Posted By Safety Every Second Hi Guys I am looking into implementing a safety initiative on my site. I am particularly interested in the red card/green card system. Can anyone point me in the right direction or provide some comprehensive information on implementation/pitfalls and so on. Regards safety Every second

Posted By MickN Don't do it! Forget red/green card and any other safety initiatives. Systems such as these are ultimately self defeating. Beating the workforce over the head with red cards and sending them home permanently or otherwise will not promote safety or the influence of the bearer. Instead, get out into the field, observe, learn, talk to your people (and not just about safety). Much can be achieved simply through good communication and solving mutual problems together. Mick

Posted By Lee Mac I have had the opposite experience to the last poster. We had sites of various sizes, from 10 operatives to >1000 operatives in various locations. After lengthy discussions between the Site Managers the same issue kept reoccurring subcontractors being a nightmare to manage when it came to mirroring in practices what they had in theory. We introduced the yellow/red card back 2 years ago. In that time sub-contractor compliance has improved considerably which equates to Site Managers being able to focus their attentions throughout the projects rather on just subbies. After consulting with the workforce- they have said they know what will take place if they do not adhere to the stated controls. We also introduced another initiative simultaneously- every 3 months there is a review on the best sub-contractors on-site- the crew that one were rewarded with either tickets to a fottie game or concert, or a slap up meal voucher. So my advices would be, don't focus soley on addressing poor behaviour but also consider rewarding exceptional behaviour in some way. Lee

Posted By Jacko Jackson SES, I was charged with implementing a Gold / Yellow / Red card scheme in my previous post. I was a tad uncomfortable with it as the guys issuing the gongs and brickbats were all of a differing character to each other, therefore the level of the bar was very subjective. As it happened, our 4 main Contractor companies came on board before the launch, via their MD's at a workshop, so the support was there from within their companies to start with. Whilst it can be an administrative nightmare (we issued each gang supervisor with a site visit book..to receive short comments from all 'official' visitors, and we reviewed these every 6 months to add to the safety award scoring system) the actual improvements shown by the gangs, on the whole, was very encouraging. It promoted a bit of inter-gang rivalry, with team leaders wanting to know what other teams had received cards for, so that they could either avoid the pitfalls of others or do better than a gold card team elsewhere. We immediately advised the relevant MD of Gold / Red events then left it to the MD's of the Contractors to decide internal 'rewards' to innovative working teams, manage weaknesses where yellow cards had been issued, and sort it pronto after a red card, convincing us the Client that Contractor systems had been implemented to prevent another occurrence prior to that particular job restarting. As far as competition goes....the jungle drums in construction are a marvellous thing!