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Cory Sherman is the founder of Newnan, Georgia-based construction safety communications platform Safety Systems Management. The opinions are the author’s own.
For decades, construction safety has been built around a simple premise: protecting workers from the hazards associated with their own trade.
Electricians focus on electrical hazards. Ironworkers focus on fall protection and gear. Concrete crews manage silica exposure. Equipment operators work to avoid “hit and run” incidents.
While these efforts remain essential, today’s construction projects have evolved so that trade-specific security programs are only part of the equation. Increasingly, some of the most significant security risks have arisen not within individual operations, but in the spaces where multiple operations overlap.
In addition to the traditional skills on which the industry is based, modern construction now requires expertise in choreography. A single work area can contain dozens of subcontractors, each trying to accomplish different goals on different schedules. Every day there can be hundreds of interactions between crews who may have little knowledge of what another trade is doing just a few meters away.
Ultimately, the challenge has transformed from keeping each trader safe to keeping everyone safe as all trades work together. This new mindset has resulted in one of the most significant changes in construction safety and, unfortunately, one of the least discussed.
The rise of simultaneous work
Construction schedules continue to compress, and while owners want projects completed faster, labor shortages make traditional work sequencing difficult.
The result? A significant increase in concurrent tasks.
This synchronized methodology makes a lot of sense in terms of productivity. However, from a security point of view, it gives rise to a new category of risk: the dangers created by one trade can become a danger to all others. Consider the following possible situations:
- An aerial lift operated by a subcontractor may pass over workers who are unaware of its movement.
- Temporary power installed by one crew may create tripping hazards for others.
- Material deliveries may block emergency exits or disrupt evacuation routes.
- Welding activities can introduce fire hazards into areas where other equipment handles combustible materials.
None of these situations occur because individual workers do not follow the standard safety procedures of their trade; they occur due to the intersection of several constructive activities that, increasingly, take place simultaneously.
The traditional approach has been for security programs to be organized around individual employers. Each subcontractor gives toolbox talks; each company carries out inspections; each foreman supervises his own crew; and each security officer ensures compliance within that organization. While these systems are still beneficial, they were developed during a time when trades generally operated more in isolation.
Today’s workplaces require a much broader perspective. A plumbing contractor cannot fully assess current risks without understanding what other crews are doing in the same vicinity. On a larger scale, the general contractor’s safety program must become the framework that connects the trades; it can no longer be seen as a collection of individual subcontractor plans.
More secure projects increasingly see security as a shared responsibility rather than a set of independent responsibilities.
Technology can help, but it is not the solution
Digital project management tools, wearable technology, access control systems and electronic permits are improving coordination in many workplaces. Shared scheduling platforms allow contractors to anticipate conflicts before work begins, while digital inspections help identify overlapping hazards. And real-time communication tools can quickly notify workers about changing conditions or emergencies.
However, technology alone will not adequately address the challenge of trade coordination; the underlying problem remains organizational. Every business needs to understand that their responsibility goes beyond protecting their own employees. While workers must recognize how their activities affect neighboring teams, superintendents must think beyond production schedules.
And ideally, project managers should view coordination as a predominant safety function, not just a scheduling function.
Technology can help support this mindset. It cannot replace it; traditional security metrics must remain at the forefront. The most critical metrics include recordable incident rates; time-loss injuries; near misses; conclusions of the inspection; and completion of training.
The future of security is collaborative
As projects grow larger, schedules become tighter, and labor shortages continue, overlapping work activities are likely to become more common. Consequently, the industry’s greatest security opportunity may no longer lie in improving individual business practices, many of which are already well developed. Instead, it lies in improving the way these trades work together.
Construction has always depended on teamwork to complete projects successfully; security begins to demand the same approach. The next evolution in construction safety will not simply involve better PPE, stronger regulations or more sophisticated technology. It will require stronger coordination, clearer communication and a greater awareness of how every decision made by one trade affects everyone else in the workplace.
