Is construction safety a priority at your company? There has been an evolution that has happened with safety in the past several decades—from not a priority at all to something companies are considering more heavily for a variety of reasons. But what do numbers show us? What trends have emerged? And where are we headed?
Let’s start by identifying that an unsafe construction jobsite costs companies some serious money—okay a lot of money! One head injury claim now costs construction companies in the United States on average $94,285. That’s because for each $1 of insured costs, the uninsured costs range anywhere from $9-$41. This is according to a new report from Twiceme, a study conducted by J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc., in partnership with the ISEA (Intl. Safety Equipment Assn.) that examines the state of construction safety in 2024.
Here’s the hard reality: 68.6% of construction workers have witnessed a serious accident at work. In 2021-2022, nearly 196,000 private sector workers suffered occupational head injuries severe enough to require time away from work. This clearly indicates we need to address this if we want to attract more workers to the industry and if we want to minimize the drastic costs on jobsites. How? In a word, technology. Of course, this is always easier said than done. And it takes people too!
How Technology Can Help
We have seen an evolution with construction safety technology in the past two decades. We have moved from handwritten safety forms and filing cabinets to digital data collection systems and checklists.
Digital systems enable construction teams to collect and automate safety tasks—from the office or from the field with mobile devices. This enables construction workers to do realtime incident reporting, complete digital checklists in the field, and immediately communicate safety concerns.
The evolution has been much needed, but there is still much work to be done. The reality is 79% of safety personnel have adopted digital safety systems, but only 40% of workers have access to them. Data integration is still a challenge in many cases, as information silos still exist. Further, duplicate data entry is still present and there can be inconsistent safety protocols and gaps in safety coverage.
The technology itself can sometimes have limitations—such as connectivity issues, device durability, battery life limitations, and data security concerns, just to name a few. Roughly 71% of companies are still struggling with hybrid paper-digital systems. Yikes.
The solution must be three-fold: good technology, good construction processes, and good workers who follow the procedures. We must align people, process, and technology if we want to have successful digital transformation. This is also true if we want our safety procedures to be successful.
Safety must be the priority. Is this this case on your jobsite? What are you seeing? How is safety improving on jobsites? Where can we continue to do better to get our workers home safely? It takes people, technology, and real commitment from everyone. What have I left out?
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