Construction Manager's Role: Health & Safety on Site

This essay thoroughly examines the pivotal role of a construction manager in ensuring health and safety on construction sites. It emphasizes the manager's responsibility for implementing and monitoring safety measures, including providing appropriate training, ensuring the correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and adhering to safety regulations. The essay analyzes various factors contributing to construction site hazards and proposes strategies for creating a safe working environment. The importance of cooperation, coordination, and consultation is highlighted, along with the need for effective management practices, including the utilization of Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) programs. Furthermore, the essay discusses the significance of employee health, suggesting initiatives such as nutrition plans and regular medical checkups. The conclusion underscores the construction manager's essential role in fostering a high standard of safety, advocating for a proactive approach to hazard identification and risk management.

Role of Construction Manager in Promoting Health & Safety on Building Sites 0
Title: Role of Construction Manager in Promoting Health & Safety on Building Sites
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Role of Construction Manager in Promoting Health & Safety on Building Sites 1
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Health & Safety Measures at Construction Sites.......................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

Role of Construction Manager in Promoting Health & Safety on Building Sites 2
Introduction
Every organization has a responsibility towards their staff in protecting their health
and safety, regardless of the industry or occupation. In the construction industry, the workers
are exposed to huge risks as they work in a dangerous environment, therefore, it becomes a
bigger responsibility for construction organizations to look after the health and safety of their
employees. A construction manager has a great responsibility to ensure that all the right
precautions are taken for safeguarding the employees and for preventing any unnecessary
risks which can occur at the construction site. Thus, a construction organization has to train
its employees for maintaining huge standards of safety. In this assignment, scholarly articles
will be analyzed to understand the importance of employee’s health and safety at construction
sites. Also, the different measures stated by the Organization Health & Safety (OH&S)
institution have been explained to attain a deeper understanding of the employee’s safety at
construction sites. Thus, the assignment presents a clear argument for the need of safety
measures at construction sites and the role of a construction manager in monitoring and
managing the safety measures.
Health & Safety Measures at Construction Sites
Construction sites are places which have a busy environment, with huge machinery,
heavy vehicles work together side by side, which increases the level of risks at these places.
Therefore, in such sites cooperation, coordination, and consultation is paramount (Feng
2015). According to Uher & Ritchie, safety at the construction site is essential and should be
given the highest priority and safety legislation should be implemented in order to avoid any
accidents (Uher and Ritchie 1998). They argue that while it is the duty of the construction
managers to ensure the safety of workers at construction sites. Developing an effective and
safe environment requires that each and every employee to ensure that they follow all safety
measures (Uher and Ritchie 1998). The most important factor for increasing the safety level

Role of Construction Manager in Promoting Health & Safety on Building Sites 3
at construction sites, is to ensure that all the employee working at the site possess training in
implementing health and safety. The training should also be provided for using the different
types of machinery in the correct way, so as to reduce the chances of an accident. The role of
the construction manager is to ensure that all the employees are provided with appropriate
training and it is his duty to ensure that every employee participate in the different training
activities regularly. Along with this, the construction manager also has the responsibility to
monitor the entire work at construction sites and ensure that all the employee are working
according to the set safety policies and procedures (Ismail and Ghani 2012).
According to Safe Work Australia, construction work can be described as any work
which is conducted in connection with the alteration, construction, conversion, demolition,
fitting-out, renovation, refurbishment, commissioning, dismantling, maintenance,
decommissioning, and also the preparation of a construction site. Thus, safety should be
maintained and monitored during all these different construction activities. According to a
survey in the United States, this has been identified that managing and handling the minor
calamities at the construction site is a huge concern (Choe and Leite 2017). Thus, it is
important that while performing different activities of construction whether it is small or big,
the construction manager and the employees should ensure that all the necessary precautions
are being undertaken (Kanchana, Sivaprakash and Joseph 2015).
According to Sanchez, Pelaez, and Alis, apart from developing a safe working
environment at the construction sites, construction managers should also ensure that the
employee’s health should be maintained, which will also help to increase the productivity of
the organization (Sanchez, Pelaez and Alis 2017). For this measure, it is crucial that the
construction manager should create a fitness and nutrition plan for their employees, as the
health and fitness of the employee are directly associated with the organization’s outcomes.
Therefore, the construction manager should try and establish their own canteen which will

Role of Construction Manager in Promoting Health & Safety on Building Sites 4
help in offering the employee with nutritious meals (Cameron, Hare and Duff 2013). Though
this is a good initiative to start a canteen for serving the employees with nutritious meals, but
for a construction manager to monitor the regular meals of the employees will be additional
work and also, this will increase the expenses of the organization. Thus, more appropriate and
economical method would be to assign the duty of offering healthy meals to a food chain
organization that provides healthy food that is especially prepared according to the nutrition
plan of the construction manager. Also, it will help in saving costs.
Another important aspect is that the construction manager should ensure, the
availability and utilization of proper harness and safety equipment for safety at the
construction sites. All the employee should wear and use all the necessary harness, as
recommended by the Organizational Health & Safety at the construction sites. According to
Amick et al., the highest number of accidents which occur at construction sites are due to lack
of harness and safety equipment (Amick et al. 2015). Every year, many construction sites are
charged with huge penalties, for not using appropriate safety equipment at the workplace
(Wong et al. 2009). To ensure safety, the construction manager must brief employee in detail
about the importance of different safety harness and instruct them to regularly wear it on the
construction site, while working or not.
According to Vitharana, De Silva and De Silva, both minor and major accidents and
mishaps occur at construction sites due to unawareness about safety and the employees
resistance to wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) (Vitharana, De Silva and De
Silva 2015). Thus, this is highlighted through this aspect that it is important for the different
organizations like Safe Wor Australia or Organization Health & Safety, to conduct programs
which help in enhancing the level of awareness towards safety and well-being in the
construction industry. Also, through these awareness programs, the organizations will also be

Role of Construction Manager in Promoting Health & Safety on Building Sites 5
informed about the different ways through which simple and effective safety measures can be
applied at construction sites.
According to Teo et al., it is the duty of the construction manager to ensure that at the
construction site effective management practices should be utilized for the safety of
employees, which should be an amalgamation of knowledge, safe approaches, and strict rules
and regulations. All these different aspects will transform the working environment of a
construction site making is more safe and secured (Teo et al. 2005). For this measure, the
construction manager should utilize the safety programs facilitated by Occupational Health &
Safety management and they should be implemented in the working environment of
construction sites. Furthermore, the construction manager should ensure that all the
employees should abide by the different acts, regulations, and codes, which include Work
Health & Safety Act 2011, the Work Safe Act, the Work Health & Safety Regulation 2017,
and many others rules issued by the legislation of Australia. These different legislations help
in building a strong working environment, which is governed by high standards of
regulations, policies, and codes.
The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in Australia indicates that all the
organizations belonging to different industries should follow the standards highlighted by the
OH&S at their workplace. This includes both the contractors and the employees and they
both have a responsibility to develop a safe working environment. Also, for all the
organization, it is important to develop their own occupational health management system,
which can be conducted in five simple steps (Occupational Health and Safety 2017). Firstly,
the organization’s top management should be completely committed to the plan and
appropriate policies should be developed that guides the organization and help in making
better future decisions. Through this, a strong occupational health management system will
be developed. Secondly, the organizations need to conduct severe planning which helps in

Role of Construction Manager in Promoting Health & Safety on Building Sites 6
delivering the OHS policy and also helps in meeting the different objectives and targets, for
controlling the different risks and accidents which can occur in the workplace. After a strong
planning phase, it is crucial that these plans should be put into action and thus, the
organization needs to implement the different plans effectively. The main aim of the
implementation process should be to achieve great results through OHS policy, targets, and
objectives. This OHS working environment should then be evaluated and this fourth step can
be conducted by evaluating the performance of the employee and also by measuring the
reduction in the accidents at the construction sites. The final step demands for reviewing the
system and proposing a few improvement measures, if they are required in the OHS system,
to upgrade the standard of safety in the organization. Also, it is crucial to formulating
strategies that help in maintaining a safe working environment (Latham 2018).
Conclusion
Thus, from this complete argumentative essay, this can be stated that at the
construction sites, the construction manager role is paramount. The construction manager’s
presence is needed at every different stage of construction activities. It is the duty of the
construction manager to ensure that all the rules and regulation are strictly followed, they
should also ensure that the nutrition needs of the employee are fulfilled and the construction
manager should regularly offer the employees with medical checkups. In addition to this, the
construction manager should work on abolishing the attitude of “don’t know, don’t care”,
towards the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and thus, he should undertake different
measures and activities to increase the awareness about harnesses amongst the employee and
should also teach them the right methods of using the equipment. All these different practices
have to be conducted at a construction site to develop a high standard of safe working
environment and the construction manager play a vital role in building a safe environment.

Role of Construction Manager in Promoting Health & Safety on Building Sites 7
References
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