In June, Newmetrix (formerly Smartvid.io) began tracking regional COVID-19 safety compliance benchmarking data as part of a larger working group, whose other members include Procore, Oxblue and Multivista. Together, we’re tracking various aspects of construction during the pandemic to share market data and intelligence with the goal of helping keep jobsites open, productive, and safe.
At Newmetrix, we now have three months of data showing how well each region is doing with social distancing, gloves and face mask compliance. And we’re pleased to say that each region has made tremendous progress in just three months when it comes to social distancing!
Vinnie, our AI, determines that workers are following social distancing requirements in images if they are standing at least six feet apart and in groups of less than 10. In June, all four regions hovered around just two-thirds of workers complying with social distancing rules. The Midwest had the highest compliance at 71%, and the South had the lowest at 58%.
What a difference the summer made! For August, all four regions were in the 80s, with the Northeast leading at 87% and the Midwest trailing the others at 81%. The South made particularly impressive gains, with 44% more workers complying with social distancing.
Glove wearing compliance stayed pretty much the same, but, to be fair, none of the regions had much room to improve, since all were already above 90% compliance in June, no doubt because gloves were already part of standard construction PPE prior to the pandemic.
Mask wearing, however, is a different story. The West, Midwest and Northeast were all in the 80s for compliance with masks in June, with the South lagging behind at 72%. But while the first three regions haven’t seen much movement in their numbers, the South now has the highest level of mask wearing in the United States at 91% compliance, which is a 22% improvement over June.
I think it’s clear that the construction industry is taking COVID-19 safety seriously, which is important not just for the health of our workers, but also just to stay in business. Many state and local governments are requiring construction companies to prove compliance with pandemic safety requirements to avoid having job sites shut down.
In fact, I recently conducted a webinar with Warfel in which we spent a fair amount of time discussing this very point (we have also created a blog post and case study, if you don’t have time to watch the full webinar). Their ability to show COVID-19 safety compliance with Newmetrix enabled them to be the only general contractor allowed to operate in one large Pennsylvania county for a considerable period of time.
The bottom line, though, is that construction is showing real, significant improvement in COVID-19 safety compliance. And that’s good news for everyone.
How does your firm compare? To find out how Newmetrix can help you improve your team’s COVID-19 safety compliance, get in touch.
