Our company has a part-time safety officer who works two days a week for us doing on-site safety inspections. We use a system for documentation and tracking called iAuditor, which is available through a company called Safety Culture.
Job site inspections happen weekly. They are random and unannounced, so our crews are in the habit of practicing safe work habits daily. During safety inspections, our officer documents who is working on-site. He takes a group picture and plays a brief safety video on rotating topics. The videos include our safety standards and prevention plan. This is an efficient way for us to educate our staff and track our safety practices in the field.
During the COVID-19 crisis, we have assembled our teams to be less than five-man pods so that it would limit the effects if a quarantine were to happen or someone tested positive. In other words, if one person gets the virus, we want to limit its ability to spread within our company. This is, of course, in addition to the standard face masks, sanitizing, hand-washing and recommended social-distancing practices.
The most important piece of advice I would offer to paint companies is to take safety very seriously. Make it a priority — an essential item for your company — and not just something on a list of things you want to implement someday when you have time.
By Mike Moffitt – Dennis Moffitt Painting, Wakefield, RI
