Today marks the first day of Safety Week, a 5-day industry-wide education and awareness event for the construction industry. From May 6th to May 10th, we’re uniting with construction companies across the globe to raise awareness of the industry’s continuing commitment to eliminating worker injury.
Safety Week is sponsored by The Construction Industry Safety Initiative (CISI) and the Incident & Injury Free Executive Forum (IIF) CEO Forum. In 2014, 40 national and global construction firms came together to form CISI and IIF with a clear vision: to inspire everyone in the industry to be leaders in safety.
In 2016, Safety Week was more formally branded and transitioned to a fully integrated annual campaign. Every year since then, the number of members and sponsors has increased, but the mission has remained the same: together, we will strengthen our industry’s safety culture and performance by sharing best practices, tools, and resources.
In addition to providing materials to help plan their own Safety Week events and activities, the Safety Week executive committee sets a yearly campaign theme. This year is: “Safe by Choice.”
As individuals, project teams, and companies, we are safe by choice. Think about it: every time you step into an office or onto a job site, you’re faced with choices that will either lead to safety or injury. We hold ourselves accountable to our decisions and the actions and results that follow. To act otherwise is simply unacceptable.
We at I Build America – Ohio know the impact our safe choices can have on our team members, but even their families and the communities in which we live and work benefit from safe practices. All week long, we’re celebrating the industry-wide choices actively made each day that have helped improve worker safety.
During Safety Week, contractors celebrate in ways that resonate with their employees. We hope you and your company join in the Safety Week celebration alongside fellow construction companies.
How? You can host your own Safety Week events as a way to refocus your commitment to eliminating injuries on job sites. Here are some ways you can celebrate with your crew:
- Thank your workers for supporting safety and recognize their efforts to be injury-free.
- Increase awareness of the importance of being committed to safety every day by scheduling special events with clients and celebratory lunches.
- Encourage everyone to share best practices and work together to strengthen the industry’s safety culture.
- Conduct on-site safety awareness activities to support education, such as mass safety meetings and safety demonstrations.
No matter how you celebrate, keep the mission at the forefront: hold the entire industry to a higher standard of safety, even beyond what our clients and regulatory entities request.
For even more celebratory events ideas, you can download the Safety Week Planning Playbook here. Be sure to follow us on Instagram @ibuildamerica_ohio for daily Safety Week updates!
Of course, this is just the tip of the safety iceberg. Every week needs to be treated like Safety Week. We are united in our commitment to continuously improve our safety culture and send each employee home safe each day. Together, we will build a stronger, safer industry.
