Page 24 - Occupational Health & Safety, October 2017

CONSTRUCTION SAFETY
Construction Safety: Using Technology to Keep Workers from Falling Through the EHS Cracks
Many of today’s on-demand training solutions are highly affordable and scalable, offering hundreds of individual lessons that can be deployed to workers based on their specific training needs and requirements.
BY CHUCK HALING
Environmental health & safety leaders in the construction industry know all too well the risks workers face. The constant flow of temporary workers and third-party contrac-
tors, varying job sites, changing conditions, evolving regulatory requirements, strict deadlines, budget con- straints, and external factors like skilled labor short- ages make it difficult to maintain safe work sites.
The cracks that these stresses factors can create in your EHS programs not only put workers at risk, but also threaten the health of the entire company by
draining productivity and escalating costs. Here, we’ll take a look at specific areas that create the greatest stress for construction industry employers and where technology can help fill in the cracks to streamline jobsite health and safety management.
Meeting Diverse Worker Training Requirements
Construction companies face numerous obstacles when it comes to worker training. The distributed na- ture of the construction workforce, high number of temporary workers and contractors, language diver- sity, broad range of topics and job functions that must be covered, and the time and resources required to track compliance make meeting all training require- ments a major operational challenge.
Traditional training methods just don’t cut it any- more. It’s nearly impossible to get all site workers grouped together at one time to attend a training ses- sion, and even when assembled training does occur, there’s no guarantee that the information being shared is effectively received and retained.
This is a significant reason why on-demand train- ing (ODT) is gaining in popularity, particularly among more distributed workers and job sites. Not only does ODT allow workers to engage in training from remote locations, but also they can also complete the courses on their own time and at their own pace. Many of today’s on-demand training solutions are highly af- fordable and scalable, offering hundreds of individual lessons that can be deployed to workers based on their specific training needs and requirements.
On-demand training is also particularly effec- tive among the growing number of Millennial work- ers who benefit from a more interactive approach to learning. By breaking training sessions into shorter, more easily digestible segments, workers can focus on the information being conveyed and achieve a greater understanding and retention of the information com- pared to traditional video or classroom training for- mats. This trend toward bite-sized training content is only expected to grow as more Millennials continue to join the workforce.
Managing Temporary and Contract Workers
OSHA recently placed renewed focus on protecting temporary and contract workers, as well as workers at multi-employer worksites, by reinforcing its posi-
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