At Taylor, safety is always our first priority. It is the strongest mantra in the business. Safe practices are also about the health and continuity of the whole business.
Bringing a human perspective to site management is very important at Taylor. Afterall, in construction and property, safety is all about sending people home each day because we care about them and about the people they love.
After 20 years in the industry, WHSE Manager, Andrew Andreou believes that managing workplace safety is about shifting people’s mentality from doing something because ‘we are told to do it’, to doing something because it is the right thing, and the best thing for everyone.
In our industry the focus on safety is not unique to Taylor. When it comes to safe work sites we all share the same concerns, priorities and responsibilities. This also means that we have a network within the industry that we can call upon or rely on when needed. People don’t mind sharing knowledge in this space, certainly that’s important to Taylor – sharing information, and keeping each other safe.
As Andrew notes, “I’d like to believe that these things are not unique to Taylor. We all have the same goal, and that is that everyone goes home safely at the end of each day.”
Having always been a family-oriented business, at Taylor we strive to know our people, we believe that no one should feel like just a number. We work together, we socialise together, at our Christmas parties and social events we get to know each other’s children and families. And nothing is more important than seeing our colleagues go home safely, to their families and loved ones. That’s what Work, Health, Safety and Environment Management is all about.
After spending the better part of two decades working in safety in construction, Andrew has seen the mentoring and training side of his role grow. We have a changing workforce and for work, health and safety to remain a priority in the workplace we need to understand that we can no longer adopt a mentality that one size fits all.
When setting rules, policies, and procedures we need to consider people’s strength and weaknesses, their skill sets, potential language barriers, and what their personal priorities are. In construction, no one arrives at a work site looking to jeopardise the safety of others, so if people are not following protocols we need to ask ourselves why, and what can we do better?
Educating is always better than investigating.
Everyone in the industry needs to be educated and empowered to take ownership of safety. And we’ve seen this highlighted more than ever during COVID-19. “During the pandemic,” says Andrew, “we’ve found that individual circumstances must always be taken into account when making decisions that will impact the business, and the health and wellbeing of our workers.”
For the safety aspects of site management during COVID-19, we already had incredibly disciplined workplaces. It has been supporting people’s individual work needs during the pandemic and keeping up-to-date with the ever changing restrictions and government advice that has been critical to Taylor.
Many positives will come out of pandemic work practices, such as; improved health and hygiene, a conscious focus on work site housekeeping, less extraneous meetings and better interconnectivity with remote teams. Post-COVID workplaces will see permanent, positive changes in what will, no doubt, be economically challenging times.
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