{"id":2814,"date":"2021-09-21T10:11:03","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T14:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.construction.com\/newsroom_details_pag\/business-value-of-investing-in-safety\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T09:52:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T13:52:56","slug":"business-value-of-investing-in-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.construction.com\/reports\/business-value-of-investing-in-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"New Study Reveals Influence of Pandemic, New Tech and Company Size on Construction Safety Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fifth SmartMarket Report on construction reveals how safety management is evolving to respond to the current era while still demonstrating the business value of investing in safety.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

HAMILTON, NJ \u2013 September 21, 2021 \u2013<\/strong><\/h4>\n

COVID-19 and new technologies are creating significant changes in how contractors manage safety, according to a new study from Dodge Data & Analytics. There are stark variations in how companies of different sizes are responding, with small employers lagging behind their larger peers.<\/p>\n

Safety Management in the Construction Industry 2021 SmartMarket Report, the fifth in this series, shows how contractors and workers are adapting well-established principles of safety management to respond to the pandemic and are beginning to take advantage of increased access to real-time data. The report was published with the support of the CPWR \u2014 The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) and Newmetrix.<\/p>\n

Safety Management in the Construction Industry 2021 documents how COVID-19 accelerated existing shifts in contractors\u2019 approaches. More than one in three contractors (35%) increased online training over the past 12 months, and nearly two-thirds (63%) of contractors now use it. More than 75% of the contractors who reported using more online training attributed that growth either partly or completely to COVID-19. However, while 96% of large employers with 100 or more workers have developed a written plan to protect jobsite workers from the spread of COVID-19, only 57% of employers with less than 20 employees had written plans.<\/p>\n

An even bigger trend resulting from COVID-19 is the greater use of health and wellness measures. While these measures have long been a part of construction safety, the study found that many new measures have been adopted during the pandemic. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of contractors plan to keep some of these measures after the pandemic subsides, although respondents varied widely in their views of which practices will continue.<\/p>\n

The study benchmarks current use of health and wellness programs for workers on the job site and in company offices. Between 40% to 50% of contractors offer their workers mental health services, including alcohol and substance abuse programs, but only about 25% offer stress management or smoking cessation programs. Again, large contractors were significantly more likely to take this step than small contractors. These statistics suggest both wide recognition of the value of these programs and opportunities for much wider adoption.<\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID-19 has emphasized that worker safety and health are crucial to successful construction,\u201d said Chris Trahan Cain, CPWR\u2019s executive director. \u201cThis report shows that contractors of all sizes must continue addressing persistent concerns like falls and ergonomics at the same time they respond to COVID-19 through planning, training, and advances in technology.\u201d<\/p>\n