Safety Week is an annual, industry-wide effort to raise awareness of the construction industry’s continuous commitment to eliminating injuries. Safety Week is celebrated across sites throughout the U.S. and Canada as crews have toolbox talks, conduct demonstrations on top safety issues, and engage in conversations around safety in construction.

Of course, safety can’t be confined to one week; every week must be safety week. Safety must always be the top priority for our employees. Construction sites are going to have hazards so we need to be vigilant in recognizing and eliminating those hazards every day.

Sometimes, the safest way isn’t always the easiest way. It can be tempting to cut corners to save time on projects with fast-paced schedules. But with a strong safety culture, safety is at the center of how we work. Doing it right, is doing it safe.

We all have a responsibility to work safely, and to stop unsafe work of anyone working on our sites. If you see a coworker or another contractor’s crew member doing something you think is unsafe, you have the authority and the responsibility to stop them.

Developing a safety culture might sound daunting but a few small changes can have a huge impact. To help get you started, below are a few ideas to implement at your organization:

• Share lessons learned with your team on a regular basis.
• Create signage reminding employees of your safety slogan and post around your office and on your project sites.
• Ask employees why they stay safe and share their responses. This gives everyone an opportunity to reflect on their motivation for staying safe.
• Implement a distracted driving policy that encourages employees to drive distraction free.

While the industry celebrates Safety Week 2018 this week, let’s commit to making every week safety week for our employees and our partners. Together, we can all go home safe. Every day.