Best Way - Contractor's Safety Self Evaluation Checklist

If you work as a contractor you already know how important safety is for your business. Contractors and construction personnel work with potentially hazardous tools and equipment on a daily basis, and it is essential that those tools be operated safely. Creating a safety checklist is one of the best ways to make sure your business and its workers are properly protected.

Everyone's Responsibility

1. While the legal responsibility for safety and security rests with the owners and managers of the company, safety is the responsibility of every worker on the front lines. That is why part of your contractor's safety checklist should be drawing up a list of proper safety procedures and making sure that every worker signs off on those policies and procedures. This ensures that every worker, from the front-line laborers to the supervisors and construction managers, are aware of the need for safety.

Accessible and Available

2. Contractors need to be aware of the need for safety equipment, and they need to make sure that safety equipment is available when it is needed. No worker should go unprotected because the right safety goggles, respirators, hardhats and other vital pieces of safety equipment are not available. While every worker needs to take responsibility for his own safety on the job, it is the job of the contractor to make sure all safety rules are followed. Keeping a few spare sets of goggles, some extra hardhats and a supply of respirators at each workstation is the best way to ensure that every worker is protected.

Operating Instructions with Equipment

3. In a perfect world every worker would know how to operate every piece of equipment on the work site--and do it safety. The reality, however, is rarely that simple, and that is why it is important to keep a detailed set of operating instructions and safety precautions with every piece of construction equipment. Using plastic sheet protectors and attaching those sheet protectors to each workstation is a great way to make sure those vital instructions are not lost or removed. Simply insert the safety instructions and operating instructions into the plastic sheet protectors and use a bicycle chain or piece of wire to attach those instructions to the equipment. This will help ensure that those safety precautions and operating instructions stay right where they belong.