I joined a safety forum recently to share good practices and learn how to build a robust “safety culture” in project teams. In the forum, many suggestions and initiatives were being shared by different companies currently co-working on construction sites.

Culture is related to value, beliefs, norms, symbols, language, and rituals. We all believe safety is everyone’s responsibility, and all safety incidents can be avoided. With this belief in mind, people are always finding ways to prevent incidents from happening: enhancing frontline supervisory staff’s safety leadership, building up a graspable and followable role model, encouraging involvements through various promotion and incentive schemes, setting up normative life-saving rules as commonly adopted initiatives in the management. Their effectiveness is reflected in the stakeholders’ reactions and the attendants’ degree of participation in the activities. Survey is a common measurement tool. Photos filled with attendants’ smiling faces are also a proof of effectiveness.

One of the topics we spent lots of time discussing was “no blame culture”. We empower people to stop work when they have seen something unsafe or spotted a hazard. We encourage people to report near-missed cases and share them with others to avoid the occurrence of severe incidents. We have delivered the cases or lessons for people’s edification. Management should always keep in mind how to measure effectiveness and empower learning. Penal measures are still required where there exists the intention to violate safety rules and procedures.

Error is normal, and provisions for safety training and education form the fundamental requirement for safety compliance. Visible leadership through coaching the frontline staff during caring site visit, validating the status of the control measures and enabling Smart Site Safety System by using advanced technology, are ways to ensure the compliance. At last, people are always encouraged to keep it in their mind to stop at the “Hold Points”, think about the critical control measures in the method statement, act out the safe work procedures, and report any abnormalities. These are the best practices to be followed.

This article is contributed by Ir Peter T C Lam with the coordination of the Safety Specialist Committee.