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Want to get your people more involved in your safety program? Try a safety hotline!
ASCC member Pattillo Construction, instituted a 24-hour safety hotline last year as a way to get field workers more involved in the safety process.
“Many workers are reluctant to serve on a safety committee or even to speak up during a toolbox meeting; they are shy by nature and reluctant to call attention to themselves,” says Mike Sullivan, Pattillo safety director.
Sullivan believes that many employees have good ideas to share. “The safety hotline gives them an opportunity to call in anonymous comments, suggestions or complaints; whenever an idea comes to them. It’s a convenient, non-threatening way for everyone to have input – you don’t need writing skills or a suggestion form, just a telephone, which everyone carries these days.”
Calls have included requests for new PPE, suggested topics for safety meetings, even whistle blowing reports from workers who have spotted others on a site engaging in dangerous practices. Sullivan believes that many of these reports would not have been made and investigated if not for the ease and anonymity of the hotline. He also notes that all have been legitimate concerns – no prank calls, surprisingly.
Sullivan cautions that you must follow up on
all
calls or the idea becomes just another meaningless gesture. “These guys all come with a built-in ‘truth detector’ – if you’re not serious about wanting their input they’ll know.”
Pattillo Construction Corporation
is a turnkey design/build general contractor. Since 1950, the company has constructed over 1,000 quality commercial buildings totaling over 70 million square feet of prime industrial space in the Southeast.
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