Construction Safety Week 2023: A Comprehensive Guide to This Year's Safety Initiatives and Events
Construction Safety Week 2023 is here! The first week of May provides a space for important conversations about on-site safety and mental health in construction. This year's theme, "Strong Voices, Safe Choices" encourages everyone to contribute to creating a culture that prioritizes safety on-site. This blog will cover all the information you need to participate in Construction Safety Week this year.
The History and Purpose of Construction Safety Week
Construction Safety Week stresses the importance of physical and emotional safety on-site. The organization aims to empower everyone to become leaders in construction safety through education, inspiration, and resource provision. Its core purpose hasn't changed since the first Construction Safety Week in 2014.
In 2014, the Construction Industry Safety Initiative Group (CISI) and the Incident and Injury Free CEO Forum (IIF) banded together to become leaders in industry safety. What started as only 40 construction companies has now grown to include more than 70 organizations.
Construction Safety Week became a formal campaign in 2016, which has gained popularity in the industry and the media. Its goals include increasing awareness of safe on-site practices, recognizing safety efforts, and on-site education.
Construction Safety Week 2023 Theme and Key Messages
Each year has a unique Construction Safety Week theme that all events and key messages are centered around. This year's theme is "Strong, voices, safe choices." The idea behind this year's motto is that strong voices advocate for safe choices and spearhead educational conversations. Construction Safety Week provides a platform for these voices, which will continue to impact safety choices year-round, protect workers, and improve employee safety.
The main values behind this year's theme are empowerment, recognition, partnership, and impact. Construction Safety Week empowers everyone involved to observe, assess, speak to, and act on any safety concern. Empowerment also occurs through education, as it creates a culture that values and understands safe work practices.
Recognition involves three things: recognizing safety hazards, each other's efforts, and when action is required. When you're working somewhere day in and day out, hazards can get lost in the routine. This is why hazard identification and knowing when to act should be a team effort.
This is the segway into partnership; the third key message of this week. Everyone on-site should work together to stay alert, reduce distractions, recognize hazards, prevent accidents, and identify areas where training is required.
The final component of Construction Safety Week 2023 is impact. Creating a positive impact on the industry as a whole is one of the founding principles behind the organization's work. Improving the culture around workplace safety and mental health will lead to better accident prevention, safe work practices, and connectivity.
Participating in Construction Safety Week 2023
There are a number of ways to get involved in Construction Safety Week. One of which is attending educational events hosted by the organization's members and other industry experts. If you'd like to organize your own safety event, you can check out the planning tools and resources available on the Construction Safety Week website.
Having important conversations about safety as a team is a large part of active participation in safety initiatives. Everyone will have different experiences to share, which often leads to productive conversations about safe work practices. These conversations can even continue on social media and spark other topics of discussion.
Construction Safety Week organizers are applying this concept on a large scale with safety pledges. Any construction worker can pledge their commitment to ensuring safety on-site by providing a written statement that describes the importance of empowering people to own and act on safety. You can read the pledges other people in the industry have put forward on the organization's website. The words of strong voices are often written down, which is evident in the pledges shared by thousands across the construction industry.
Highlighted Events and Initiatives for Construction Safety Week 2023
There are a variety of in-person and virtual events to attend throughout the week, which are organized by Construction Safety Week Members and independent industry leaders.
In-Person Events
Exploring Today's Daily Topic and the Meaning of Safety Week: Discusses Hazard Recognition and incident prevention. Hosted by Aldridge on May 4th, 2023.
Inspiring a Culture of Safety and the Meaning of Safety Week at Aldridge: Features external speaker Steve Howe and discusses what Safety Week looks like at Aldridge. Hosted by Aldridge on May 5th, 2023.
Today’s Safety Week Daily Topic: Brain Matters: Discusses the daily theme of "Brain Matters" with Kevin Cannon and Mike Gibson as guest speakers. Hosted by Alberici on May 3rd, 2023.
"The Shortcut” (Documentary Film): Multiple showings of the documentary and accompanying discussions. Hosted by FlintCo and is presented in April and May 2023.
Interactive Excavation Safety Presentation: Discusses excavation safety and includes breakfast, lunch, and a raffle. Hosted by Igel Construction, Milwaukee Tool, and Intel, Gilbane, and Bechtel Management on May 4th, 2023.
The Importance of Strong Voices, Safe Choices and Hensel Phelps’ Safety Culture: Discusses the central theme of Construction Safety Week. Includes a lunch and learn, job site tour, and learning stations. Hosted by Hensel Phelps on May 3rd, 2023.
Safety Footwear, Fall Clearance Calculations, and Harness Fitment: Covers these topics and offers other interactive learning demonstrations. Includes lunch, a raffle, and a keynote speaker session. Hosted by J.F Shea on May 5th, 2023.
Safety Demonstrations and Strong Voices, Safe Choices Discussions: Includes on-site demonstrations and a worker lunch. Hosted by Mortenson | McCarthy on May 5th, 2023.
Virtual Events
Unlike in-person events, virtual events are organized by the Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) Safety Company. These events aren't organized by the members of Construction Safety Week but are hosted by a knowledgeable figure in construction safety. The MSA manufactures safety equipment for hazardous work environments like oil and gas, construction, mining, and military operations.
ANSI Z359.14: Overview & Recent Changes: Discusses the latest updates to the types, classes, and performance requirements of SRDs. Presented on May 1st, 2023.
Confined Space Entry & Rescue: Discusses entry systems, connecting devices, harnesses, retrieval equipment, and other recommended PPE. Presented on May 2nd, 2023.
Fall Protection FAQs: Standards, PPE, and More: Covers updates to ANSI and OSHA standards and common fall protection FAQs. Presented on May 3rd, 2023.
Safety at Height: Fall Protection Demo: Uses a live demo truck to cover calculating fall distance, fall arrest systems, and equipment inspection.
Resources for Construction Safety Week 2023
In addition to events, the organizers of Construction Safety Week have created a variety of resources to support your participation throughout the week. Here's a list of the main resources available.
Safety Week 2023 Daily Topic Videos: Each day of the week has a main topic of discussion with an instructional video to go with it. The topics, which start on May 1st and end on May 5th, are Engagement, Risk Identification, Brain Matters, Continued Learning and Demonstration, and Take Action.
Planning Resources: Offer resources for planning your own events and branded materials for events and communication support.
Other Resources: These include job site banners, toolkits with safety information, mental health wellness field guides and important contacts for mental health support, and an overarching Safety Week Guide. These resources are available in Spanish and French translations.
Creating a Culture of Safety Prioritization
Whether it's a one-on-one conversation about on-site safety or a large-scale event, all forms of participation help raise awareness, promote best practices, and prevent accidents. Construction Safety Week aims to create a culture of safety prioritization that goes beyond a single week and has a lasting impact on everyone in the industry.
To achieve this initiative, workers, leaders, and all other stakeholders involved must work together to prioritize safe work practices and mental health year-round.
