It’s simple: when everyone understands and cares about safety, that care manifests on your jobsite. Every construction project brings together management firms, trades, owners, materials and tech providers. How can you ensure that your fellow stakeholders are upholding and reinforcing a shared commitment to safety?
Recently, Newmetrix (formerly Smartvid.io) worked with Shawmut Design and Construction to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) with the company’s technology stack and safety processes. In the process, we were reminded of some of the best ways to achieve excellence in safety across all construction jobsites. Here are three things to keep in mind to make your next projects safer, more collaborative and more rewarding for all involved.
Keep it simple
Are your safety policies or chosen technology solutions all over the place or inconsistently utilized across different jobsites? Make an effort to let go of rules or solutions that aren’t being adopted or delivering results and standardize on what works. Technology and tools should be designed to be easy to use in order to meaningfully engage everyone on the jobsite from execs to laborers. When processes and tech tools are streamlined to focus on what matters most, they'll get adopted more widely and yield better results.
Incentivize safety
Shawmut’s “Caught Safe” initiative recognizes and rewards safe jobsite behaviors, which is a great way to expand safety awareness and get teams positively engaged in the mission of safety. Creating and protecting safe work environments is important work, and recognizing and celebrating those efforts in a consistent manner is a winning formula.
Use data!
While world class safety programs demand relentless communication, training, and management in the field day in and day out, data captured by the apps and devices we deploy help to focus on what matters most. On the jobsite, data helps efficiently keep track of hazardous conditions and behaviors that require corrective actions. Safety data also helps identify which projects are at risk so we can better allocate resources and prioritize training efforts.
AI offers a third-party, unbiased perspective that complements and strengthens human observations about safety and risk. In collaboration with Shawmut, Newmetrix built a dashboard that closely monitors the risk factors that matter most to the Shawmut team. When you’re ready to add smart technology or AI to your construction safety approach, be sure it measures what really matters and it is simple to use. By doing so, data can help reinforce safety as a core value in your business.
Want to hear Shawmut’s perspective on adding an AI solution? Check out this on demand webinar, in which Shawmut Vice President of Safety Shaun Carvalho shares why safety is more than just a performance metric, and how AI technology became a game changer for his team.
