ROLE OF SITE MANAGER

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ROLE OF SITE MANAGER

• Ellahi M. Ishteeaque, AIA
• RA MA ARCH

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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.

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Priorities1. Commit yourself to the combined
goal of high safety and high productivity.2. Inc
lude 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.
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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 bya) 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.
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Planning1. 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 startsa) 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.
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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.
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Worker Orientation1. 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.
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Effective Communication1. 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.
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People Building1. 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.
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Making Safety a High Priority Early Case
11Even 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.
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Case 12They are hearing from the time they
are hired on a daily basis "We are going to do
the job safet' They don't have to guess what we
mean. Through words and deeds, we send the
signal We do care.
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Planning for safe constructionCase 13The
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.
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Working with the union Case 14A 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.
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Planning with OSHA Case 15The 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 benefits
outweighed the risks.
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Orienting New Workers Case 161. 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
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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.
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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.
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Extra orientation for apprentices Case 17A
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.
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Trade-by-trade and job-by-job orientation Case
18We 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.
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Orientation for Each New Part of the Job Case
19The 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.
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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."
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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.
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Toolbox meetings Case 22A 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."
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People Building Case 23The 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)
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Maintaining Employment Continuity Case 24A
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.