From the course: Construction Management: Safety and Health

Is safety really number one?

From the course: Construction Management: Safety and Health

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Is safety really number one?

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- I have to ask the question, is safety really number one? Is it more important than getting the job done on time, than making money, than getting the quality right on the job? That's a tough question. If the company's not profitable, if it can't get the job done correctly, there's little reason for it to exist. Does that mean that we don't put safety first? No, of course not. It's never acceptable to put someone's health or safety at risk for the sake of getting it done, but I do think "safety first" is a bit overused. I mean, do we bubble wrap ourselves every morning or do we take it to the extreme and say, "Well if safety's first, I'll just stay home where it's safer?" No, of course not. That doesn't work either. The real answer is that safety, productivity, and quality are inextricably linked. We need to stop thinking of safety as something that stands on its own. We need to start including the safety element in all of our project planning, right down to the individual task-level planning. The question should be, how am I going to get this done correctly, safely, and on time? You'll hear me talk about moving away from thinking about safety as an add-on throughout this course. If you're experienced in the industry, you can probably relate to this concept and to many of the other concepts and situations that I'll discuss. If you're new to the industry or not as familiar with the overall process involved in creating a new project, from design through construction and handoff to the owner, check out my other course here on LinkedIn Learning called Construction Management Foundations.

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