Safety experts: constant monitoring is vital

RELATED STORIES: Top turnout for working at height conference | Working at height | Make safety a boardroom issue, expert says

Construction companies should be dedicating 80% of their health and safety resources into the active monitoring of safety standards, according to the region’s top safety experts.

Active monitoring, which involves measuring the company’s compliance with certain codes and standards, needs to take precedence over reactive monitoring and the assessment reports of incidents, if companies are to maintain a safe working environment.

By focusing on more preventative measures, companies can reduce the number of accidents more effectively and increase the extent to which workers and managers feel part of a safety culture.

Addressing the audience at the Construction Week Building at Height conference earlier this week, officials suggested that active monitoring facilitates the improvement of health and safety and gives companies more control over accident numbers.

How often, and what kind of active monitoring should be done, was also highlighted as important.

Dodsal’s HSE director and vice president of the Emirates Safety Group Garry Crighton said it was reasonable to expect an executive manager to do a 'walk about' every three months, a project manager to conduct weekly checks and for a safety officer to be monitoring hazards and risks several times daily.

He added: “You’ve got different levels of monitoring, you’ve got walk abouts, you’ve got inspections, you’ve got audits and then you’ve got thorough examinations by third parties. There are thus various degrees of active and preventative measures and organisations need to be taking a multi-pronged approach.”

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were also identified as efficient tools for reporting and monitoring health and safety, giving organisations a benchmark against which they can measure safety activity, as well as opportunities to raise overall health and safety standards.