Leveraging New Technology to Create a More Secure Workplace

Maintaining a safe working environment should be a major goal for any construction company. That’s because it can help maintain productivity, worker retention rates, and also protect your bottom line.

As one work injury lawyer in Philadelphia points out, businesses are responsible for paying up to 500 weeks of compensation to injured parties. This can be disastrous for businesses and can also serve to negatively impact your reputation within your community. Luckily, technology is making it easier than ever to achieve this goal.

The following innovations represent just some of the many new tools construction businesses can use to keep employees safe on the job. If your company isn’t yet implementing them, now may be the time to start.

Drones

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, can be very helpful at construction sites. With drones, conducting safe and efficient inspections of the worksite is easy. Drones can also quickly take pictures of a job site as it changes over the course of a project. This helps workers stay up to date on the changing conditions of their work environment.

Virtual Reality

Employees who perform tasks that involve operating machinery, vehicles, or using any other potentially dangerous equipment need to be thoroughly trained to ensure both their safety and the safety of those they work with.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to constantly and frequently train new hires when they need access to this hardware in order to practice using it. Sometimes the equipment or resources simply aren’t available when needed.

That’s why some companies are using virtual reality to train employees. With VR tech, employees simply get many more opportunities to practice difficult tasks than they would have if they relied on real-life training alone. It allows them to become comfortable with tasks before they need to perform them in the field.

Exoskeletons

Construction work often involves lifting heavy items. This can put employees at risk of injury.

Exoskeletons now offer a solution to the problem. These machines help construction workers lift heavy objects by using counterweights which distribute the load evenly. As a result, employees are less likely to be injured on the job.

Autonomous Equipment

The rise of self-driving cars and similar autonomous equipment has helped construction companies maintain employee safety at worksites. Contractors point out that the use of vehicles and heavy equipment is linked with an increased risk of accidents at a job site. With autonomous vehicles and equipment, certain hazardous tasks can be performed from a safe distance.

Wearables

Monitoring the health and condition of employees working at construction sites helps supervisors determine when someone needs a break. Up until recently, however, constantly monitoring the various health indicators that provide a supervisor with this information has been difficult.

That’s no longer the case. Wearable devices can now keep track of factors like heart rate, respiration, and skin temperature, letting an employee or their supervisor know if they’re close to exhaustion. Sophisticated wearables can also track the location of employees at a site. If an employee suffers an injury while alone, these advanced wearable devices will alert the crew.

Keeping a construction site safe is a complicated task. But, it doesn’t need to be. New technology is constantly helping contractors maintain employee safety without sacrificing efficiency. Again, these are merely a few examples. As these technologies continue to improve, we’ll likely see even more emerge in the near future.