Organized construction industry since 2010 Safety starts with me –the goal of the occupational safety competition is to find and highlight exemplary safe workplaces in Finland. Construction sites where everyone takes care not only of their own safety, but also that of their coworkers and everyone else, and where the company's safety management is reflected in all functions of the site.
The competition for last year's safest house construction site has now been decided. The labor safety inspectors of the Regional Administrative Agency performed the competition measurements of the initial qualification phase as part of normal control activities. In the second stage, the winning companies were measured by AVI's inspector Kari Härkönen seriously had to file a comma to make the sites stand out from each other.
"Differences are measured in decimals when top companies invest in security. There were no absences of more than 30 days at these sites during the competition year, commented Härkönen.
The inspector's attention was also drawn to a completely new matter.
"Usually, in the safety competition for house building, residential construction sites are successful. Now, the top five included commercial and public construction, and only one residential project," says Härkönen.
Involvement of everyone behind the profit
The winner of the competition was SRV's Wood City Office II in Helsinki.
"Workplace safety management always takes place with a common goal. Committed site management supports intervention and immediate reaction to observed safety deficiencies. The company's management's strong desire to improve safety has encouraged them to take care of the safety of the work environment", the project manager of the winning site Teemu Lohilahti list the background factors of success.
"It has also been satisfying to see how the site manager has worked Aki Haapakoski made the group work towards a common goal. It is especially important to understand that occupational safety is everyone's business. Everyone has an obligation to work safely and also to take care of the safe working day of others. This is how we make sure that we get home healthy every day," Lohilahti continues.
Aki Haapakoski, who now works as a project manager, also emphasizes the importance of involving everyone.
"A safe site has been made possible by the contribution of the entire organization, as well as the work of the site's excellent Safety Team. The location of the construction site, the proximity of the neighbors and the narrowness of the space posed greater than normal challenges on the winning site, so we have invested in occupational safety from the beginning," he says.
According to Haapakoski, the construction site had an active approach to ensuring the safe implementation of the work. Contractors were regularly reminded of the basics of safe work and safety deficiencies were openly reported.
"The shortcomings are reviewed in a constructive spirit in order to learn from them. Basically, a clean and safe construction site directly affects the work achievements and work efficiency of contractors. The money invested in security, cleanliness and logistics will be returned many times over during the project," he says.
Cleanliness took precedence
A safe construction site is also clean, which was shown by Rakennusliike Lapti's student tower building UNO's construction site from Oulu, which came second in the competition.
"At UNO's site, occupational safety starts with cleanliness. We have declared ourselves the cleanest workplace in Finland. We challenge ourselves and the entire industry by setting high goals for ourselves. The cleanest construction site in Finland is healthy and safe for the workers, the building and the residents. The employees of our site deserve thanks for the great success, who with their unwavering work contribution are the most important part in the realization of our common goal, i.e. the cleanest site in Finland", says UNO's responsible foreman Jaakko Juola From Lapland.
Competitions are an excellent way to cooperate between employer and employee organizations and labor protection authorities. In companies, participation in the competition has been found to increase the motivation of company management to improve safety more generally. Employees consider it important to be able to contribute to the development of their own working conditions.
This is also the opinion of Lapti's director responsible for safety and production development Jukka Moilanen.
"Occupational safety is absolutely everyone's business - it comes by working together. At Lapt, we have succeeded in creating a safety atmosphere where everyone has the right and duty to intervene in safety matters. Our work sites are clean and safety observations are made actively, which has also been reflected in the positive development of occupational safety. This can also be seen in the results of the competition, with three of our sites ranking nicely in the top 10".
Threshold low
SRV's success in the competition was not limited to winning, as the company's multi-purpose building Wintter's site had the third best readings in the competition. Behind the good success is SRV's occupational safety manager Will Wright sees interference with things at a low threshold.
"Our workplaces have been working with a theme that carries the whole year Absence is caring. The goal of the theme is to encourage low-threshold intervention in occupational safety negligence. The theme of safety has been kept very visible at the award-winning sites. If risk-taking has been detected, it has been dealt with effectively and at the same time setting a good example. In this way, we ensure that everyone has a safe working environment", emphasizes Wright.
Since 2010, a national safety competition has been organized between building construction and infrastructure construction every other year. This year it was house construction. Regional occupational safety competitions have been organized in the construction industry since the 1990s.
The number of accidents in the construction industry has decreased significantly from the previous years' high accident rates. The number of serious work accidents is also steadily decreasing, and there was one fatal work accident last year. As a result of long-term safety work, accidents have been reduced to close to zero in the best companies in the construction industry. Despite the good development, the industry continues to invest in improving safety so that everyone can work safely in construction.
More information
Henri Litmanen, occupational safety expert,
Building Construction Industry Association, firstname.surname@rt.fi, TWO TWO WHEN TWO
The top ten of the "Safety starts with me" occupational safety competition:
| She shines | Site | Company | Address |
| 1 | Wood City Office II | SRV Rakennus Oy | Välimerenkatu 1, 00180 Helsinki |
| 2 | PSOAS UNO | Rakennusliike Lapti Oy | Ylioppilantie 6, 90130 Oulu |
| 3 | Multipurpose building Wintteri | SRV Rakennus Oy | Viikaistenkatu 3, 23500 Uusikaupunki |
| 4 | DHL Bastukärr | Fira Rakennus Oy | Rahtirait 6 04220 Sipoo |
| 5 | SALITA, Savilahti sports and event center | Rakennusliike Lapti Oy | Loistekatu 10 70210 Kuopio |
| 6 | As Oy Turku Hygge | Hartela Länsi-Suomi Oy | Inkilänkatu 10 20250 Turku |
| 7 | Flat. Oy Kuopio Renata | NCC Suomi Oy | Aallonmurtajankatu 3, 70500 Kuopio |
| 8 | Turku Oskarinpuisto 1 | Peab Oy | National school alley 1 20300 Turku |
| 9 | As Oy Kuopio Boiju | Lujatalo Oy | Sammonkatu 26 70500 KUOPIO |
| 10 | As Oy Turku Puolalan Helmi | Rakennusliike Lapti Oy | Läntinen Pitkäkatu 10b, 20100 Turku |