Integrating Temporary Safety Staff With Full Time Employees
Worksites are a melting pot of tradesmen who bring a range of skills and experience of how to do the job “the right way”. While logistics and coordination are critical to the success of a project, the most important piece could be the relationship between workers. It is human nature to lack trust in someone with whom you are unfamiliar. Naturally this can cause problems on job sites especially in relationships between temporary safety managers and full time workers. In any industry where employees are at risk, it’s imperative to build a mutual respect between temporary safety staff and full time employees. Here are three ways to do it:
1. Start every day with safety.
Each and every morning the entire worksite team should come together to stretch, set goals, and discuss the safe way to accomplish the tasks of the day. Rather than having your safety managers lead the conversation, these meetings should be headed up by project leaders, with safety managers and employees standing side by side, helping remove the “teacher/student” relationship that workers can grow to dislike.
2. Encourage conversation between safety staff and workers.
Regardless of the specific project, all workers have the same goal at the end of the day; return home in one piece. Encourage everyone on your worksite to interact with each other and share personal stories. Not only will this subconsciously help all workers remember why they should be safe, it establishes common ground and builds trust between safety staff and employees.
3. Support and promote confidence in safety staff.
This tip is largely for project leaders. While it’s natural for anyone in a new setting to want to get a lay of the land, construction projects can’t afford to waste time while safety managers get acclimated. From day one, project leaders need to provide unwavering support and encouragement to safety staff, as it is this group that can often determines the success of a project.
FDRsafety provides full service safety staffing for a wide variety of industries and workplaces. Our industry leading placement service will quickly and seamlessly fill your need for an on-site safety professional. For a FREE consultation, please contact Flavius Brown, Vice President at FDRsafety.
