Keeping construction workers safe – the first 90 days

JMJ Managing Director, Americas Market Leader, Larry Pearlman, explains why it’s never too early to introduce new recruits to your safety culture. He offers practical advice for construction leaders to ensure their culture is understood, embedded and adhered to.

Why are the first 90 days so critical?

The first 90 days set the stage for the entire employment relationship, yet new employees typically report having a poor onboarding experience. They see this time as a ‘check the box’ exercise. This is deeply concerning given that employees are at their most vulnerable during those first months. In fact, research by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) [1] found that many new construction employees lack the physical experience required for such pressing work. As a result, they’re three times more likely to suffer a lost-time injury than workers who have been at their job for more than a year. This is particularly true of workers in the 25-54 age range. All this is happening at a time when there are worker shortages and concurrent rapid growth of construction activity. Consequently, the demand for effective onboarding has never been greater.

In addition to traditional on-boarding, safety onboarding should begin even before a new employee joins your organization. We believe that new workers should be introduced into a safety culture and mindset as soon as they apply for a role. Firms should make their safety and cultural expectations clear in the recruiting process, and even engage interview teams in evaluating candidates for safe work behaviors. These may include the willingness to voice safety concerns, follow procedures and identify operational risks.

What can construction leaders do NOW to protect their people? Here are my tips for ensuring new recruits understand your safety culture and stick to it!

1. Make safety integral to the recruitment process:

• Be clear about safety expectations in job descriptions. Supplement written material with descriptive videos to show candidates the job’s environment, paying particular attention to the risks they will encounter
• Provide candidates with realistic job previews and physical demands descriptions
• Ask candidates interview questions that are about safety including awareness of safety procedures at prior roles
• Involve the entire team in the selection process to build commitment to the new hire’s safety performance

2. Get new hires thinking about the details of risk and safety, quickly. These include:

• Setting the safety cultural expectations
• Identifying hazards and mitigations
• Demonstrating the use of required PPE
• Explaining the use of “stop work authority”
• Describing how to report injuries
• Developing skills to “see” risks and to perform risk assessments

3. Be innovative in your onboarding techniques. These might include:

• Highly interactive games, like learning maps or scenario-based learning
• Tactile experiences like the Japanese ‘Do Jo’ approach*
• Specific ergonomic training centers to educate workers on proper lifting and body positioning techniques to reduce the risks of strains and sprains

*“Dojo is Japanese for “place of the way.” The concept is both a physical and metaphorical space where teams can come to learn agile principles, certainly, but also improve other aspects of software engineering or embrace new frameworks and tools.” (Thomson Reuters).

Establish ‘must wins’ for the first day

• ‘Green hat programs’ to easily identify new hires and give permission to intervene for safety
• Assign new employees to jobs with lower risk profiles and lower workloads
• Assign “peer sponsors” to help new employees learn how to manage risks the right way
• Utilize front line leaders and others to reinforce positive behaviors and address unsafe behaviors through safety conversations

Establish ‘must wins’ for the first 90 days

Must wins are the processes that have to be implemented correctly to all new hires. These include:

• Gradual acceleration to full utilization within the role at a pace that matches the employee’s capabilities and competence
• Have a clear set of curriculum and training that describes the safe way of doing things and describes the “why” behind these expectations
• Skills and expectations should be verified to ensure competency
• New hires must be aware of the operational risks they will be exposed to in the job, as well as how to manage those risks
• Leaders and others must demonstrate their safety focus and caring through conversations that frequently reinforce positive behaviors

Celebrate the graduate

When new employees’ competencies are verified, make a big deal of retiring the green hard hat. Celebrate their ‘graduation.’ At the same time, as all of us know, safety is never ‘done.’ Ensure that this initial induction is the beginning of a lifelong commitment to ensuring every worker goes home safely to their family, every day.

If you would like to learn more about how JMJ’s  Incident and Injury-Free™ methodology can help you create a culture of care across your organization and projects, contact us for a no-obligation chat.

[1] https://www.iwh.on.ca/newsletters/at-work/69/study-finds-persistence-of-higher-injury-risk-for-new-workers