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Executing and Completing Construction Projects Safely

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, construction industry leads other industrial sectors in the number of workplace injuries – a finding that was summarized in the annual report of 2015 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.

To an extent, this should not come as a surprise, since construction activities involve considerable risks that other jobs don’t. However, that doesn’t mean that the industry is not not exercising caution or hasn’t been working on developing and implementing strategies to mitigate workplace injury risks.    

On the contrary, all certified construction companies and contractors have enacted safety policies and programs to ensure that their staff can execute the assigned tasks safely, without harming themselves in the process. Some of the measures include:

• Equipping the staff with protection gear.
• Providing essential safety training.
• Conducting safety audits, etc.

That’s not where the system lacks. The real issue comes in the communication, implementation and the monitor of the enacted safety practices. This is something which needs to be addressed by construction project managers. And, a tool that can help them to assure that the erected policies are implemented to execution is online project management software.

Safety Briefings

With an online project management software, construction managers can brief their staff about all the safety precautions needed to be exercised for a particular construction project. These details can be shared through a single dashboard, available and accessible for all the employees working on the project, from anywhere, and across any platform.

For instance, if the project team needs to install temporary fencing on the construction site to protect the surrounding elements and the staff itself, this information can be easily shared with all the workers via an online project management software platform. They in turn can update the status through the same platform, while being on the field or request for further information, where required. Any communication being exercised can be seen by the whole team, helping everyone to be on the same page.

This ensures bi-level briefings and communications, which is often found lacking, especially when it comes to the execution of safe construction practices.

Assigning and Monitoring of a Task

Another way, through which online project management software can help construction managers in cultivating safe construction habits, is by assigning and monitoring the task that is essential for ensuring onsite safety.

Many construction companies and contractors implement a regular audit system, where before at the start of each day, the equipment and vehicle used in a construction project are inspected before they can receive the approval for use. Likewise, they also make sure that at the start of each day, protective gear is provided to all the staff before the team can proceed with their day’s work.

By defining these sub-tasks for each construction project and clearly assigning the responsibility of implementation, the construction team would exactly know what prerequisite activities need to be performed and who is responsible for performing them.

Only once, the pre-requisite tasks are completed, with the updates status being uploaded via an online project management software program, the construction manager can then give a go-ahead for further progress. 

Online project management software is becoming an indispensable professional tool in the construction industry. If deployed correctly, the solution can help in the completion of construction projects with efficiency, quality and most importantly, safety.