Construction sites are inherently hazardous environments. To mitigate job-related risks, however, companies industry wide are increasingly turning to advanced safety technologies.
The tech that’s on the rise: wearables. Smart, wearable technology on construction sites can increase productivity, prevent injury and keep workers aware of situational hazards and their health. And while a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report found that only 6% of contractors used construction wearables onsite in 2018, some 83% of contractors believe that construction wearables would improve on-site safety.
Head to toe wearables are the future of jobsite safety. Smart hard hats, watches, monitors and boots, augmented reality glasses, exoskeletons and wearable sensors not only enhance workplace safety, but also benefit businesses by providing critical lines of communication and actionable data collection.
Here’s how equipping workers with wearables can benefit your construction firm.
Industrywide technology rise
Thanks to activity trackers from Apple, Fitbit, and Jawbone, wristwear-segment wearables have opened the floodgates for widespread wearable technology adoption. In fact, the wearable tech market is expected to grow from $40.6 billion in 2020 to $100.4 billion by 2027, according to recent industry predictions.
An industry readily embracing a wave of new technology (i.e., drones, equipment tagging, 3D printing, robotics, virtual and augmented reality), the construction industry as a whole is primed for mass wearables adoption. For starters, workers already wear personal protection equipment. Moreover, construction has the worst statistics for worker health and safety of all major industries. With 1 in 5 worker fatalities in 2019 occurring in construction, companies and employees are embracing workplace safety initiatives like the implementation of wearable technology.
Boost data value
Of the potential solutions construction firms can implement, wearable devices offer a high level of user functionality and are among the most insightful. Equipped with sensors, GPS, heart-rate monitors, activity trackers, pressure, fall and gas detection, wearables can track a plethora of worker health and safety metrics. This data can in turn be used by companies to better address safety concerns across jobsites, before accidents or injuries occur.
With smartwatches, company leaders and field workers can communicate hands free, track jobsite movement and monitor vital signs — recording and sharing electrocardiogram rhythms and oxygen saturation levels. Wrist wearables can also detect falls and alert on-site and emergency personnel.
Wearable technology is also transforming boots, helmets and safety glasses into powerful, data-collecting and sharing devices. Pressure and location sensors placed in footwear can detect falls and shocks, track worker location and alert help. Fitted with sensor bands, hard hats become an even more critical piece of safety equipment — tracking vital signs to detect fatigue and alerting workers and equipment operators of potential collisions when paired with heavy machinery sensors. Smart safety glasses are providing workers with live-field data and updates on hazardous materials, leading edges and safety protocols.
Integrate with existing tech
With the ability to collect and share critical data, companies need a way to sync all their tech. Enter a mobile workforce platform. Data from all wearable technology can be compiled by a mobile workforce platform and can be visualized and reported instantly from an individual, team or the entire workforce.
By integrating wearable devices and their data with cloud-based software, accessible on any mobile device, companies can facilitate instant communication between managers and field workers. This open line of communication allows field workers to share their concerns and jobsite experiences with off-site company leadership who may be unaware of jobsite hazards and safety issues. When asked why getting all of your data in one place is important James Benham said, “Once you start aggregating all the data across all of your different verticals you can start making better decisions, data based decisions, not emotional decisions.”
Equipped with data from wearables and first-hand worker accounts, construction companies can mitigate potential jobsite risks, delays and safety issues. Addressing these concerns ahead of time helps to eliminate workplace hazards, keeping employees safe while also delivering projects safely and on time.
Deep dive into your business
Use of wearable technology can give vital insight into a company’s entire operations. For one, wearables can track patterns in worker movement and equipment usage to determine dips and increases in productivity. They also monitor worker health and safety, protecting a company’s most valuable asset, its people. Moreover, wearables shed light on a company’s pressure points that impact their bottom line.
By aligning the field data collected by wearables with project progress and safety reports, finances and more, companies can effectively analyze their business operations and measure key performance indicator (KPI) — a quantifiable measure of performance for a specific objective and one of the keys to having an accurate understanding the overall financial health of the business.
“KPIs are fantastic if people take the time to understand the visibility,” said James Coyle, co-founder of Event 1 Software, on how KPI and transparency go hand in hand. Adding the KPI is even more relevant today, “because of wearable technology collecting information from the field.”
With this additional insight, departments across firms can identify targets to achieve, track milestones to gauge progress, make data-backed decisions, understand each other’s needs and work more collaboratively.
Wearable technology is taking construction safety and data collection to the next level. With the ability to collect and share critical health and safety data, wearables are preventing workplace accidents, improving incident response, increasing overall jobsite safety and effectively improving the entire operation of these companies leveraging them.
