HKS : Housekeeping At Job Site

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Chapter : Housekeeping Safety

Housekeeping At Job Site

 
You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. The negative impressions and implications of poor housekeeping can affect you, your customers and co-workers for a long time.

If your housekeeping habits are poor, the result may be employee injuries, penalties and even difficulty in securing future work.

Think about how a “minor” issue like housekeeping can have such serious consequences. We should also be setting the expectation for everyone who enters the job site that housekeeping matters!

Hazards:

• Employees trip, fall, strike or are struck by out-of-place objects like leaning lumber, plywood and other materials that pose tripping, falling or striking hazards.
• Injuries from using Misplaced / Improper tools because the correct tool can’t be found.
• Lowered production because of the time spent maneuvering over and around someone else’s mess, and time spent looking for proper tools and materials.
• Time spent investigating and reporting accidents that could have been avoided.
• Lumber with protruding nails. Remember to pull all nails, bending over is not good enough.
• Cords or hoses across walk ways. Elevate if possible, cover with plywood or lumber, bevel edges to reduce trips.
• Protruding pipes, lumber, rebar or other materials in travel areas.
• Debris from cutting of conduit, copper and plastic pipes in the travel paths.
• Trash from lunch and breaks thrown on the ground.
• Debris in stairwells

Safe procedures:

• Clean up after yourself.
• Pick up your trash and debris and dispose of it properly.
• Have a place for everything and put everything in its place.
• Store everything straight and square.
• Inform all subcontractors of their responsibility for housekeeping.
• Stack materials orderly and secure them so they won’t topple.
• Implement a routine cleaning schedule.Depending on the work, it might be daily or weekly for more extensive clean-ups.
• Keep your work area clean throughout the day. This will minimize the amount of time needed to clean a “larger mess” at the end of the day.

An uncluttered workplace shows respect for those who work here. Help keep it that way!
Now let’s talk about how we can improve housekeeping in our facility.