OSHA 10 and state contractor license. This is bad. Often, companies have fully pen & paper driven onboarding or compliance management processes which result in huge excel spreadsheets at best, or file cabinets with paperwork that can never be found again, at the worst. Here are some best practices to keep individual workers compliant:


1) Keep a master database of every employee, sub-contractor, visitor, or other worker who works for your company. This master database should include important information such as: worker personal information, emergency contact details, OSHA certifications, contractor licenses, and individual company training certifications.


2) Attach expiration dates or “re-training” dates for each certification that must be renewed. If your project staff & HR managers keep track of these dates, your workers will always have up-to-date certifications.


3) Provide training and safety courses on a daily basis for every worker. This ensures safety and compliance remain at the top of every worker’s mind.


BEST PRACTICES FOR JOB-SITE COMPLIANCE

Job-site compliance means making sure that every process on your job-site is done according to your rules and regulations (which ensure the job is done legally and in a compliant manner). This can be difficult because there are thousands of moving parts at any given moment at your job-site. Sometimes managers will ignore compliance processes in an attempt to get the job done faster, but if something goes wrong, huge problems can occur. Here are some best practices to keep your construction site in compliance:


1) Document everything that you can. This means documenting things like Toolbox Talks, safety meetings, individual safety issues, great catches, and safety violations. By documenting as much as possible, your team will be able to prove your processes and procedures to any auditing body, and it will enable your project team to refine the way they do operations to get things done quicker and safer.


2) Provide simple workflows for everyone on-site to follow. These workflows can be for almost any aspect of the construction site, ranging from instructions on how to stay safe when doing a task, to processes for reporting subcontractor hours, and equal opportunity workforce tracking.


3) Reward workers who show the most participation in your compliance and safety programs. By tracking who stays safe, your team can instill better behaviors by positively rewarding good workers.


HOW COMPLIANCE SOFTWARE HELPS


Compliance software is designed to help your team design workflows & help your workers follow them easily. Good compliance software lets stakeholders “manage by exception”, meaning they will be immediately alerted to any issues, rather than finding out after the fact (or not finding out at all). Compliance software also takes the guesswork out of tracking each worker -- your team will know who needs what training and when. Construction companies need compliance software to take the burden off the project team so managers can focus on getting the job done faster and safer.


RESULTS OF GOOD COMPLIANCE

Your team will know your compliance program works when you get a gold star assessment from any auditing body. Good compliance means more than just passing auditor inspections however -- a good compliance program shines when your team doesn’t have to ask questions or look for answers as to ANY question related to training, safety, and HR compliance.


VIRTUAL BADGE FOR COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

We designed Virtual Badge to be a compliance management tool for organizations with tons of moving parts. With Virtual Badge your team can design simple mobile workflows that result in an ID badge that can track ANY aspect of worker compliance, such as background checks, drug tests, individual training certificates, and much much more. Once a worker uploads their documentation, your team can issue the Virtual Badge to the worker, and they will be added to your project roster. From there, any safety issue, training request, or compliance information will be available to managers at any time. Virtual Badge is a proven solution to reduce compliance headaches and increase overall safety at a job-site.