We have all seen the iconic photo of the New Deal construction workers, which are hundreds of feet above New York streets during the Rockefeller Center building. The image evokes the proud history and incredible successes of the North -American construction industry, as well as a reminder of how far we have come in terms of our safety approach and how we protect our employees.
In almost 100 years since this photo was taken, occupational mortality in construction decreased 90% of 150-200 per 100,000 workers to 13-15 per 100,000 workers between 1940 and 2023.
Today, the construction industry is undergoing another transformation, this time driven by technology. As an industry, we all strive to achieve a zero incident culture to ensure that everyone will return home safely at the end of the day. The key to this commitment is to constantly seek ways to deploy the latest security technologies, including protective equipment workers, the hardware we use to supervise and collect data in our workplace and artificial intelligence and software tools that provide real -time comments and information.
As an executive who oversees risks management in Clayco, one of the largest construction companies in the country, I see first -hand how emerging technology is remodeling our safety approach. Grab header. Even the name has evolved from “hard hat” to “helmet” due to advances in the way of designing and building the protection gear. Today’s helmets are made of materials such as Koroyd, a polymer material of avant -garde soldered tubes that are compressed in impact and absorbs energy, an innovation that saves life that can mean the difference between a nearby call and a catastrophic injury.
This innovation does not stop with the materials. Today’s helmets are getting smarter. Many helmets are equipped with the nearby field communication (NFC) and the TWICEME technology that stores the medical data and emergency contact information of an individual worker whom the first respondents can access in seconds. Other portable innovatives climb to the helmet limit and provide workers with a SOS button and location tracking capabilities, can detect if a worker has suffered a fall or impact on his head, and he can also alert them if they are near a high voltage electricity source.
For futurists that these innovations have seemed a few decades ago, other safety technologies that we currently use seem directly out of science fiction. Workers now carry exoskeletons that can cause the heaviest tools to feel almost without weight, dramatically improving the safety and efficiency for difficult work to overload, reducing the appearance of muscle fatigue injuries and repetitive tasks when weighted equipment are used for long periods of time.
While the technologies that can be brought help workers from injuries, a new generation of automated systems help eliminate rare cases of human error in jobs. For example, as we build projects of more technical data centers and with a large amount of electricity, we are increasingly using the automatic automatic block/tag applications technology, which automates the complex process and requires identification and deactivation time of living, unexpected and dangerous sources, dramatically improving both efficiency and safety.
Technology also provides new capabilities to control and enforce security protocols both at the place and at a distance. Drones and cameras of next generation are now ubiquitous tools in jobs. Drone mounted cameras or handgun gimbals provide security managers out of site the possibility of removing video visits to review the grip on security protocols.
But with more than 100 projects underway throughout the country at any given time, human security managers are limited to how many places they can supervise. That is why we develop artificial intelligence tools that change the game that can be monitored by live video sources and identify possible security problems much faster and more detailed than a human who reviews the footage. AI tools will soon be able to identify if a worker does not carry his helmet or safety gloves or the risk areas of flag ranging from the inappropriate placement of a scale to a missing fire extinguisher. Thanks to the learning capabilities of machines, the tools of the AI will be even smarter over time to quickly indicate security problems that could lose the human eye.
Ultimately, all this information cannot be taken if you cannot collect and analyze the data. At Clayco, we developed a digital digital digital documentation platform called Work-Safe that rationalizes the entire document process for all our employees, whether on board new hires, incidents reports or information on training certifications. Work monitoring also helps us to keep track of workers in various projects and gives us a detailed view of their competition and how we can better deploy them in a project, putting them on stronger paths for the success of the workplace and long-term growth. Ultimately, we will incorporate IA tools with predictive analytics to improve the ways of training, auditing and documenting everything that happens in our jobs.
We have traveled a long way to the safety of the workplace, as those workers ate lunch sitting in a high steel beam above New York City more than 90 years ago, but progress does not mean that we relax. Security measures must continue to evolve, just as the tools and technologies we use. At the end of the day, this is not the most flash team, but it is to build a first culture. This means continuing to prioritize training, communication and innovation aimed at protecting workers, not just checking the compliance box.
I encourage everyone in our industry to continue to strive for zero incidents through collaboration with companies that develop new technologies and security tools while continuing to rethink how to approach and mitigate the risk. Each improvement will help us reach our shared goal of ensuring that all workers return home safely at the end of the day.
Todd Friis is the Senior Vice President of Risk Management of the National Clayco Design Construction Firm, where he manages and directs Clayco’s health and safety programs.
