Twenty-five construction workers were killed at work in Great Britain last year, the highest number of worker fatalities recorded in any main industry sector
Now construction training and health and safety specialist Essential Site Skills is urging the sector to focus on one of the periods when workers can be most vulnerable: their first days and weeks in a new job or on an unfamiliar site.
Health and Safety Executive figures show workers are as likely to have an accident during their first six months at work as during the whole of the rest of their working life.
Previous HSE research has also found that the risk of workplace injury is around four times higher during a worker’s first month with a new employer than for somebody who has been in their job for at least a year.
Catherine Storer, Director at Essential Site Skills, said:
“Twenty-five people went to work in construction last year and didn’t come home. That is a statistic nobody in our industry should be comfortable with.
“We talk a lot about experience in construction, but experience alone doesn’t protect somebody from risks they don’t know are there.
“Someone could have worked in construction for 20 years and still walk onto a site where they don’t know what changed that morning, where plant is operating, which areas are restricted or what work is happening around them.
“Experience matters, but it doesn’t make anybody a mind reader.”
The first weeks matter
Workers who are new to a job or workplace can be at increased risk because they are unfamiliar with their surroundings, may not recognise hazards and may be less confident about raising concerns.
In construction, those risks can be amplified by the constantly changing nature of the workplace.
Access routes move. Different trades arrive. Plant is relocated. Temporary works change. Areas open and close as projects progress.
Catherine said:
“A construction site can change significantly from one day to the next.
“Someone might know their trade inside out, but they still need to know what is happening around them on that particular site, on that particular day.
“That is why the first few days and weeks are so important.”
An induction is not enough on its own
Construction workers should receive a suitable site-specific induction before starting work.
But Essential Site Skills says employers should be careful not to treat that induction as the end of the process.
Catherine said:
“You can sit somebody through an induction, show them the site rules and get a signature at the end.
“But what happens the next morning?
“Do they know who they are reporting to? Do they know what has changed since yesterday? Would they feel comfortable saying they weren’t sure about something before carrying on?
“Signing an induction sheet proves someone attended. It doesn’t necessarily prove they understood everything or that the information is still enough several days later.”
HSE advises employers to provide adequate supervision and to check new workers have understood the information, instruction and training they need.
Supervisors are often the final safety net
Essential Site Skills says supervisors and site managers can play a crucial role during a worker’s first few weeks on site.
They are often the people closest to the work and best placed to notice when somebody is unsure, when conditions have changed or when work is no longer being carried out as planned.
Catherine said:
“A good supervisor notices the person who hesitates before starting a task.
“They notice when someone is working around a problem rather than stopping to ask about it.
“And they create the kind of environment where somebody can say, ‘I’m not sure about this,’ without worrying about looking inexperienced.
“Sometimes that conversation is what prevents an accident.”
Five questions every site should ask
Essential Site Skills is encouraging construction employers to ask five simple questions when somebody joins a new site:
- Do they know what has changed on site today?
- Do they understand the hazards around the work they are doing?
- Do they know exactly who is supervising them?
- Would they feel comfortable raising a concern or stopping to ask a question?
- Has somebody checked in with them since their initial induction?
Catherine added:
“If the evidence tells us people are more vulnerable when they are new, that is exactly when we should be paying them more attention.
“Not because we assume they are inexperienced, but because nobody can know the risks of a site they have only just walked onto.”
