COVID shifted the needle in construction safety. It had to. Adapt or perish has never been so apropos for construction companies. 

As we’ve stumbled through the ups and downs of an incomparable virus, it’s become abundantly clear that construction operations cannot continue without making health and safety their focus. 

In our last article we spoke about the many facets of data that surround a worker and how without a system to capture that data, you’d be missing the bigger picture of your jobsite safety. 

We discussed what we feel to be the “missing links” that have frustrated general contractors for decades when it came to safety. While industry leaders have supplied endless safety talks, meetings, stand downs and education, we believe the question “why aren’t we seeing significant reductions in construction safety incidents” can be more accurately answered...through data. 

People are as people do. And if you don’t know what people are doing on your jobsite, then no amount of words will make your job sites safer. Your workers are at the heart of your safety program, and their data breadcrumbs can and should lead you to a much safer and potentially more profitable, jobsite, company, and industry. 

With usable worker safety data, companies of all sizes can enable leaner operations, protect their bottom lines, and reduce sizable business risks. We’ve seen companies build predictive cost and incident models based on worker safety data to provide business insights that have given them a competitive edge in bidding projects and buffer their businesses in downturns. 

If you are gathering worker safety data today, or even if you begin tomorrow, there are four major business impacts that can be realized within days or even months of collecting: COVID management, employer risk, bidding, and CCIP.

COVID Management

Transmission via workers is the biggest risk contractors are currently facing while trying to keep their projects alive. Using worker sign-in covid checklists, location tracking, and contact tracing you have data that can give you real time insight into your risk factors. You will know who is on site and who is not. You will know where people worked and who they worked with. And if a worker discloses a positive case of COVID, you can audit worker records to determine who was in close proximity of the infected worker and might have been exposed, be able to quickly alert teams, and contain further spread.

You have a way of quickly gathering data to pivot your operations and reduce shut down times because your investigation timeline is greatly reduced. And once you understand the human impacts, you can quickly analyze your manpower counts, productivity needs, and determine how to shift operations to get back on schedule

Employer risk

Once you understand the actual risk the worker may pose to themselves and other workers, you can dramatically shift the risk your company faces. With key data points like certifications, licenses, job experience, trainings attended, associated JHAs, pre-task plans attended, for example, you can drive more governance.

With worker demographic data, experience data, certification data, plus JHAs, chemicals used, safety plans, job titles and risks associated with job titles, you can begin to understand a risk “profile” to stop senseless incidents. You can focus your energies on workers and processes that are higher risk and put in place more focused training or provide more oversight where you see experience gaps.

Risks per worker are different. Various factors come into play and you can use holistic worker data, readily at your fingertips, plus governance, to stop incidents. 

Bidding

Is the lowest bid the best one? We believe, with your vast experience, you are shaking your head side to side. No. It isn’t. 

Many have been burned by the lowest cost bid, yet the reality is, many contractors find themselves having to succumb to it. With data, you can actually have a better way of realizing the true costs of a bid.

Imagine being able to use subcontractor data surrounding:

• How good is the subcontractor at their own governance and processes?

• How good is the subcontractor at meeting your safety requirements and processes?

• What safety issues and impacts to schedule and project have they caused?

• How good are they at responding to action and issues, reducing the risk of incident occurring?

• What lost time injuries and production issues have they caused in the past? 

• Do they run a good ship (do their pre-tasks, maintain safe practices, maintain worker certifications)?

Many contractors use the same subcontractors time and time again for multiple projects. With accumulating data you can create a baseline of acceptable performance and develop an objective rating system that can be factored into the bid. 

You can lower your risk profile by contracting the safest subcontractors based on your objective data profiles. And you can extract a more accurate bid by taking the cost of the bid, add on safety factors, (add on quality factors), and with that data, derive the real costs of working with that subcontractor.

CCIP

Safety is at the heart of the success of this program. While the burden might feel lighter from a financial standpoint, your “wrap up policy” comes with risks and data becomes essential in understanding your risk profile.

Rolling on from the previous point, the more data you have gathered on your subcontracting teams, the better able you are to determine your risk, calculate your premiums and choose the coverage you need. 

If you have the governance in place, with data insights to provide you with leading, lagging, and mid stream indicators in real time, you can work quickly to control your risks, and your profit.

In these times, we need a strong foundation to steady our businesses

While not every contractor will believe in the power of safety data to enhance their business, in both quiet and tumultuous times, we do need a place to turn for more informed decision making. 

When you have invested in your safety programs, enabled a system to gather key worker data, and begun to use that data to create worker-based behavioral baselines that were not possible before, you may find that safety data has a bigger impact on your profits than on your losses.