Toolbox meetings are standard for most sites – workers from each trade get together to share notes and get on the same page for the state of the site and the upcoming work to be done. We conduct these every week at ENM, usually on a Monday. Every trade shares the specifics of the week’s agenda and ensures that all safety issues have been foreseen.
But here at ENM, we decided to take these toolbox meetings a step further. Each week, we bring every worker from every trade together to share the trade-specific safety information with the entire group.
Our project manager Daniel Greenhalgh explained the reason behind this decision. “When you bring everyone together, every worker gets a complete picture of what kind of hazards and safety issues to look out for on site. We share all the near misses and slipups from the previous week – for example, people walking under scaffolding without realizing it, or someone almost dropping something. And of course, if there was an accident, we have a discussion about how to prevent that from happening again.”
Our safety coordinator, Brodie Parsons, coordinates these meetings and ensures that all relevant safety information is communicated. “These meetings cover a broad spectrum of information to ensure everyone knows what’s happening on site at all times. We usually start with covering a few of the basics like PPE, and reminders of what’s to be expected of all workers on site. Then I’ll pick one specific recent incident or topic that I think is relevant and talk about what happened, why it happened, and what should or can be done to prevent it from happening. Then we move on to new things happening on site to get everyone caught up and make sure nobody will be working around any hazardous areas. Then we have all the trades talk about any new possibly hazardous things that they might be starting, to make sure everyone knows where and when the hazards might be.”
Daniel says he’s never been on a site where these kinds of collective toolbox meetings are done weekly. He’s found they’ve been very effective at creating a safer work site and plans to implement them on all future ENM sites. “It’s great to share all this trade-specific information. For example, an electrician might tell the group that they’re starting to live up wires on the 6th floor of the Building C. So don’t touch those, you’ll get zapped there. It just makes sense to take these extra precautions and communicate any potential safety issue to every worker on site.”
Brodie agrees that they make his job a lot easier.
“The meeting takes time out of everybody’s day, but it’s an essential part of our health and safety program and it’s collectively agreed that it helps prevent workplace injuries.”
