An interesting study undertaken by the Institute for Work & Health (2012) found that
clear briefings through inductions, daily briefings and toolbox talks are essential for project safety
the higher risk of work injury among new workers has persisted over the past ten years. This suggests workplaces need to do more to ensure new workers get the training and supervision they need to stay safe on the job.
Study provides decade-long review
This research, conducted in 2012, is the first to examine work injury risk by job tenure over a time period during which overall claim rates generally declined. The latest study extended the research by describing the association between job tenure and work injury over a decade (1999 to 2008).
Risk highest first month in the job
The new research gives rise to two main findings:
1. Over a 10-year period, the risk of work injury for workers with shorter job tenure has consistently remained higher compared to those employed at a job for more than one year. Risk is particularly elevated among those in the first month on the job, with over three times the risk of a lost-time injury as workers with over a year’s job experience.
2. The risk of work injuries among new workers is greater among older workers, men and those in the goods sector, which includes construction and manufacturing, among others.
The age-based findings are striking. While all workers in their first month have
Site and project inductions will help to mitigate risk faced by new workers
elevated injury risk, the risk of a lost-time injury is highest among workers over 45 years of age compared to all other age groups. Indeed, youth injury rates have been converging with adult rates. The key risk factor is newness, not youth, was the main take out from the study.
Prevention activities and training will help
So how do we help newly hired workers? Developing effective safety management systems will help. Prevention activities should involve employers creating strategies at an organisational level.
Inductions will certainly help inform new workers coming onto projects and sites. They will impart crucial information about your organisation, what to do on-site, and who to talk to if they have any questions or concerns. Having a competent induction program means having compliance with Health and Safety and employment legislation
When you induct new or returning employees, contractors and visitors’ do you always run the
Your employees and workforce can easily book themselves onto their preferred slot
induction on-site? or do you givethem the option to do their learning off-site? At Mosaic, we appreciate that the way you deliver your inductions will depend on a number of factors, like the number of people being inducted, the size of your project and the complexity of the health and safety matters to be discussed.
Induction training can also be delivered through on the job training; toolbox talks, pre-start meetings, step by step checklists, induction videos or booklet, emails or a phone conversation.In this article, we debate whether it’s best to run your inductions on-site or off-site (through our online portal).
Merits of off-site inductions
It is certainly true that it is simpler and inexpensive to set-up induction modules online so that contractors, employees, and visitors can complete them before they access your site. By deciding to running your inductions online and off-site means when they expire or need refreshing, new versions easily be resent to inductees. It should be noted that we can assist to enhance your presentations by making them interactive, to include film and even quizzes to test learning.
General inductions
General inductions usually provide basic information relating to the construction industry and cover important; organisational Health, and Safety, security, and environmental aspects.
For employees:
Gives new employees the chance to do general inductions off-site is a good way for them to get to know general company culture and procedures before they starting employment.
For contractors:
If contractors have the chance to do their inductions off-site they can complete them at a time that suits them. This puts the onus upon the contractor to ensure that all their staff have completed the induction and necessary paperwork is up to date, prior to coming on site.
For visitors:
Running general inductions off-site can help make an improved visitor experience. Briefing visitors on your site/project prior to turning up, can make them feel welcome and help speed up the sign-in process.
deliver site inductions online or offline or a combination of the two
Site inductions
Site-specific inductions are generally designed to convey information to do with the site itself, particularly risks and hazards in a clear and concise manner. Site inductions are very important also, to set the tone of health and safety on a project from the outset.
For employees:
You can include a site-specific induction module with your employee’s general induction if that is made available off-site.
For contractors:
Contractors should always undertake a site-specific induction, regardless of how many sites that they are likely to be working on.
For visitors:
Whether to give visitors site inductions online depends greatly on the type and purpose of visit. It might be an idea to share some site-specific information (for example emergency exits etc.) with visitors at the same time as they receive their general induction if they are doing one.
Task-specific inductions
Task specific training gives information about hazards, risks, and control measures to people carrying out a certain task at your site. You also have the option of using inductions to highlight any relevant legal responsibilities, codes of practice or technical standards that must be followed while they’re carrying out the task as well. This is something akin to a tool box talk, but might be delivered either on-site or online and off-site, depending upon what you want to achieve.
For employees:
These are usually best done on-site and close to the place where the task will be undertaken. If the task-specific inductions are long or detailed it might be an option to have employees do their initial induction off-site at a time that’s convenient for them, and then offer further training when they are on-site.
For contractors:
It is a good idea to run these task-specific inductions online if contractors are visiting more than one site and particularly if they’re doing the same task at more than one site. Contractors can access their online learning to reference any task-specific inductions as needed.
For visitors:
It’s unlikely a visitor will need a task-specific induction. If they do it’s best to have them complete it when they are on-site and under supervision.
There are many advantages to offering online induction modules for employees, contractors, and visitors to do off-site at a pace and time that suits them best. Whether you choose to induct online off-site or on-site, or offline on-site or on-site, the reasons for inducting stay the same.
Inductions ensure people at your site are safe and secure, that they know about your organisation, what to do on-site, and who to talk to if they have any questions or concerns. Having a competent induction program means having compliance with Health and Safety and employment legislation.
Mosaic have developed a simple solution for your ‘project’ induction process needs, and the beauty of our cloud based system means you can deliver across multiple sites.
When you’re organising employees and contractors to start on a new project, registering and
Your employees and workforce can easily book themselves onto their preferred slot
inducting them (also sometimes known as employee on boarding) can be a challenge. You want them to hit the ground running. Mosaic helps you manage the workload, saves you time and reduces risk on site leaving you free to manage your workforce and deliver the project. No more site induction forms and checklists as it is all done online.
The system is very user friendly and one of the key benefits is that is allows the administrator to invite employees and contractors alike to book themselves onto the class. This saves considerable time not wasted chasing up those who have not booked on. Additional reminders can be emailed out should there be a few stragglers who have not booked themselves on yet.
Within our solution, we can support you uploading videos, PowerPoint presentations’, interactive
new and existing employee inductions are crucial to site safety
content and even quizzes, should you wish to deliver your session offline (or a combination of both online and off line).
Our innovative system will mean you can do away with paperwork and won’t have to grapple with spreadsheets anymore. Everything is internet based and can be accessed as long as you have a connection.
Our complete solution comes with hosting, training, custom branding and support thereafter.
Interesting to read on www.installeronline.co.uk that a new national campaign ‘Spotlight on…illegal workers’ has been launched by the Considerate Constructors Scheme. They undertake 18,000 monitoring visits to construction sites, companies and suppliers every year and according to December 2016 results a lot more could be done by the industry to tackle this problem.
The survey revealed:
93% agreed illegal working could be better tackled in the construction industry
81% would say illegal working has been on the rise over the past 15 years
61% admitted they have not received – or rarely receive – information on illegal working
33% suspected a chance that illegal working had been present at a previous or current employer
30% agreed that health and safety was placed at greatest risk as a result of illegal working.
‘Spotlight on…illegal workers’ provides the construction industry with an essential resource to increase understanding of the risks posed by illegal construction workers, and what can be done to tackle the problem.
the Scheme introduced new questions in the 2017 Monitors’ Checklist to encourage sites, companies and supply chains to examine how they are ensuring the legitimacy of their workforce:
Are there processes in place to ensure subcontractors (and subsequent subcontractors) are conducting right to work checks?
Are physical spot checks conducted to ensure minimum standards of right to work checks are taking place within the supply chain?
Considerate Constructors Scheme Chief Executive Edward Hardy said: “Ensuring the legitimacy of the workforce is one of the key challenges facing the construction industry today. The industry must work together to ensure that checks for workers’ legitimacy becomes firmly entrenched within all construction activity across the UK.
“By challenging sites to explore how they currently assess and monitor the legitimacy of their workforce, the Scheme believes that in the not-so-distant future, all registered sites, companies and suppliers will have robust procedures in place.
Help is at hand. Mosaic Tally, sometimes known as the time and attendance module, is an easy plug and play system that means all workers scan onto and off the site using their smart cards (including CSCS cards). Tally can be set up to work over multiple access points, allowing your workers and contractors alike to be monitored over large geographical areas. This information can easily be retrieved from the system in the form of a report and effectively means all workers are vetting before given a card.
Join us on the 20-22 June, at ExCeL London. Stand M140
We are delighted to be exhibiting for the first time at the Safety & Health Expo 2017 in June at the Excel in London.
Visitors to our Stand M140 – located directly opposite entrance N2 – will be able to experience first-hand how Biosite technology streamlines operations for the construction industry.
We will be showcasing our latest integrated technology solutions including:
Prominently on display will be full height and half height turnstiles with integrated biometric access control. Multiple demo screens and robust handheld tablets will demonstrate the benefits of Biosite’s integrated solutions including:
‘Near Miss’ reporting tool – which enables accidents or potential accidents to be easily recorded and used to produce accurate real time AFR reporting reports later.
Online Induction and enrolment which enables operatives to be briefed on health and safety before arriving on site.
Wireless fire alarms and call points which are fully integrated to Biosite’s access control system enabling turnstiles to free spin upon Biosite fire alarm activation along with the automatic printing of fire roll call report.
Advanced reporting such as time and attendance, carbon (BREEAM) report, user accreditations.
Secure your place at the UK’s largest health and safety event to:
Gain access to exclusive deals from 300+ suppliers offering training solutions, fall arrest equipment, workwear, behavioural safety solutions and much more
Learn to successfully embed health and safety into your organisation with our free to attend CPD accredited seminars
Get the latest legislation updates and practical guidance on protecting your teams in partnership with HSL, IOSH, RoSPA, BOHS, British Safety Council and more
Share best practice on mitigating risks with 13,000+ like-minded health and safety professionals from a range of industries including construction, manufacturing, transport and media
‘Big Data’ refers to extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions. BIM is already providing such a platform to aid build times and management of costs. But what is out there to monitor the workforce and safety management. Currently there is not a lot on the market, but hope does exist in the form of Mosaic Management Systems suite of products.
More and more of our construction clients are looking at safety through a Big Data lens to change best practices that make work sites safer and healthier. Through detailed analysis of the information provided by our ‘smart card’ cloud based system, construction companies are able to better assess hazards, for contractors and permanent employees alike.
Below is an infographic depicting Mosaic’s data collection levels realised over the last couple of years. The size of some of the numbers involved, just goes to show the possibilities for ‘Big Data’ that will manifest themselves over the next five years:
By installing systems such as Mosaic on projects then Construction companies can generate massive amounts of project data, especially if they’re working on more than one project. A cloud based system such as this frees up big data possibilities as it transcends projects, working at a group or super Joint Venture level.
One smart card to manage all site worker competencies
Currently, Big Data is still in the early days of development, but as it evolves it will become more widely adopted by construction businesses looking to generate a competitive edge.
To enquire further about our suite of products then please click below:
Research by Arinite found health and safety fines in 2016 by far outstripped the cost of compliance. It found that businesses paid an average of £115,440 in fines after being found guilty of health and safety breaches in 2016. These fines was very varied – from £100 for a construction company, to £5 million for Merlin Entertainments and the Alton Towers incident.
Averages also differed greatly across industries. Extraction and utility supply companies paid out the second largest amount (£7,375,120 total and £409,729 on average), followed by those in construction (£4,824,983 total and £74,231 on average). Of all the fines issued in 2016, half of them were for the manufacturing industry (£16,816,673) and the average fine was over £112,000. A total of £32,438,677 worth of fines were issued in 2016 across the UK.
Cost of compliance
The cost of health and safety compliance for SMEs in 2016 was between £5k and £40k, to put this into perspective. SMEs that invested in health and safety therefore potentially avoided a fine £75k higher than the cost of compliance. According to HSE’s own research, small to medium sized businesses can expect to pay no more than £40k per year to remain health and safety compliant. Compliance costs typically cover such things as the maintenance of a formal health and safety system, insurance, and compensation for a designated health and safety role or person.
However, for larger businesses, the compliance costs can be a lot higher. But health and safety failures at these companies rarely just result in a fine – a major accident incurs the total cost of injuries and ill health sustained, not to mention the PR costs when these offenses sometimes make the trade magazine headlines. Laing O’Rourke was told to pay £800k in fines recently for a fatality caused on their Heathrow project.
Evidence from HSE shows that the size of fines in Britain have been growing steadily over the past few years. The largest 20 fines to businesses for health and safety offenses in 2016 were three times more than the largest 20 fines in 2015, and eight times higher than in 2014.
Avoiding health and safety fines
To avoid unnecessarily high fines in 2017, IOSH have provided specifics on how businesses can prevent and reduce the cost of a fine. Note: they are a guide on how to mitigate severity and aren’t necessarily about how to remain health compliant, for that you need to consult HSE.
Factors increasing seriousness of a fine include:
Cost-cutting at the expense of safety
Deliberate concealment of illegal activity
Breaching a court order
Obstruction of justice
A poor health and safety record – it’s worse if there was a previous conviction
In 2017, take the time to demo our H&S Mosaic system. Mosaic is used by the biggest names in the construction industry to manage a range of safety critical and competency issues on major infrastructure sites and projects. Indeed, Mosaic is sometimes mandated by companies due to the significant role it plays in reducing site health and safety issues, security, improved productivity and time saved.
We take a look at how the deployment of a Mosaic Management System can change site working practices and worker behaviour. Below are ten questions that you would be unlikely to hear from Site Managers, once the Mosaic suite of products is fully operational on site:
1. “Who has actually been inducted?” …I will need to gather all the paperwork together…
Mosaic Induction Manager allows all those participating in the induction process to book themselves onto the class. The induction can then be delivered on-line, off-line or a combination of both depending on client requirements. Once finished the worker is registered against their record as having completing the induction.
Mosaic Induction Manager – Allowing Inductions options both on-line and off-line
Site Managers can easily run a report to check who has received their induction and therefore is eligible for site access. Paperwork and spreadsheets are no longer necessary, saving considerable administration time.
2. “Is that worker qualified to do that?”… Someone could get hurt here…
Depending upon client requirements, all qualifications can be checked before access to site is
allowed. Evidence of this is appended to a worker’s record. Each worker is assigned a role, that they must have the right qualifications and experience to perform, before they are issues with their site smart card.
3. “Where is the contractor qualification certificate evidence?”… I cannot find copies…
All certificate and any qualification evidence is scanned and uploaded against a worker record. This can easily be view via a desktop.
No more photocopying of certificates etc., cluttering up site offices.
What makes a safe worker?
4. “Can I check your CSCS card is in date?”… I am worried about fake cards also…
As a CSCS IT partner we have access to their database to check worker CSCS cards are in date and not fake. Once checked, workers can continue to use their CSCS on site or alternatively a Mosaic Smartcard can be issued. When the CSCS card expires, an ‘administrator’ is notified, who can inform the worker to get it renewed.
CSCS cards need to be scrutinised to see if they are in date and also not fake
5. “Do you have a ticket to use this?”…You should also be wearing specific PPE to use this piece of kit…
When a worker is booking out a tool, or piece of plant via the storeroom, Mosaic will flag up if they do not have the right qualifications or skill-set to use it. They can then be denied from taking a piece of equipment that they are not qualified for.
6. “Who on site has not had a start of shift briefing?”…On a busy and complex project such as this, I need to ensure all workers receive this..
All safety briefings and toolbox talks can easily be recorded against worker records. All the worker has to do is present their smart cards to a reader to record attendance.
7. “I am not 100% sure how long that worker has been on site?”…Fatigue management was a real problem on my last job where some guys were double shifting…
Mosaic Fatigue Risk Manager notifies Supervisors (usually in the form of the project
Without technological help, it is difficult to ensure consistent H&S messages are communicated
administration) of workers who have reached their time limit for their shift. The Supervisor can then act accordingly. This helps prevent double shifting and allows shift patterns to be better managed.
8. “I thought that worker had a site ban in place and was not allowed on here?”…With a site ban in place, I would be open to all sorts of litigation claims should there be an accident…
On a worker’s record ‘site bans’ are recorded and activated. If they still possess a smart card, then this would be flagged up when they try to access the site.
9. “I will need to check when that piece of kit needs an inspection?”…Poorly maintained equipment causes more downtime than we can afford…
Once an asset (which can be tool, small plant, large plant) has been registered on the system, management will be notified when it needs inspection and maintenance.
10. “I am not entirely sure how many workers we have on site at this moment?”…I simply don’t trust the signing in book…
Mosaic Tally, sometimes known as the time and attendance module, means all workers scan onto and off the site using their smart cards. Tally can be set up to work over multiple access points, allowing your workers and contractors alike to be monitored over large geographical areas. This information can easily be retrieved from the system in the form of a report.
All of us at Mosaic are excited to once again be returning to the Safety and Health Expo held at Excel on 20th – 22nd June.
One smart card to manage all site worker competencies
Take time to come and visit us P350 where we will be displaying and demonstration all of our products. Our new edition to our portfolio is Mosaic Perception training software. This ‘Situational Judgement’ training software will be available to try out on the day. All our other products will also be available to demonstrate – Induction Manager, Tally System, Briefing Manager, Fatigue Manager, Skill Check, Inventory Manager and Occupational Health Manager.
Mosaic Management Systems was created in 2008. Better known as just ‘Mosaic’ to its clients, it is a sophisticated and industry critical competency management software suite predominately deployed in the construction and infrastructure space. Used as a site based enterprise resource planning and compliance management tool and being cloud based allows it to operate across multiple sites and projects simultaneously.
Mosaic is used by the biggest names in the construction industry to manage a range of safety critical and workforce competency issues on major infrastructure sites and projects. It is often mandated by companies due to the significant role it plays in reducing site health and safety issues, increasing security, improved productivity and consequent time saved.
In April 2017 companies and organisations from across the UK infrastructure sector will take part in a joint national initiative targeting improvements in health, safety and wellbeing for the sector. Stop. Make a Change. will see sites, offices and manufacturing facilities stop work from 10am until noon on 18 April, to allow staff and suppliers working there to take time to discuss some of the challenges we face as a sector and how they can be overcome.
The campaign will focus on four key issues – respiratory illness, plant safety, fatigue and mental health. We delve into the subject of fatigue in the construction workplace and what companies can do to make this issue.
Are you of the mindset that feeling tired and fatigued at work is just all part of the usual working day? But while tiredness is easy to belittle, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. Fatigue can actually pose a serious health and safety risk. When long working hours and shift-working are mixed, fatigue becomes just as serious a workplace hazard as any other out there.
Why is fatigue a risk?
Let’s put this into context – well over 3.5 million people in the UK working shifts, fatigue is a serious hazard for UK workplaces. With long working hours without adequate periods to rest and recover in between, it’s easy to cross the line between feeling a bit tired, to having your performance levels drop.
Beyond feeling a little tired and weary, it can actually lead to a decline a mental and physical performance, lack of attentiveness, memory problems, poor reaction times and much more.
What causes fatigue?
Two of the main causes of fatigue are simply spending long, repeated periods being awake, or irregular and disrupted sleep patterns. For those working shifts or repeated long hours, both of these factors are pretty common, with extended shifts or shift rotations across different times of day and night being commonplace.
How can you reduce the risks?
Just like any other workplace hazard that we have discussed in this blog space, fatigue needs to be addressed and managed, to avoid it becoming a serious risk. In combination with the physical factors aa regular risk assessment should also identify if fatigue is a risk for workers too, before taking steps to counter it. This is so crucial for those working in safety critical roles.
One smart card to manage all site worker fatigue risk
There are numerous steps you can take to minimise the risk of serious fatigue and these will depend on your workplace and conditions. This quite possibly mean checking upon staffing levels and how this resources is managed. Alternative shift schedules might have to be re-jigged, to make sure that work activities, duration and rotation are well balanced and double shifting does not occur.
You can also provide on-site places to rest, to help workers recuperate adequately in between shifts more easily.
Key Fatigue Stats:
Here’s why you shouldn’t ignore it:
It leads to 20% of accidents on the UK’s roads
It can cost businesses up to £240 million
It can be caused by a number of factors – from monotonous hours on the same task, to long working days and disrupted sleep patterns
A risk assessment, referring to the fatigue risk index, is one of the best ways to identify what steps you need to take, to minimise the impact of fatigue.
Workplace fatigue policy
Develop a fatigue policy for all workers, managers and supervisors. This policy should include information about: maximum shift length and average weekly hours; work-related travel; procedures for reporting fatigue risks; procedures for managing fatigued workers.
Make sure anyone can report fatigue-related issues to both supervisors and management, and then improvements will follow.
Train your new employees on fatigue management.
Once these strategies are implemented, you should monitor and review them to ensure fatigue is managed effectively.
Mosaic has a Fatigue Management module which can bolt onto its system. When used in conjunction with access control systems, it will enter start and finish times. Using the available data, the system will instantly alert the management team by identifying any employees who are at risk of fatigue or have already breached certain controls, such as double shifting.
