Most sites follow the rules but is that enough? The law outlines what organisations must do to manage risks, provide training, and keep workers safe. But health and safety is about more than just ticking boxes.
What About Psychological Safety?
If your people feel like they can’t speak up, whether it’s about unsafe conditions, unclear instructions, or even their own fatigue, those risks won’t get reported. A site that looks compliant on paper can still be dangerous if workers don’t feel safe enough to raise concerns.
“At my last job, there were plenty of times I saw something that didn’t seem right, but no one ever spoke up. You didn’t want to be ‘that guy’ who made a fuss, and most of us figured, ‘that’s just how things are.’ When people did report issues, nothing changed, so after a while, you just stopped bothering. It wasn’t until someone actually got hurt that management started paying attention, but by then, it was too late.”
Encouraging anonymous safety feedback or holding regular, informal check-ins can uncover risks before they become incidents. And that’s where Key Skills’ model is different because their team doesn’t just place people and disappear. They stay in regular contact with their workers and make site visits to check in.
Consultants are the gatekeepers for your temp workforce, says the Key Skills team. If your workers don’t feel safe raising something on site, they’ll come to us and we’ll make sure it’s followed up.
Why Reputation Matters
A site’s safety reputation impacts your ability to hire and retain good people. If a site is known for cutting corners or ignoring concerns, good workers won’t stick around. But if your business has a genuine safety culture, it shows, and the right people will want to work for you.
What Can You Do?
- Take an honest look at your safety culture
- Run an anonymous check-in survey to find out what your team really thinks
- Factor mental health into safety discussions. Stress and fatigue lead to mistakes
- And above all, make reporting easy and judgement-free
When people feel safe, they speak up, and when they speak up, things get better.
This post first appeared in Hire Wire, our free monthly newsletter on smarter hiring and all things in construction, engineering and manufacturing recruitment. Subscribe here or get in touch if you want to talk through anything you’ve read.
