Behavior Based Safety Training for Civil Engineers
You ill-afford the comfort of four walls and other luxuries, to be a civil engineering giant. You look up with authority under the scorching sun, fuming dust, often drenched due to the downpour, to be reckoned amid the construction community. You learn theory from foundation to finish in the college, put yourself abreast for every construction activity and become practically responsible for graceful existence of the masses who dwell in buildings and pass through highways and bridges in search of their livelyhood.
In spite of this spectacular background, there is a grumble claiming that the productivity suffers at most of the construction sites. Building construction is a cluster of 100-odd activities which all need discipline to ensure quality and productivity, while wastage should never be observed anywhere.
Research has proved that if engineers and other supervisory staff undergo a Training namely Behavior Based Safety, productivity levels at any building construction site could increase to a commensurate 30 percent. The break-up is: Concentration 10 percent, Safety Awareness 10 percent, House Keeping and Prevention of Wastage 10 percent.
How do you make people concentrate on their work? Is it okay for a civil engineer to shout at a person regarding one of the ten activities progressing at a construction site?
You may reply that he has to shout if he is angry about the individual's poor performance. But that action can always divert attention of others looking after something else and result in a quality or safety hazard.
Best thing for a civil engineer is to stand and observe any activity till the person supposed to perform it can understand it completely. There is always an argument that time constraints prevent a civil engineer from spending moments for an individual but that is not correct!
For example, let us say a gang of workers should complete excavation in 20 days for 100 footings of a commercial complex. To make first instruction (regarding marking and digging a footing) to be understood by the gang, the engineer may require 15 minutes of time. On the same footing he may have to spend another 15 minutes at the time of final dressing. He need not have to spend even a single minute on the remaining 99 footings, since the gang is aware of the work and performs properly. I can bet the 30 minutes spent on a footing for the gang to understand the concept properly, will ensure that the work is done on time.
It applies to every item of civil work.
Safe environment and safety gadgets can keep a contractor away from paying by his nose if any accident occurs. A civil engineer should inculcate the culture in his workers to be equipped with PPEs (Personal Protection Equipments) at a construction site always. He must ensure that the safety net is adequately spread across the work arena, while workers are engaed in activity at heights. He should never ever forget that he or his employer can survive only when principles are in place.
Can we just take out a hundred rupee note and throw it into a drain in which sullage is relentlessly flowing? We cannot do it for our money as well as for our employer's money. While a civil engineer shoulders a responsibility for a company that borrows in lakhs and crores to invest on construction and survive, he does so with the same mindset he applies for the betterment of his own family.
All these are taught systematically to the civil engineers when they undergo Behavior Based Safety Training. Better I think for all the builders to go for it!
* * * * *
In spite of this spectacular background, there is a grumble claiming that the productivity suffers at most of the construction sites. Building construction is a cluster of 100-odd activities which all need discipline to ensure quality and productivity, while wastage should never be observed anywhere.
Research has proved that if engineers and other supervisory staff undergo a Training namely Behavior Based Safety, productivity levels at any building construction site could increase to a commensurate 30 percent. The break-up is: Concentration 10 percent, Safety Awareness 10 percent, House Keeping and Prevention of Wastage 10 percent.
How do you make people concentrate on their work? Is it okay for a civil engineer to shout at a person regarding one of the ten activities progressing at a construction site?
You may reply that he has to shout if he is angry about the individual's poor performance. But that action can always divert attention of others looking after something else and result in a quality or safety hazard.
Best thing for a civil engineer is to stand and observe any activity till the person supposed to perform it can understand it completely. There is always an argument that time constraints prevent a civil engineer from spending moments for an individual but that is not correct!
For example, let us say a gang of workers should complete excavation in 20 days for 100 footings of a commercial complex. To make first instruction (regarding marking and digging a footing) to be understood by the gang, the engineer may require 15 minutes of time. On the same footing he may have to spend another 15 minutes at the time of final dressing. He need not have to spend even a single minute on the remaining 99 footings, since the gang is aware of the work and performs properly. I can bet the 30 minutes spent on a footing for the gang to understand the concept properly, will ensure that the work is done on time.
It applies to every item of civil work.
Safe environment and safety gadgets can keep a contractor away from paying by his nose if any accident occurs. A civil engineer should inculcate the culture in his workers to be equipped with PPEs (Personal Protection Equipments) at a construction site always. He must ensure that the safety net is adequately spread across the work arena, while workers are engaed in activity at heights. He should never ever forget that he or his employer can survive only when principles are in place.
Can we just take out a hundred rupee note and throw it into a drain in which sullage is relentlessly flowing? We cannot do it for our money as well as for our employer's money. While a civil engineer shoulders a responsibility for a company that borrows in lakhs and crores to invest on construction and survive, he does so with the same mindset he applies for the betterment of his own family.
All these are taught systematically to the civil engineers when they undergo Behavior Based Safety Training. Better I think for all the builders to go for it!
* * * * *
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