Preconstruction Partnerships: How Safety Pros Can Collaborate with Estimating & Proposal Teams

Construction leaders and safety professionals are developing a strong understanding of how safety programs positively impact project outcomes. When safety is woven into every aspect of operations from pre-construction to post-completion, projects are safer — and that means they are more cost-effective and efficient.

Safety can be incorporated into operations during the preconstruction phase — specifically in the estimating, bidding and proposal processes. This allows construction firms to proactively reduce risk, prevent accidents and delays and enhance their reputation with partners and owners. 

This article explores practical advice for safety professionals who are looking to establish strong collaboration with their estimating, bidding and proposal teams.

5 Ways to Collaborate on Estimating and Bidding

When safety professionals develop a collaborative relationship with teammates in estimating and bidding, project planning can become much more successful, creating favorable circumstances throughout the entire lifecycle of each project. 

Safety professionals should look at the estimating and bidding phase as an opportunity to set up the project team for safety success by anticipating challenges, planning ahead, avoiding problems by organizing resources efficiently. 

Here are some specific areas where safety managers can assist with estimating and bidding to contribute to project success.

1. Evaluate long-term vs. short-term safety investments.

When planning projects, safety professionals should consider the transferability of safety equipment from one site to another, assess whether to purchase or rent safety equipment for each project, and budget for short-term consumables such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and fall protection.

Teams need to account for both long-term safety equipment that can be purchased and used at multiple jobs, as well as short-term consumables at new projects.

It's just as important to look at the jobs that are coming up. It can simplify projects when a team has already accounted for, for example, a deep trench or high walls, and they have the necessary equipment.

2. Forecast client-specific safety requirements that could impact the budget.

Anticipating client-specific safety requirements helps avoid potential delays and additional costs. For example, a project owner may require that everyone on the jobsite has completed OSHA 10 within the past year. If that isn’t planned ahead of time, it could delay the project’s start. But knowing this in advance allows you to make sure everyone is compliant and ready to start.

3. Consider innovative construction methods to reduce safety risks.

For each project, safety professionals should explore various methods to reduce costs by forecasting and mitigating risk. Then, they should consider investing in solutions to foreseeable challenges. For example, if a project involves heights but also has an area of space, a laydown yard could be considered.

4. Analyze staffing needs for each project — including safety personnel.

Safety professionals should help examine staffing needs to understand how project complexity affects staffing decisions, including specific roles that might be needed and accommodating shifts. Doing so will help leaders reveal if the company should hire and train new staff, if new subcontractor partnerships need to be established or if collaborations with unfamiliar unions or trades should be explored. This upfront work helps ensure adequate resources are in place so that projects run smoothly without slowdowns or interruptions.

5. Identify training or certification requirements for upcoming projects.

During the estimating process, safety professionals should work closely with their internal teams to understand if staff will need specific supervision, if new certifications will be needed, or if safety training should be provided to crews.

Safety professionals should also advocate for space they might need onsite to store safety materials or conduct training. Allocating a budget for a trailer will help keep materials organized and safe from environmental conditions. A trailer should also be considered to serve as office space if training will need to be provided to numerous staff. If the budget is tight, a container can also serve as an economical alternative.

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Tips for Collaborating on Proposals

In construction, proposals allow companies to go beyond a simple cost breakdown and instead showcase their unique strengths, capabilities and innovations. Proposals also allow firms to differentiate themselves in competitive markets and align their bids more closely with client needs and project goals.

Safety professionals can strengthen the proposal process by providing up-to-date safety performance metrics and content that highlights success. Safety professionals should also make sure to review marketing materials to double check they demonstrate safety accurately and effectively.

The following are some specific tips for safety professionals to assist with proposals.

Provide annual safety performance metrics.

At the beginning of every year, safety professionals should evaluate their safety metrics and keep an accurate record for the company. While doing so, safety professionals should make a habit of providing these metrics to proposal teams and meeting with them to help them understand how safety performance can be highlighted in proposals. 

A safety professional should be able to look at their safety program and accomplishments. They should have an understanding of the industry and competitors and know what to point out that's above and beyond. 

Sometimes, these metrics are specifically requested from project owners. A few common metrics include:

• TRIR (Total Recordable Incident Rate): The number of recordable incidents per 200,000 work hours, indicating overall workplace safety performance, derived from the company’s OSHA 300 Log
• DART (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred): Workplace injuries recorded on the company’s OSHA 300 Log that result in days away from work, job restrictions or transfers, indicating the severity of workplace incidents
• EMR (Experience Modification Rating): A factor used by insurance companies to gauge past cost of injuries and future risk, influencing workers' compensation insurance premiums and often used to prequalify contractors, usually must be less than 1.0. 

Provide content that highlights safety success.

Throughout the year, safety professionals should keep a marketing-mindset, being aware and keeping track of projects and performance that showcase the company’s dedication to safety, quality and efficiency. Putting successful teams in place, using innovative solutions and employing safety technology are great examples of different narratives that can allow project owners to really get to know a construction company and the humans behind it.

Review marketing materials for safety compliance.

Finally, once proposals and marketing materials are created, safety professionals should ask to be included in the review process before they are shared or published. Safety is often not considered as a necessary check-point, but can be a valuable resource for making sure mistakes don’t happen.

When putting together images to tell a story, marketing should always run them by the safety professional to ensure accuracy in marketing assets. It's always great to use real project depictions, but make sure that they pass the safety test.

How to Create Continued Collaborative Success

To make sure safety is consistently woven into operations and is continued as a standard practice, safety professionals should establish open communication channels between teams, maintain collaboration throughout project lifecycles and be assertive along the way.

Establishing open communication.

Safety professionals can streamline the communication process by looking at already-established rhythms where safety could make a contribution.

This can be as simple as attending bid meetings that are already on the calendar and participating in conversations, providing important insights from a safety perspective. In these meetings, safety professionals should seek a deeper understanding of upcoming jobs in order to anticipate safety needs and provide guidance for how safety can be integrated into all stages of a project.

Maintain consistent collaboration.

Ongoing collaboration will go a long way in changing the dynamic of how projects are planned and executed. To do so, safety professionals should be intentional about allocating their time and providing safety expertise equally with upcoming bids, active projects and projects that are about to close out.

If safety is successfully integrated into processes, that means that a safety director or safety manager is equal parts focusing on jobs that are about to be bid, jobs that are going on and jobs that are wrapping up.

The more frequently a safety professional lends guidance that leads to efficiency and safer outcomes, the more likely it is that everyone in the organization will see safety as an asset in all operations.

Be assertive.

In some areas of construction business, safety can be mistaken as a roadblock or hindrance to efficiency. 

However, this mindset can be shifted by demonstrating that safety should be considered as guardrails – preventing people or processes from going outside the boundaries creating unnecessary risk, helping processes run smoothly and keeping projects on track and progressing in the right direction.

To create a collaborative approach, safety professionals must learn how to influence other staff members without having direct authority over them. Safety professionals who learn to be assertive will have success.

Outcomes of Effective Safety Collaboration in Preconstruction

It’s no secret that favorable outcomes will be achieved when construction companies work to break down silos, establish effective collaboration and create highly integrated teams. And that extends to safety, bidding, estimating and proposals.

When safety professionals partner with colleagues in these specific areas of preconstruction, they’ll be able to proactively anticipate and solve problems, ensure bids incorporate risk prevention and safety costs, enhance proposals with compelling safety metrics and put resources in place for smooth and efficient projects.

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