Our News

Why is construction such a dangerous industry? NEBOSH, the National Examination Board for Occupational Safety and Health, spoke to two health and safety professionals about their experiences. James Bird is Head of Strategic Risk and Behavioural Safety at Kier Group, who heads up a team of SHE professionals based across multiple contracts in the UK. Lewis Hunt is the HSQE Manager at Soilfix Limited, who designs, implements, and maintains HSQE systems across a range of projects.

Why is construction such a dangerous industry, and what can be done about it?

Lewis Hunt:
“In construction, you're dealing with a wide spectrum of people. There are different age demographics, ethnic backgrounds, as well as a largely transient workforce that might not necessarily be up to speed with the procedures of the current company they're working for. People in this industry are still afraid to stop and talk about stuff. We've got a lot to do to help people feel more confident to have an open discussion to make a safe environment for all.

“For years the perception for some has been that health and safety is difficult – hiding behind procedures, saying no, telling people you’ve got to do it like this but not explaining why. We walk around with our piece of paper, checking areas, and doing everything for compliance. But ultimately, people make bad decisions if they don’t understand the consequences.

“Now we’re really trying to give people autonomy, to challenge stuff that they see, to help them identify near misses and non-conformities. And by getting them to talk to us. You must listen to understand, rather than just to check a box. I’ve been in this industry many years and I have my NEBOSH Diploma, but I don’t know everything. I can find it out, and I can say to someone “Look, I don’t know, but let me come back to you”. And people respect that because they feel like they are being listened to. If they make a suggestion and are dismissed, they’ll never raise their head above the parapet again. But if you say, “Thanks for that, I’ll look into it”, and then come back to them, even if just to say why you can’t act on that suggestion, they’ll feel listened to and respected.”

How does each and every decisions effect the health and safety of a work place?

James Bird:
“I’ve worked in a lot of industries, from manufacturing to oil and gas, to aviation. They have a completely different way of looking at things. When you start looking at the whole picture of risk, you begin to understand how financial decisions, right back at the bid stage, influence how the job gets done.

“For the guy who's working on the side of the road at two o'clock in the morning, it really matters how well his boots fit, how dry his jacket keeps him. And conversely, in summer, if we dress them in heavyweight garments so they can’t breathe, all these things affect their ability to go about working in the right way. The decisions, the attitudes, the behaviours, and beliefs on any one day are what make the difference between safe or unsafe working. We don't have machines rattling off products continually, doing the same thing over and over again. We have 3,000 men and women on the side of the motorway, digging holes. So, we have to figure out how to build a system in which the bid team, the finance team, the commercial team, the designers, the managers, the supervisors – everybody in that chain the plans things six months before anyone even gets to site – all understand the part they play to put that individual to work in the most optimal position. You’ve got to look at things holistically, from start to finish.”

What do we mean when we talk about creating a positive health and safety culture?

Lewis Hunt:
“I think there are two aspects. First, we must get over the blame culture. Something’s happened, whose fault, was it? That’s still prevalent today. The second thing is getting everyone involved. Health and safety is everyone’s problem, but not everyone wants to accept that. They think that if they mention something, or report it, either they’ll get blamed for it, or they’ll get given the responsibility to fix it. So, we’ve got to change attitudes towards health and safety so that people are empowered to talk about things that aren’t right, and to know that something will be done about the things that they raise.”

James Bird:
“‘Positive health and safety culture’ can be a bit of a buzzword that gets kicked around. It's great having posters on the wall that say, ‘These are our values’, but if they're not lived, if they're not part of the decision-making process, all you have is a poster on the wall. That culture must be honest, and it must come from the top. But it also must come from the bottom and meet in the middle. If people treat each other fairly, if they're honest with each other, if they're empathetic and understand each other’s roles, we can work towards that culture where we start to understand each other, and we knock away the hierarchy between the different levels. Ultimately, we're all just humans going to work. We're all here as one team to deliver an objective. So, it's about getting people aligned to that.”

How can you change behaviour over the long-term?

Lewis Hunt:
“At Soilfix we carry out six-monthly ‘Safety Stand-downs’, which are company-wide. Everybody arrives at eight am, but nobody starts work. We corral around the welfare area and have a bacon butty and a cup of coffee and at 8.00am we have a safety moment where we'll present something industry-related that has gone wrong. There was one recently where a young girl was pinned against a wall by an excavator and received life-changing injuries. And then we'll talk about it. It's meant to be hard-hitting; we want people to get upset, to get passionate and, to think, what if that was my child, my grandchild, my family member? What if that was my friend? What if it was me driving the machine that pinned that girl against the wall?

“Then we relate it to the regulations, and we talk about employee and employer responsibilities. And then we bring it closer to home by talking about a Soilfix related incident. So, if there’s been an incident, or a near miss or whatever – we’ll talk about that and communicate some of the lessons learned to the business as part of a toolbox talk. And then we’ll go around the group and ask everyone for their recommendations, or a positive observation for improvement on the site they're on. We have incident reporting software, so we’ll add it to that, something tangible, and then we produce reports with suggestions. That then goes out to all staff so they can see what was said, what the action points were, and what’s being done about it.

“We need to be focusing on supporting people in the workplace and checking in on people. That helps to influence a positive health and safety culture, because if people feel like they're being listened to, spoken to and, asked how they feel, they're going to feel more open to engaging with senior managers, to the site team, to each other. The stand-downs need to be consistent. They need to have purpose and they need to have tangible outcomes. A lot of companies just do them for the fanfare, the LinkedIn photos, and the newsletters. But often, nothing changes.

“We do put stuff out on social media but that's just the ribbon to the bow. The key thing is the outcomes. Plus, we insist on director attendance – the MD, and all the senior team. It works really well.”

James Bird:
“For me, it’s about design from the start. I think there has definitely been a shift in behaviour in the time I have worked in the industry, but to go with that shift, there's a lot of academic upskilling that needs to take place. That's with leadership teams, with safety teams, with risk managers, project managers and supervisors. We train people technically, but we also need to teach how to communicate effectively, how to manage a team, how to manage resources, how to understand work. We can’t expect a guy who’s out there working in the weather and amongst the public, doing a complex task, to remember 20 life-saving rules. But that’s what you see on site.

“So, you’ve got to think, how do I automate that? How do I engineer a solution to that? How do I reduce the amount of mental capacity that the operative has to use to stay safe? If we've taken care of those things in the background, that means the operative is free to concentrate on the task in hand. And chances are, he or she will work more safely.”

James and Lewis both hold NEBOSH qualifications. For further information about the range of qualifications – including those for the construction industry – visit: https://www.nebosh.org.uk/qualifications/
References
https://www.ncc.org.uk/contractors/6-shocking-construction-safety-statistics/