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Site Specific Safety Plan
It is our job at Safe T Professionals to help construction contractors make their jobs safer. Our experts can create a comprehensive site specific safety plan (SSSP) that outlines practical ways to manage risk at particular job sites.
Before we create the useful document, we consult you and all the contractors that you plan to work with at the job site. We also call upon all subcontractors to identify the specific tasks that they intend to perform as well as the potential risks and hazards. By consulting the contractors and sub-contractors, we increase the possibility of conducting an in-depth safety analysis and convince all of them to play a central role in ensuring the task is completed as safe as possible.
Benefits of well-designed SSSP
Not all SSSPs can help you achieve the required degree of safety. The right one guarantees you several benefits.
With an efficient construction safety plan, you improve communication, which is the thing that contractors find incredibly valuable. An excellent example that we can use to illustrate the essential contribution of SSSP is how it makes scaffolding easy. Some experts can get it on the site. However, if you always share all your safety planning with all the involved parties, you can tell whether any other teams will need it for another job. The idea here is to ensure active cooperation. When people work together and coordinate the project, the site becomes safer and work gets completed with higher efficiency.
A well-designed site specific safety plan OSHA is also an essential systematic guide to help contractors meet the obligations of the regulator. The SSSP records the following, at a minimum:
- Identifies and manages hazards
- Provides ways employees can get fully involved in the relevant safety procedures
- Creates opportunities for training and supervising employees
- Reports incidents and accidents
- Creates rescue plans and first aid measures
Most contractors in the US and many other parts of the world have made site specific safety plan for subcontractors a must-have requirement during the tendering process due to the benefits. If you prepare the right one, that makes everyone’s life a lot easier.
Components of Efficient SSSPs
Safe T Professionals includes all the essential components of SSSP to ensure you reap all the benefits. We consider the nature of your project, legislative and regulatory requirements, the level of risks involved, the concerns of the subcontractors, your unique requirements and much more when designing the construction site specific safety plan. As such, we incorporate a wide range of elements that are unique to every project.
At a minimum, you will find these sections inside any of our approved SSSP documents:
Agreement
Since we believe that different entities, employees and employers cannot work together unless they are willing to achieve a common goal, our experts create this part. We bring together all the involved parties and discuss the basis on which we should work together on a construction site. Once we have established the grounds per the law and industry standards, we include the agreements as part of the document.
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Job Hazard & Risk
This step helps the contractor to identify the potential hazards. It includes a detailed evaluation of the job site and gives the contractor the opportunity to both identify and prevent them.
Task Analysis
This section is incredibly useful for contractors that work in higher-risk areas. Confined spaces and asbestos are examples of dangerous zones. For jobs that are related to high-risk activities, we execute a detailed task analysis and provide the safest work method. It often includes the ideal personal safety equipment and other safety tools that are adequate to ensure everyone on the job site remains safe despite the prevalent risk of flash fires, slips and falls, motor accidents and much more.
Hazardous Products
The law requires you to have an up-to-date record for all the substances that you use on the job site. Besides, you must include any products that you bring on the site for any reason. As such, we create this section to register all the hazardous products that you need to bring or use in the workplace. Some of the common ones that we include in this category are fuels, solvents, glues and resins. Here we will specify the exact product or substance and the quantity.
On-site training & Efficiency
Since most work sites require a high degree of competence, we create this register to demonstrate that you do not need to compromise on this. The minimum qualification requirements are indicated, and you need to enter accurate records.
Here, we provide the qualifications, training, experience and the degree of competence of the people who are operating on the specific job site.
Emergency Response Plan
Safe T Professionals also creates an emergency response site health and safety plan to mitigate the harm done if an incident does occur. We have designed our programs to remove hazards from the workplaces. However, we are not blind to the fact that accidents can still occur. As such, we create this plan to cater to the interests of employees when emergencies arise.
We ensure that there are adequate equipment operators, trained specialists and emergency services. We then record the status of preparedness.
Toolbox Meeting
In this register, we provide the approved means of structuring on-site meetings and briefings. All of them must be logical and enhance the participation of all the involved parties. Often, the documents feature introduction sessions to cater to new workers.
Inspection Checklist
We also include a detailed site specific safety plan checklist to boost the contractors’ hazard management efforts.
Our inspection list targets specific elements like vehicles. However, the broad one focuses on job sites. Our inspection checklists differ from one industry to another. We do this to address the underlying safety needs that are unique to every sector and industry.
Site incident and accident
As per the site specific safety plan template OSHA, we create this part to enable the contractor to record incidents that occur on the site. It focuses on the activities that are inherently more dangerous than others.
Role of contractors in creatinng the SSSp Agreement
We work closely with the contractor as well as the main contractor to fill out the SSSP. Here is how we involve them in achieving the required safety standards.
Ensure both of them read and understand the agreement. This way, we create the ideal environment for the formation of a useful safety plan that covers the entire scope of the work to be done.
Ask Questions
When filling the SSSP, subcontractors and the general contractor have adequate time to ask many questions and get sufficient answers. For the agreement to be valid, all the parties must feel that their concerns are adequately addressed.
Sign Off
Before work starts on the site, the two parties have to complete the agreement. We ensure that each of them has adequate time to consider all the provisions of the contract before they sign off to signal the validity of the agreement. By undertaking such a detailed process, we mitigate the hazards and risks that the subcontractors and general contractor have helped us to identify.
Roles of Subcontractors
Subcontractors play other critical roles in helping us keep the workplace safe. At Safe T Professionals, we fully engage them because we appreciate that they have a special safety responsibility.
Unlike some safety professionals, we know that the people who only go to the job site for a few hours have the power to influence the efficiency of other workers. They influence the corporate culture indirectly and determine the overall safety of everyone.
However, the scope of the responsibility of subcontractors, as a person conducting a business or undertaking, largely depends on the extent to which they can control the hazard or risk. We require those that have lots of control of the situation to have more responsibilities than those that do not enjoy the same privileges.
Example: If subcontractors are working on the same job site together with other employees, they need to share the safety responsibility with them. For example, we cannot ask Joseph, who is a floor sander that spends many hours on the site, sanding the floors with others to shoulder the full responsibility alone. Instead, he should keep consulting with all the other people working on the same site to make sure everyone stays safe.
Wherever applicable, subcontractors and general contractors should have the following responsibilities:
- Provide the required facilities that enhance the welfare of workers
- Ensure the job site is safe and properly working
- Provide facilities like running water for the welfare of workers
- Ensure everyone on the site handles the plant, substances and structures safely
- Provide the required training, supervision and information
- Complete the SSSP
why subcontractors complete the SSSP
Subcontractors must meet with their respective general contractors to discuss the job at hand. Besides, they evaluate the potential risks and available emergency plans. They must also complete the relevant sections in the site-specific health and safety plan.
They should do other essential things, depending on the job. Each task is unique and requires a distinct approach.
By going through this process, the subcontractor is helping to enhance safety in many different ways. They communicate their commitment to safety by approving the agreement. By indicating the products and substances that they are going to use on the job site, they help to communicate the potential risks of doing the work and their plans to prevent them.
Overall, you need to use the right site specific health and safety plan template to help your subcontractors create the safest environment for the site.
Hazard Identification
The process of identifying hazards is a critical one since it determines whether your SSSP may be useful or not. Through our training, we help our customers increase their awareness of on-site risks.
Safe T Professionals require workers to take time to check their surroundings for signs that it is a safe workplace. The information is critical for making the site specific safety plan construction a useful tool and not just a regulatory requirement.
Here are the core factors that we advise workers to consider when conducting an efficient hazard identification:
Risk of Electrical Risks
Workers should think about whether they could become exposed to any electrical hazard on the site. We focus on this because this is a common cause of severe injuries and sometimes death.
On most sites, you encounter harsh conditions that are likely to damage electrical cables and equipment. Besides, they can quickly reduce their quality and lifespan.
For you to be safe, if you can, confirm whether the electrical equipment in the job site has been adequately tested and tagged. If not, you need our experts to help you do so. If there is a risk of hitting the machine or live cables, we can also remove the risk and protect you from it.
Hazardous Substance
Sometimes, a hazardous substance will be present at the worksite to help accomplish the project. If you inappropriately use them however, you can face intolerable hazards. Some of these are solvents, paints, fuels and cleaning products.
For you to be safe, consider whether any hazardous substance can poison you. If you breathe, touch, or swallow them, you are likely to suffer. They are the leading cause of death and damage to internal organs.
Striking Against Anything
Consider whether you can strike against something in the work environment. The construction site safety plan requires the job site to be spacious enough to prevent you from hitting or being struck by other workers or objects.
Vehicles, building, tools
Vehicles, the building and tools can also expose you to danger. Be sure they are not able to hurt you while you on the worksite.
Some of the everyday things that can expose you to this risk are:
- Poor design
- Operator failure
- Incorrect guarding
- Mechanical failure
- Environmental conditions
- Operator Error
Slipping, Tripping, and falling
Slipping, tripping and falling are other common risks in construction sites. As such, before you start working, you should watch out for:
- Unsecured covers
- Uncovered excavations
- Trip hazards
- Slippery surfaces
- uneven surfaces
- Working at height
poor job-site design
The workplace should be appropriately designed with the task requirements in mind. Ensure you have the right equipment and tools. In the case of anyone acting in an unsafe manner, workers should report to a supervisor.
To complete the project without being exposed to these risks, be aware of obscure risks, such as the following:
- Lack of training
- New tool or equipment
- Non-compliant equipment
- Inefficient tools
- Wrong use of equipment or tools
Staining and spraining
If you are sure that the worksite is safe, now consider whether there is the risk of straining or spraining parts of your body. If you are to perform manual jobs, you are at a higher risk of suffering these injuries. You should take great care if you notice:
Repetitive Tasks
The requirement to bend and twist to handle heavy loads
The site does not meet the standard site safety plan requirements if you can notice things that expose people, animals or the environment to danger. You need to raise the concerns and ensure it is corrected. In case you need professional advice or assistance, contact Safe T Professionals.
Site inductions
All of us have a responsibility to ensure safety at the worksite. As we have seen, workers must play a critical role in the making of the site safety plan. For them to offer useful support and make informed decisions, employers need to learn to do site induction or hire experts to do it on their behalf.
Ensure you provide the right information.
For you to be effective, be sure you take into account the stage at which that project is and the type of project. In complex projects, for example, this is the time to explain the major components of the job site safety plan, including the emergency response processes and the risks to avoid.
The key points that your new workers need to know include:
- The person who is in charge
- Details on the task
- Risks, hazards and mitigation measures in place
- The relevant legal and moral responsibilities along with industry standards
Keep Records
Ensure that you record all the actions and happenings that are related to the specific job. The names of people who are working on the site, the training content, their level of competence, and more. You need these pieces of information to keep updating your safety plan since it is not a static document. The most efficient ones are responsive to the changes on the ground and focus on making the work more comfortable and safer.
Safe T Professionals has an SSSP that has a useful site specific safety plan template that can help you to achieve your diverse construction needs.
Since we know that some contractors need exceptional professional support, we not only provide the templates but also are ready to guide your workers throughout the processes whenever necessary.
