The Buttress Safer Now Methodology and the radical plan to improve construction safety.
Buttress and our Safer Now philosophy is challenging the status quo of an industry with a dysfunctional safety regime.
Traditional workplace safety consists of the “Three E's” ; evaluation, education, and enforcement. For a small business, this is usually highly impractical and we’ve found that focusing on compliance can actually get in the way of safety. This is because the problem of safety management and compliance can be overwhelming. There is a massive chasm between “work as documented” and “work as done”
According to Graeme Powell, a consultant at Allan Hall Safety, the greater majority of small construction sites have nothing in the way of Workplace Safety Compliance in place. With two thirds of the construction workforce working for small businesses, this leaves most of the industry exposed to unnecessary risks.
That’s why we’re binning the 3 E’s of workplace safety and we’re laser-focused on the single most important ‘E’; EMPOWERMENT.
I am lucky that when I started my business, I already had a relationship with a safety management consultant and experience with implementation. The reality for most small building companies is that they are just one person, trying to get customers, negotiate contracts, hire staff and contractors, manage business financials, put out (metaphorical) fires, manage existing clients, renew licences, insurance and compliances, update social media pages and remember to talk to that guy they know about SEO, and then go and speak to the teachers at your kids’ school. It’s unsurprising that safety management often never gets to site.
We had some high risk projects early on, including the demolition of an enormous paint factory. It was a job for a mate of mine and I didn’t want to take on risk nor expose anyone else to risk. This propelled us to take safety seriously. When I did have an incident on site, in which one of the demo team sustained a head injury and we chose to self-report, I was interviewed by a Work Cover investigator. When I told him that we had a system in place and that the paperwork was up to date at the time of the incident, he laughed mockingly. It was clear that the expectation was that systems were never up to date, never really used and after a serious incident, a company would fill in and back-date their paperwork. At first, I was frustrated, but upon reflection, in the context of my industry experience, it made perfect sense that he had presumed this.
The problem is that safely management protocols and the “Three E’s” have been designed for enterprise level companies. Over the years, the safety industry has attempted to refine the concept to work for small businesses and small building sites by shrinking it in size, but this doesn’t work for many reasons. It’s akin to shrinking a large text book to the size of a matchbox..
Key problems with today’s WHS Systems and typical implementation:
1. The system is built around a team of management and admin staff, including a safety officer - small companies don’t have this setup, often it’s just one person
2. Traditional safety systems have a top down implementation, meaning that the director of the business needs to engage a business to document and implement a system. It takes a lot of time and it’s expensive. A near impossible aspiration for a small business trying to survive.
3. Traditional WHS systems take a comprehensive and exhaustive approach that sets out to eliminate every risk and work towards zero tolerance and zero injuries. For a start a policy of zero tolerance and zero risk is a flawed approach for many reasons. It pushes towards under-reporting and potential for systemic lethal risks to build up (as described by Dekker and Konkin in their incredible book Do Safety Differently).
But apart from that, aiming to implement a comprehensive and exhaustive system in small businesses is just pure fantasy, they need a triage system to focus on the biggest risks, the things that are likely to happen Today the things that need to be fixed NOW!! An exhaustive system can distract from dealing with the most important things.
4. Traditional safety systems are bespoke to each business - based on a tailored approach starting with the first ‘E’ for Evaluation. But realistically, all small domestic and commercial building sites are similar enough, with similar people doing similar things and exposed to similar risks - the time or resources are simply not there.
We need to take a pragmatic view here and conclude that the likelihood of a thorough Evaluation is so small as to be discarded as a possibility and the goal of even attempting it gets in the way of simple positive actions that can move the needle on safety today.
So why persevere with a system that clearly doesn’t work? We don’t have to anymore.
Here is the basis for the new Buttress Safer Now system:
1. Action orientated: Focus on immediate actions, removing friction
2. Prioritise: Start with the most important actions first
3. Embedded Training: Start with interactive forms that have embedded training and actions as the first step.
4. Available: The system is free and open to all so the site team does not have to wait for their employer to adopt a system to be able to use it. They can protect themselves and their mates today.
5. Reward: The team for their positive actions
Your Safety Toolkit:
IMPORTANT: Before we go any further - if you already have a safety system in place then use that. Buttress buildOS safety tools and resources can get you started and get you moving when you don’t have an alternative, because it’s better to do something than nothing. Buttress products are not a replacement for a safety system that is already in place.
Sign up to waitlist for early access to safety module which includes
Automated site induction
Toolbox Talk
Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS)
Safety Checklist