The RIDGEPRO® Supports National Safety Stand Down

By The RIDGEPRO®

It’s time to take a breath. Stop. Look around. Ask your crews: What fall hazards do you see on the jobsite? What can we do about them? 

During the first week of May for the past ten years, OSHA has reminded all of us in the construction trades to do our part in the effort to prevent falls. Although the week is past, it's never too late to incorporate the strategies OSHA recommends. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, 378 workers did not go home after their shifts due to fatal falls. Non-fatal falls with injuries accounted for thousands of additional personal catastrophes and all were preventable. It takes only a momentary break in awareness or one worn out piece of equipment to cause a tragedy.

Listen first

National Safety Stand Down is not a greeting card holiday just done for superficial reasons. It’s a serious and voluntary effort structured to reduce falls and fatalities in the construction trades. This year, in addition to toolbox talks, equipment checks, and training videos, let’s add a new component: A Listening Post. How often do you set aside a block of time to hear what each crew has to say? Try it but realize that it might be tough at first to get to workers’ real concerns but experience shows the result will be well worth the effort. 

The Listening Post can be a dedicated email, a QR code to a comment form, or a simple suggestion box on each truck. The physical attributes don’t matter. The respect you’ll generate and the authentic responses you make to suggestions are what counts. Be sure to get back to each worker who submits a suggestion and then implement the good ones. Toss ones with potential to the whole team for refinement. Many ideas will contain the seeds of excellent solutions and simply need to be planted where they can mature. 

Most important, even though the week is done, don’t close up the Listening Post. Keep the momentum and trust going with a small reward such as a coffee gift card for fall prevention suggestions. Make it clear in word and deed that you are open to new ways to improve safety and prevent injuries. 

Commit to overall safety

Strawder Family Innovations, is the maker of The Ridgepro®, the premium device in steep-slope roofing safety. We are dedicated to reducing the number of falls and fatalities in our industry. At the end of the day, it’s about fall prevention and so much more. The goal of National Safety Stand Down is a measurable improvement in overall safety on the jobsite. Hopefully, in the next ten years, jobsite safety will become so routine that there will be no need for National Safety Stand Down. Until then, we simply must take whatever time and actions are needed to prevent falls.