The Technology You Can Use For Better Construction Health And Safety

We have more technology in our pockets these days than we had in an entire office 25 years ago. Our smartphones connect us through wifi, 4G, 5G, Bluetooth, and GPS. With this technology, we can connect to the internet, find where we are, and share information with people close to us and those far away.

Are you reading this on a smartphone? People have gone to space with less technology than you have in your hand right now. Let that sink in!

If you're working in construction, you're probably not building rockets. But you are working in a high-risk industry. You're over four times more likely to die and nearly twice as likely to get injured when compared to other workplaces.

The fatal injury rate in Construction is 1.92 per 100,000 workers. This is around 4.8 times the all industry rate.

It's one of the principles of prevention to adapt to technical progress, so that means if technology can be used to make your work safer, you should be using it.

And you might think that construction misses out on many of the benefits of modern technology. After all, you're not in a high-tech office with superfast broadband and the latest computer systems. You're working in an unfinished building, and you count yourself lucky if you have a roof over your head half the time!

But you don't need a fancy office to access the latest in technology these days. We have the power to get to the moon in our pockets.

A pocket calculator or even a USB-C charger has more computing power than the best computers used to send astronauts to the moon

You already have the technology you need for better construction health and safety.

Let's see what technology you have available to you, and how you can use it to stay safe at work.

The internet

Almost every location in the UK can get internet access, even if some areas are faster than others.

In some very remote areas of the UK, you might struggle to get a reliable mobile data connection. But even in those cases, a dedicated satellite broadband provider could get you up and running. So wherever your construction site is located, you should be able to get connected to the internet.

And how is this good for health and safety?

Well, the internet connects you. You can get access to the site files, resources from the HSE, your company intranet, or HASpod. You can access online training, talks and documents. You can monitor lone workers, report a problem, upload a picture or file, and get advice from your team in other locations.

GPS and location tracking

Construction sites are often remote and can be spread across large areas. You probably don't have eyes on everyone at all times.

GPS technology can be used to track where workers are. This is especially useful for knowing when workers are entering potentially dangerous areas or for monitoring the last known locations for lone workers.

And it's not just useful from a management point of view. It can also help workers to locate where they are and find their way.

GPS can help prevent people from getting lost, both on foot (using a smartphone) and in vehicles (using satellite navigation).

This tracking can help reduce accidents and also allow a quick response to the correct location if a problem occurs.

One service we were particularly excited about when we first wrote this blog post back in 2021 was what3words, which has since become more mainstream.

In an emergency, staff and contractors on the ground can give the what3words address for their exact location so help can find them faster.

What3words helps you find an exact location by dividing the world into 3-metre squares - super helpful on construction sites that might not have a street address yet.

Bluetooth

The Bluetooth range on your smartphone is only around 10 metres, but you can use it to share files and information with other workers close to you. And other use cases for Bluetooth can help with construction health and safety.

You can use Bluetooth to pair up accessories to your smartphone or tablet. For example, a vibration sensor that measures your exposure. This sensor could feed data back to your device, which will alert you if you're getting close to vibration exposure limits.

This same type of thing could work for noise and dust exposure monitoring, too.

Cameras

There was a time when you would need to buy an expensive standalone camera to take pictures on site. And then wait a week for those photos to get developed!

Now, nearly everyone on your sites will have access to a camera on their phone. And they can share it immediately via Bluetooth, email, or a file-sharing service.

Having photos instantly available is great for health and safety.

Need to report a problem or a concern? Need to know that something is correct? Need to check your work remotely? A picture is worth a thousand words. And a video tells a thousand more!

QR codes

Speaking of cameras, most smartphone cameras these days have a built-in barcode or QR reader. You could use this technology to simplify processes like toolbox talk attendance and signing into your sites.

You could create a QR link to guide workers to your website, or online services you use, or even health and safety documents. They don't have to type in a long URL, just scan the code, and whatever page or file they need access to instantly opens for them.

You could even have people scan a QR code to sign into your site.

While attendance and time tracking are mostly used for HR, they can also have health and safety benefits. Knowing who is on your site helps you check if they have suitable training, if they need an induction, and what information they need to know. It helps you assess supervision, fire marshal, and first aid cover requirements.

Online services

There are thousands of free and paid online services you can use to improve health and safety, with new services getting launched all the time.

Some of these services, like HASpod, are dedicated business health and safety services. And many HSE forms and resources can be accessed online.

But there are plenty of everyday online services you can use to improve health and safety, too. Many of these services your team will already be familiar with and use in their personal lives. Like Facetime or Whatsapp.

For example, you could use these communication tools to check in with lone workers over video or message. Or use team applications like Zoom to share knowledge between sites, or have meetings with clients without leaving the site.

File sharing

It wasn't too long ago that each new document, drawing or specification had to be printed, posted, collected from the office and taken to the site. By which time, maybe another change had occurred!

Construction projects have hundreds of documents. This lengthy process was bad for health and safety because if your team don't have up-to-date information, mistakes (and accidents) are more likely to happen.

Now files can be shared in seconds via file-sharing services like Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer, OneDrive, etc.

You can use these services to speed up your paperwork and get information from one person to another, or even from one site to another, at the click of a button.

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Are you struggling with any health and safety problems? Get in touch with us and see if we can use technology to help you solve them.