Page 40 - Occupational Health & Safety, January/February 2019

CONSTRUCTION SAFETY
Technology Innovations,Workplace Culture Enable a New Level of Construction Safety
Project teams can collect and view data across project sites—in real time, from any smart device—and drill down to the worker, equipment, or incident level. BY PETE SCHERMERHORN
The start of a new year is a good time for orga- nizations to take stock of their safety practic- es and reaffirm their commitment to improv- ing worker health and safety. One industry where this is particularly important is construction; construction’s rate of severe cases—those that lead to days away from work—is 20 percent higher1 than all other U.S. industries.
While ensuring that every worker returns home safely at the end of the day is the foremost goal of ev- ery construction firm, it is a daunting task in the phys- ically changing work zone. Additionally, job sites can have hundreds or thousands of workers on site daily, often operating heavy equipment and machinery or
working at elevated heights.
To date, safety personnel have had to rely on man-
ual methods and spot checks to keep track of workers and identify safety incidents as they happen—an im- precise, impractical process at scale. Also, if a worker falls or is injured, he/she would have to depend on a nearby worker to leave to report the issue and return with help, increasing the risk of compounding injuries.
Fortunately, construction safety practices have be- gun changing with the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT)-based technologies, such as wearables and sen- sors. These technologies serve as extra eyes, ears, and hands at the job site, automatically capturing data from workers, equipment, and the environment in real time—more information than could be collected manually. By providing unprecedented, data-driven insights into daily operational and risk management practices, new technologies are connecting the field and corporate office in a way that was never possible before. The availability of these IoT devices and the actionable insights that they enable are impacting company culture and practices, empowering organi- zations to make better, more informed decisions.
In the last 12 months, more contractors have been steadily adopting technology, no longer considering it a competitive advantage, but rather an operational ne- cessity to meet market demand and safety goals amid steady backlogs and a continued skilled labor short- age. At the same time, record outside investment in construction tech start-ups, amounting to $1.05 bil- lion in the first six months of 2018, or a 30 percent increase from the 2017 total,2 has resulted in an explo- sion of new solutions for builders. For the first time, project teams can collect and view data across project sites—in real time, from any smart device—and drill down to the worker, equipment, or incident level.
Expanding the Safety Toolkit
Construction companies are focusing on wearable technology to quantify worker activity and safety on site. Rugged, unobtrusive devices provide valuable data into where workers are spending time on site, as well as when and where safety incidents are occurring. By providing measurable data, firms are able to re- place assumptions and anecdotes with objective data to better manage safety challenges and risks.
Now, for example, wearables can detect worker
34 Occupational Health & Safety | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
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