Here’s my top 10 recommendations as it relates to Construction Industrial Hygiene:


  1. Review your safety programs. -even if you don’t make changes, mark the date and have your safety committee approve it.
  2. Plan your safety meetings & topics. – you’ll never do all of the training if you don’t plan for it now
  3. Button-up/Consolidate/Finish any unfinished safety business. – old notes that you need to write? a follow up with an employee on a safety task?
  4. Observe employees while they are working. – you will learn something, listen and they will appreciate it and, it will make your job easier (in the long run)
  5. Decrease lost-time-workdays. – hopefully this won’t happen, but decreasing this number is something you can have some control over
  6. Discipline unsafe behavior – and document it. It’s not fun to be the safety-cop, but your enforcement of it is necessary. Even if you are titled, “Global Corporate Safety Director”  and in charge of 10 Safety Managers, you need to do it.
  7. Reward good behavior. – same thing, but opposite…and instead of documenting it, you should throw a party and invite everyone
  8. Focus on addressing the worst-first. The top hazards in construction are falls, trenching, scaffold, electric, PPE, repetitive motion…take your pick
  9. Hire an IH / Safety consultant. Interview a few, focus on a specific area or concern, take copious notes, and use the information. It will be worth the $ spent.
  10. Be safe. Do as you say and don’t be a hypocrite. If you get hurt falling off a ladder at home, what message does that give?