Even the safest construction job-sites carry risks, and as long as there’s a non-zero risk of an accident, you’ll need to be prepared for how to handle such an accident. Accident reporting is important for a number of reasons, but many construction companies don’t have formalized, structured processes in place to optimize accident reporting.
How can you facilitate better reporting on your construction job-site?
The Value of Better Accident Reporting
Why should your company care about better accident reporting?
The first answer is that it has the potential to shield you from potential liability issues. OSHA mandates a great deal of workplace safety standards, including standards around accident reporting; having robust and effective accident reporting standards in place means you can maintain compliance, create a safer environment, and limit your exposure to legal risks.
Better standards can also expedite matters related to workers’ comp claims. If your insurer has full, robust details around the accident, they will approve claims much faster, and the process will go much smoother.
Perhaps even more important than that, accident reporting gives your business the opportunity to conduct a root cause analysis, figure out what caused the accident, and ultimately take action to prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future.
As a downstream result, your workplace will be safer, and your employees will feel safer, which can boost morale and productivity.
Facilitating Better Accident Reporting in Construction
So what steps can you take to facilitate better accident reporting in the construction world?
Audit your current processes.
The first step of the journey is to audit your current processes. What are your standards for accident reporting? What are their strengths, and what are their weaknesses? Have you been able to follow these processes consistently with respect to accidents in the past? If not, what stopped you? Chances are, you’ll be able to reveal at least a few weaknesses, even if you haven’t had any major problems with it previously.
Instill great leaders.
It is also important to instill great leaders who take safety and accident reporting very seriously. With good leaders in place, your requirements for accident reporting will be more likely to be followed consistently. If there are any lapses, your leaders can step in and resolve the situation.
Create a safety culture.
Safety culture is a set of shared values promoting a safe workplace. In effect, it is a shared vision that safety is the highest priority. If your organization has a consistent, agreed-upon safety culture, your employees are much more likely to file consistent, effective accident reports when necessary.
Establish clear workflows.
Accident reporting is much easier and more intuitive when clear workflows exist. There should be objective, understandable steps that all your employees can easily follow. For example, what are the most important steps to follow in the immediate aftermath of a workplace accident? Who should employees report to if and when there is an accident? Who is responsible for filling out the accident report, and what should that report contain?
Provide education and training.
Additionally, you should be willing to educate and train your employees. Please don’t assume they’ll be able to follow a process document or file an accident report successfully. Please give them the education and support they need to complete this task effectively.
Facilitate open communication.
Open communication is essential if you want employees to feel comfortable coming forward with accident reports or concerns. Sometimes, employees avoid reporting accidents because they fear getting in trouble or because they feel it would be a way of tacitly admitting liability. These concerns disappear when your organization is open, transparent, and communicative.
Encourage positive behavior.
When you see positive accident reporting practices and behaviors, reward the people behind them. Praise them publicly and encourage others to follow in their footsteps.
Discourage negative behavior.
Conversely, when you catch failures to report or bad reporting practices, discourage that negative behavior with disciplinary action. This is often best done in private, but make sure that everyone on your team understands the consequences of not following procedures.
Regularly review and improve.
Your accident reporting improvements aren’t “done” simply because you’ve made proactive changes. It’s important for you to regularly review your policies and reports so you can continuously improve.
Improvements to your accident reporting processes can benefit your construction business in myriad ways, from boosting workplace safety to complying with laws and regulations. These improvements demand your attention and significant investment, but they’re typically more than worth it in the end.
Image Credit: Photo by Josue Isai Ramos Figueroa; Unsplash
