ROLE OF SITE MANAGER

1. ROLE OF SITE MANAGER Ellahi M. Ishteeaque, AIA RA; MA ARCH

2. Action Steps for Job-Site Manager • Job safety management can be divided into five major areas: • (1) setting priorities on the job, • (2) planning for safe construction, • (3) orienting workers, • (4) maintaining the communications safety net, and • (5) people building.

3. Priorities:1. Commit yourself to the combined goal of high safety and high productivity.2. Include money for safety equipment and safety personnel into the project budget.3. Begin communicating your productivity and safety goal to owners, subcontractors, and union representatives in prejob meetings.4. Make safety rules and regulations an integrated part of job rules.5. In new-worker orientation include job rules, make it clear that infractions of them are cause for termination.

4. 6. Train your superintendents and foremen to review job exposures as work progresses and revise job procedures to keep work safe.7. Use toolbox meetings and on-the-job training to maintain safe, productive job procedures.8. Show your commitment to keeping the job safe by:a) Walking the job with safety eyes.b) Monitoring the job for housekeeping, OSHA requirements, and other unsafe conditions and acts.c) Working cooperatively with job safety people and letting project personnel know that the safety people represent you.d) Enforcing standards for safe behavior at all times.e) Monitoring subcontractors.

5. Planning:1. Take the time to plan; it will reduce costs, improve the job schedule, and benefit safety by decreasing hazards and job pressures.2. Before the job starts:a) Review cost estimates and schedules and, if necessary, negotiate revisions to avoid stress and the temptation to take hazardous shortcuts later.b) Work with the safety people to develop a safety plan for the life of the project.c) Gain cooperation and input from key people in prejob discussions: on union jobs, from union representatives; on highly hazardous jobs, from representatives from the consultation service of the OSHA program.

6. 3. Maintain three levels of planning throughout the project: large scale, weekly, and daily and include safety in all levels of planning.4. Discuss safety in daily planning meetings and weekly job schedule and progress meetings.5. Remember that last minute changes of plans are often dangerous - caution supervisors and workers against them.

7. Worker Orientation:1. To avoid accidents, require job and project orientation for all new hires no matter how long is their experience and how short their stay on the project will be.2. Welcome each new worker 3. For project orientation consider a short slide-tape or video presentation introduced by a job-site management representative.4. For job-site orientation include a short site tour; on large projects develop a site map that shows the overall layout of the project with a short description of the project stages.5. Delegate detailed orientation to the worker's foreman, making sure that foremen are trained to conduct effective new-worker orientation.6. On projects or parts of projects with high potential for accidents require orientation before each new phase of the work.

8. Effective Communication:1. Expand your communication system beyond the chain of command to include direct contact with workers and group meetings. Train your management team to expect you to use these other methods for information.2. Walk the job each day, talk to craft workers, bring your safety commitment to them, hear their suggestions.3. Meet with supervisory groups on a regular basis; meet with groups of foremen and craft workers for planning and feedback.4. Develop toolbox meetings as a valuable information and training tool, attend meetings yourself on a rotating basis, and train foremen to keep to job specific topics.5. On home office communication - keep them informed daily; do not pass on to your project management team and workers pressures from the home office.

9. People Building:1. Before every action and decision of yours, ask yourself the question, "How will this affect my work force?" Your most important resource is your people. Manage now to achieve their long-run commitment and loyalty.2. Listen to both sides in conflicts, for example, in those between foremen and workers, rather than automatically backing the supervisor.3. Develop other options than firing - firing is usually a poor way to handle a problem; do not delegate that power to subordinates.4. Thank supervisors and craft workers when they do excellent work.

10. Making Safety a High Priority Early Case # 11:Even in our jobs, which are probably small in comparison to many of the projects in your surveys, we assign a knowledgeable person, usually a carpenter, as job-site safety coordinator. The coordinator's responsibility is to make a safety inspection of the job twice a day (once in the morning and once in the afternoon), report any unsafe conditions found and direct subs to correct any unsafe methods. These safety coordinators wear special colored hardhats to identify their authority; they have the full support of project management. On our larger projects, this is a full time assignment - 8 hours a day. This cost (really a very good investment) is budgeted into the job at the very beginning.

11. Case # 12:They are hearing from the time they are hired on a daily basis: "We are going to do the job safe~t' They don't have to guess what we mean. Through words and deeds, we send the signal: We do care.

12. Planning for safe constructionCase # 13:The project had been behind schedule and running over budget when a cash shortfall forced the project to close down with only upper staff left, followed by start-tip on a shortened work week of 4 days. The forced shutdown gave the project management team plenty of time to ~an. when they started up again, the extra day was used for planning. As a result of this more intensive panning, the job came in ahead of schedule and under budget.

13. Working with the union Case 14:A job-site manager from one company with an outstanding safety record uses a pre job meeting with union leaders to make clear the company's commitment to safety. The manager describes how important keeping accident costs low is to the company's competitive position, explaining that a poor safety record could increase the company costs to such an extent that they would price themselves out of the market. This.pre job meeting sets the stage for cooperation later if the company is forced to dismiss someone for failure to comply with the safety rules.

14. Planning with OSHA Case # 15:The main idea was to get ideas from them. It also provides an opportunity for us to discuss the OSHA guidelines with them, including those parts which did not quite fit the job. The OSHA consultation people gave their input in writing, and their comments were incorporated in the plans. Some people questioned whether we should open ourselves up to them like that, but I felt the long term benefitsoutweighed the risks.

15. Orienting New Workers Case # 16:1. If you just check in a worker, give him a hard hat, and tell him to go out to work, you are telling him that you don't care too much for safety. Senior construction managers for a large utility company.2. We give an orientation to every person whether they are on the job 1/2 day or a year~ - Manager of an 18-month petrochemical project with 300 workers with no lost-time accidents

16. NEW WORKER ACIION STEPSEveryone new to your crew (no matter how experienced) is a new worker.1. Ask about last job2. Describe the new job3. Show worker around site; point out hazards.4. Introduce worker to the others5. Describe your rules.6. Give worker a test run on tools and equipment7. Keep an eye on the new worker during the first few days. Check back to see how the worker is coming along.

17. CREW ACTION STEPS1. Keep your cool. Anger breeds accidents.2. when the work's not getting done, find out why; don't just push your workers harder.3. Keep available to your crew, If possible, watch rather than work.4. Teach the safe methods.5. Watch for hazards on your job and correct them immediately.

18. Extra orientation for apprentices Case # 17:A safety professional who, after noting the statistics on higher accident rates for new workers, developed data comparing company accident rates of new apprentices with new workers with more experience reports, "My injury statistics reveal that apprentices are 3 to 6 times more likely to be injured within the first 3 weeks of employment ~than new workers with more experience]. We have implemented a program requiring. all apprentices to wear red hard hats for their first 30 days and not permitting them to work alone ... so we can easily recognize them and keep a careful watch over what they do”.

19. Trade-by-trade and job-by-job orientation Case # 18:We had work platform under the bridge where they were busting rivets. Even though the work platforms had toe boards and railings, there was a place at the edge where a worker could fall through. The procedure was that workers beyond a certain point on the platform had to snap off on the safety line even if they were only beyond the point by an inch for a second. Everyone was equipped with a belt and a safety hook which snapped on .the~.safety line. They were required to snap off always. Anyone who did not was given one warning and would be fired next time.

20. Orientation for Each New Part of the Job Case # 19:The next phase of the work was close to high-voltage lines which could not be deactivated. The electrical subcontractor taped and flagged the lines red. And then there were pre work toolbox meetings where the electrical subcontractor showed the types of cables and how the dangerous ones were colored coded and demonstrated to the workers how to work around them. This was done just before they started to work on the section.

21. Direct Contact System Case # 20This direct contact is the most effective way to demonstrate commitment to safety. As one very successful job-site manager said: ttl am always out here. Three or four times a day. All the workers know who I am. And I attend the weekly toolbox meetings myself. I rotate through the meetings to make sure they are talking safety and not shooting the breeze.An owner's representatives to projects who has observed many job-site managers 'first hand comments: '11f the project managers don't go out in the field, if they just sit in the office and read safety reports, things just go down and down and get dirtier and dirtier. They have to get out on the job and solicit comments from the workers. They must be seen and heard and listen to the workers. If the workers know that they can talk with you without hurting their jobs, you can find out how safety can be improved on the job and give hem a voice in it."

22. Group meetings Case # 21A manager describes one such group for improving communications: "I form a safety committee of all the general foremen. I chair it. Everyone discusses what needs to be done for the upcoming monthts work. We get together for dinner~ That avoids job interruptions and also makes it formal.

23. Toolbox meetings Case # 22:A safety professional from a company with an excellent record comments: “Training can be incorporated into the meetings if it is related to the work, i.e; a demonstration of the correct procedures and equipment needed to erect a safe rolling scaffold on jobs where rolling scaffolds are numerous is a good example."

24. People Building Case # 23:The results show that superintendents who reported that people were their major problem had significantly more injuries than those who stated other type of problems were their primary concern (Hinze, 1976, p.107)

25. Maintaining Employment Continuity Case # 24:A job-site manager who lives and works in theCalifornia Sierras where most construction is seasonal obtained a contract for snow removal to keep the best foremen working through the winter months. Further more, to keep in touch through the winter with the other workers and foremen who have worked for him, he goes out to dinner with all those living in the area once a month.