Health and safety is one of the most important roles on every construction site and every worker and visitor that steps onto the site needs to be aware of health and safety in addition to following certain protocols.
Therefore, the roles and responsibilities of the active health and safety manager are extremely important in order to mitigate risk and ensure a safe working environment for all of those onsite.
Additionally, health and safety managers not only have to have regulations and policies in place to ensure a safer working environment, but it is crucial that the onsite workers are also all aware of the procedure and follow the protocol laid out by the manager.
In a nutshell, whoever takes on this role needs to prevent accidents, injuries and work-related illnesses through assessment, education and protocol.
The below list encompasses many responsibilities that a health and safety manager can be expected to have.
Roles & Responsibilities of a Health & Safety Manager
- Train/educate employees
Employees, each in their own departments/sectors will be subject to certain risks. It is the duty of the health and safety manager to educate and provide training to employees in their specific areas in order to prevent risks as much as possible.
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
It is important to ensure all employees are aware of PPE and that they all receive adequate PPE. Additionally, wear and tear checks should be frequently carried out to ensure their effectiveness.
- Create policies and protocol
General policies should be created to ensure that construction site workers adhere to a certain level of health and safety procedures. The health and safety manager must also closely represent these policies and lead by example.
- Emergency procedures
In the case of emergencies, everyone should be aware of what needs to be done, therefore activities such as fire drills need to be carried out. These procedures should be frequently undertaken so everyone is refreshed in knowing their responsibilities in case an emergency shall arise.
- Responsible reporting
All accidents must be correctly recorded and reported, this also means educating all workers to follow the same protocol for reporting incidents. By reporting accidents, health and safety managers can find common areas of incidents or common types of incidents and plan to reduce these problems.
- Leadership and responsibility
As the icon for health and safety, you need to lead by example and show that you are taking the role seriously.
- Inspection and checks
For all jobs, especially those with greater risks (ie. they include electrical equipment, at great heights or need the use of dangerous machinery), inspections and checks must be carried out frequently.
- Risk assessments
In order to understand risk, you need to assess the potential risk that may be encountered in each sector and find ways to reduce it.
- Complaints procedure
Complaints from construction site workers should be heard and addressed as they are actively working on your protocol and procedure. By investigating these claims, you can find additional areas of opportunity to make their workspaces safer.
- First Aid
Employees should undergo first aid training and the health and safety manager must ensure this training is updated with employees.
