To keep our contractors, vendors, full-time employees, or site visitors safe, Greenup Industries maps every on-site journey from when someone arrives until they sign out from the premises. For nearly a decade, we have learned much about the different safety and security requirements of various industries and organizations. Here are our top 5 safety and security recommendations:
Perform ongoing safety training.
Providing safety training for employees is essential for creating a culture of workplace safety. A workforce with a strong understanding of safety guidelines and best practices is more likely to recognize potential hazards before they occur. This can lead to fewer injuries and help you avoid costly losses in productivity and employee morale.
Promote a good safety culture
Workplace safety starts with a strong safety culture, the collection of values and beliefs that employers and employees share concerning risks in the workplace. Effective leadership is critical because cultural change is complex and challenging. Leaders need to embrace the safety agenda and lead the efforts across the overall organization.
If you're committed to a safe work environment, find ways to get your employees onboard. Encourage employees to get to know the standards and to report potentially hazardous situations. The OSHA rules and regulations can be a stiff read, making your inductions or training interactive or video-based.
Keep contractor records up to date.
To keep your site safe and secure, your contractors and vendors must keep their records up to date. Our proprietary software, Greenup Tracker, ensures all of our contractors and vendors have up-to-date records, including relevant qualifications, insurances, and other documents. Contractors and vendors can log in, edit their records, and keep them up to date.
Consider using photo ID scanning for Visitors.
Providing touchless registration will ensure safer job sites for your workers. Registration, virtual orientations, virtual training, and automated health checklists can all be accessed through their photo ID card.
This adds an extra layer of security and allows them to verify better people's identity coming on-site, but it also makes sign-in a lot faster.
Make sure your emergency response plan is not "one-size-fits-all."
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) warns that workplace evacuations are more common than people think. There is a broad range of possible emergencies, including explosions, natural disasters, hazardous material releases, biological accidents, civil disturbances, or workplace violence. Your company needs more than a "one-size-fits-all" response plan.
Implement technology to protect lone worker safety
Lone worker safety applications (smartphone apps) can allow users to notify employers and emergency personnel to help locate a worker with a simple action such as pulling a wrist tether from an unlocked phone. Once signaled, the appropriate authorities are immediately dispatched to the worker's location through GPS monitoring. In addition, previously programmed information about the employee will be sent to the dispatch team, requiring the threatened worker to enter zero information while the event is taking place. There are several great apps available to protect your lone workers.
Going beyond compliance
Safety is a crucial enabler of business continuity, operational performance, and productivity. Effectively addressing these five areas will help organizations become safety compliant.
Prevent workplace injuries
Improve compliance with laws and regulations
Reduce costs, including significant reductions in workers' compensation premiums
Engage workers
Enhance their social responsibility goals
Increase productivity and enhance overall business operations
Employers will find that implementing these recommended practices brings other benefits. Studies show that when companies value safety, operational excellence will follow.
About Greenup Industries
Based in Kenner, La., Greenup Industries provides contracting and special construction services to industrial, commercial, and municipal clients. It also has a division focused on maintenance and staffing services to support various industries. The company’s self-designed portal, named Greenup Tracker, connects third-party vendors with industrial facilities in need of painters, plumbers, groundskeepers, carpenters, and other low to moderate security clearance subcontractors. Greenup Industries is certified as a Minority-Owned Business (MBE) by the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council.
In 2019, Greenup Industries was awarded the prestigious Emerging Growth Company of the Year by ACG Louisiana. Rodney Greenup and his team of nearly two dozen employees have worked on a number of high-profile projects, including a major overhaul of New Orleans’ city streets, and several stockpiling projects for the United States Army Corps of Engineers to fortify levees in Louisiana.
If you would like more information on this project, please contact Greenup Industries at 225.283.4843 or info@greenupind.com.