Safety leadership for residential construction: Free training from CPWR

Silver Spring, MD — A new training program from CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training is aimed at helping residential construction supervisors improve their communication and leadership skills.

Free to download, the Foundations for Safety Leadership for Residential Construction is based on CPWR’s Foundations for Safety Leadership training course. FSL became available in 2017 as an OSHA 30-hour elective and is still being used as a stand-alone training. 

The training – developed by the Healthy Work Center at Washington University in St. Louis in collaboration with CPWR – divides the 2.5-hour FSL training into five 30-minute sessions with a short booster session. This allows presenters to tailor the training to different audiences and locations.

The training’s interactive format features various safety scenarios that require learners to decide which leadership skills to use to prevent falls and other workplace hazards.

CPWR says practicing effective leadership skills can help supervisors and construction team leaders:

• Improve worker safety practices and jobsite safety climate.
• Reduce jobsite hazards and injuries.
• Increase morale and a sense of teamwork.
• Improve jobsite communication.

In addition, CPWR’s website features downloadable resources, including a leadership skills poster, six different skill sheets with a refresher video, an FAQ page on the training and a paper airplane activity that demonstrates the importance of practicing three-way communication.

CPWR says nearly 1 million construction professionals have taken the FSL training.