Improving Safety and Compliance Risk Management in Construction

By relying on effective technology and expertise to ensure contractors and vendors are qualified and compliant with company and industry-specific policies, rental companies can better manage evolving risks to create stronger, safer businesses.

From the U.S. Department of Labor’s OSHA guidelines and regulations to best practices and specifications published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), there is no shortage of resources to help rental operation owners and managers identify health and safety measures to protect their workers and their businesses. What’s far more challenging for them is determining how to ensure compliance.

Ensuring safety and compliance was already complex, but with the added responsibility of administering and managing a growing number of policies aimed at mitigating exposure to COVID-19, the workload has increased. The sheer number of tasks, routines, training, and certifications which need to be completed, documented, and tracked has made administrative duties one of the most difficult and time-intensive aspects of safety and compliance programs.

Conducted manually, the approach is especially insufficient for rental operations that rely on safety protocol compliance by contractors, vendors, and renters across scattered sites. They can’t afford to get it wrong as failing to properly identify and manage safety and compliance risks could have disastrous consequences to individuals and the organizations who employ them.

Contractor and compliance management technology offers a better alternative, reducing administrative headaches while giving team members and third parties the expertise and systematic support they need to keep hazards at bay. An effective, end-to-end solution combines modern, intuitive technology, industry best practices and processes, and domain expertise to help reduce worksite incidents and maintain a high-quality workforce. It offers a multitude of advantages to better manage risks, including:

• Creating a central, web-based repository for an organization’s safety policies and procedures (essentially a definitive safety playbook) and its contractors’ health and safety qualifications. This provides the data, analysis, and reporting that organizations need to prequalify contractors for work and ensure their ongoing readiness and compliance.
• Improving safety, reducing cost, and eliminating the need for workers to take redundant safety courses by enhancing visibility into training histories, including current certification and past experience. This enables management to confirm whether an employee is trained to operate a machine, fulfill a sensitive jobsite role, or prevent unqualified individuals from entering sensitive areas to further prevent injuries. Organizations can quickly review individual contractor or vendor’s status to verify that they meet coverage requirements, and identify safety gaps and opportunities to correct discrepancies and make improvements within business units and crews.
• Streamline administrative work and reduce overhead with the use of automation for tasks, such as tracking insurance coverage and renewal dates. Similarly, automatic notifications can alert individuals or supervisors to schedule a refresher course or to obtain recertification for a key job function.
• Informing decision makers by providing vendor safety data, such as incident histories, insurance certification and other key information that can help to identify firms with poor safety records. This helps to audit vendors’ safety programs and policies and offer advice, services, and training to enhance their safety and compliance programs.

By relying on effective technology and expertise to ensure contractors and vendors are qualified and compliant with company and industry-specific policies and regulations, rental companies can better manage evolving risks to create safer work environments and stronger businesses.

Source – ForConstructionPros.com