Working with other businesses on-site

Businesses (PCBUs) that work together will often share health and safety duties in relation to work done. Businesses have a legal duty to consult, cooperate with, and coordinate activities with all other businesses they share overlapping duties with.

What does this mean and how can you ensure that people are not harmed, and you are complying with your legal obligations? Here are some expectations: 1. Work with designers to reduce risks 2. Set clear health and safety expectations and incorporate these into your agreements with contractors 3. Ensure contractors have appropriate health and safety procedures in place 4. Prepare a Site Specific Safety Plan for the job and share it with all workers and contractors 5. Establish health and safety reporting requirements with your contractor – a great tool for this is the HazardCo App to complete Risk Assessments, Incident Reports, and more 6. Ensure Site Inductions take place. Coordinate and communicate site rules and procedures to everyone who accesses the worksite – this can be done via the HazardCo

App by scanning the QR code located on your Hazard Board 7. Set up clear requirements for information sharing for the duration of the project 8. Ensure that there is effective communication between all parties – the Toolbox Meeting feature on the HazardCo

App is a great tool for this 9. Monitor your workers and/or contractors you hire Making sure your contractors are on board with your health and safety expectations from the get-go sets the site standard. As the Main Contractor of a site, you will have more health and safety responsibilities, and the following key steps should be considered.

Scope • Consider health and safety risks prior to selecting contractors. • Discuss the project with potential contractors to make sure they are capable. • Document the process and store this in the HazardCo Hub. Prequalify • Ensure prospective contractors have effective health and safety procedures in place. • Keep records of contractors’ prequalification. Select • Select the contractors based on their prequalification outcome and any other factors including availability, skills etc. Appoint • Create a Project in the HazardCo Hub, which creates a

Site Specific Safety Plan, Site Pack, QR code, and Hazard

Board and share the information with contractors. • Ensure induction expectations are understood by all workers, contractors, and visitors. • Ensure all contractors have reviewed and agreement is reached and documented. Monitor • Regular communication regarding health and safety performance, e.g. Toolbox Meetings, Site Reviews, and Site

Inductions etc. • Investigate any incidents and follow up on any outstanding issues. • Regular review during the assignment, e.g. Site Reviews.

Review • Post contract review – it’s good practice to review the performance of your contractors at the end of the project.

Look at areas of monitoring during the project completed, communication, incidents, improvement, etc Working with other businesses is a natural part of residential construction. Everyone on-site has a duty to open up the lines of communication and look out for each other.

What does practicing good health and safety look like? HazardCo recommends that as a builder, you should be completing at least two Toolbox Meetings and two Site Reviews per site, per month, and as a subbie, you should be completing at least two Toolbox Meetings and four Risk Assessments per month to demonstrate good health and safety practices. Advisory Support HazardCo Services can assist you with a range of solutions to help you either get started on your health and safety journey or assist you with checking your current health and safety system against good practice. We can carry out on-site Toolbox Talks with your team, run health and safety training sessions, assist you with completing an external prequalification or carry out Site Reviews. Whatever you need – we can tailor a solution to fit your business.

Keen to know more about setting up your own health and safety system for your business, and how HazardCo can support you? Give our friendly team a call on 0800 555 339 or email info@hazardco.com.

The HazardCo Team. HazardCo is a NZCB National Partner and, as your trusted safety partner, we provide you with the tools and support you need to #SortYourSafety.