At CIP Constructions, safety is always at the forefront of our mind and last week for #ConstructionSafetyWeek, we spoke to Ciara Cosgrave from our Melbourne team about what it takes to ensure that our teams are safe everyday onsite.
Ciara has been a part of the CIP Constructions team for over five years. Starting as a Traffic Controller on the CIP Constructions 2019 Nissan Headquarters build in Mulgrave – she was inspired to pursue a career in Occupational Health and Safety after seeing how the Health & Safety Representative at the time interacted with the team. He was highly respected due to the way “he built relationships with everyone onsite” and worked with his team to create a safe and friendly environment – which was something she could “aspire to and work towards”.
As a Health and Safety Representative, Ciara has to “wear many hats on a daily basis” with her role ranging from being a first aid provider, incident investigator, to a listening ear whilst also identifying and mitigating potential hazards and implementing controls. Although she has many jobs under her title, Ciara is organised and knows that she can always trust her team to “never turn a blind eye to safety.”
The construction industry is “tough”, and Ciara always looks for ways to ease the mental strain of the long hours by being a friend. She actively engages with not only her own CIP Constructions team, but also any visitors, subcontractors and external representatives. Remembering over 1,000-1,500 people by name, Ciara would easily be able to pick someone out from a crowd and strike up a conversation, long after the job is finished, due to the connections and relationships she has built.
Even though Ciara is the Health and Safety representative on her current project, every person has a part to play and “the responsibility to maintain a safe site has never been solely placed on” her. Not only do our project managers, site managers, foremen, and site workers all have a “keen eye for safety” – our CEO, Mark Hendry, “always pays attention to the safety on sites.” Whenever he visits a project site, Ciara states that Mark is consistently offering advice based on his experiences – guiding our teams to maximise their safety on site.
“For everyone that comes to work on our jobs, work is just one aspect of their lives. We all have families and dependents at home and the most important thing for myself and CIP Constructions is that we all get to go home safely to our families at the end of every working day”. Through facilitating an open environment and educating every person that steps onto the project site, Ciara is ensuring that each and every person is safe and happy within their position.
Thank you Ciara for sharing your experience of Safety at CIP Constructions, and #LifeAtCIPConstructions.