The Employers Guide to Health and Safety on a Building Site

Being an employer means that you hold a lot of important responsibilities, especially when it comes to the wellbeing of your employees. If something goes wrong or if there is an accident in the workplace, it is ultimately the employer who should be held accountable. This is even more true when the workplace is somewhere with a lot of possible risks, such as a building site, which is why it is important to double down on health and safety to reduce the risk of an accident. On that note, if you are an employer with employees working on a building site, this health and safety guide will help you ensure that they can work without risk.

 

Provide Key Training for Your Employees

 

There are many different training courses that your employees must undertake before going to work on a building site. When working, there are lots of heavy machines that must be operated, and if operated incorrectly or without proper training can lead to accidents or and injuries. That is why it is important to provide your employees with training for any machine that they may or may not end up operating. Furthermore, in the case of an injury, it is also important that your employees know how to respond and deal with the incident. That is why you should train your employees on health and safety and specifically train them in first aid so that they know how to treat any minor injuries before proper help arrives.

 

Personal Protective Equipment

.sxOn almost all construction sites it is required by law for workers to wear head protection due to the risk of head injury being so high. Although measures must be taken to reduce the risk of head injury due to objects falling, such as using scaffolds with toe boards, it is important that your employees wear suitable head protection regardless. It is up to you as their employer to ensure that the workers are provided with and wear the hard hats required. Another lesser-known clothing requirement on a building site is protective footwear. It is important to wear safety footwear with steel toecap and midsole protection so that whether they stand on something hard or drop something on their foot, it is protected. Again, this is something that you as an employer should inform them of and pay for.

 

Within every building site, there are many different workers who specialize in different professions. These workers may require their own personal protective equipment that is different from what other employees may need to wear. For example, welders must wear protective gloves and helmets when working that others do not require. It is again up to you as an employer to ensure that they have the correct equipment that is suitable and of high quality. There are many helpful posts and reviews of safety equipment on the Weldingmania blog if you are unsure of the best quality products to get.

 

Plans for an Emergency

 

Whilst you may hope that everything runs smoothly, it is of utmost importance that you have plans for any possible emergency that may occur. Whether there is a fire on the building site, or a pipe is hit causing a gas leak, you as an employer must have a set plan in place on how to deal with such an occurrence. It is also your responsibility to make sure that every worker who sets foot on site knows of this plan and what they must do in the case of an emergency, even if they are just there to work for one day.

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