Construction companies stand to gain a lot when they embrace technology. Enjoy more productivity, better safety, and improved documentation with a digitally transformed business. That’s why we have identified 5 trends to help you seize the opportunities to outpace the competition, control expenses, and have a profound impact on project success.

If you wish to read the whole document, containing all 5 parts, then download our whitepaper for free.

Also, you might want to revisit a particular trend. You may do so below:

Trend 1: The Race to The Bottom

Workplace Safety’s No Joke

Safety should be a common-sense practice and not a trend at all. Unfortunately, hundreds of construction workers still die on the job every year in the United States.

According to OSHA, there were 971 construction worker fatalities in 2017! One in five fatal worker deaths was in construction, usually resulting from falls, vehicle accidents, and electrocutions.

One death is too many for the construction industry; 971 worker deaths a year is unacceptable. The construction industry serves humanity, and that means construction companies need to make every effort to preserve human life.

Do more than provide hard hats. Put technology to work in these 4 ways to save lives:

1. Look at your processes first

Did you know that 20% of all construction fatalities happen during the victims’ first two months of employment? It’s clear that construction businesses need processes in place not only to protect existing employees but to educate new employees on safety.

However, before you buy tech to make this happen, solidify your process first. Once you nail your process, you’ll be able to find the right tech to facilitate what needs to happen.

Take a hard look at your onboarding procedures. Do you offer hands-on training to new hires? How long are they supervised? Do they work with experienced coworkers and managers? Are all workers held to strict safety standards?

Working with DTI and using our technologies enables you to give a consistent new employee onboardingon boarding and training that keeps your employees safe.

2. Automate incident reports

Your clients matter, but your employees’ lives matter the most.

Don’t sacrifice safety by cutting corners. Fortunately, technology can help construction businesses protect employees without time-intensive reporting.

It’s important to have an open culture where your workers have no problem addressing workplace issues.

You don’t want employees to stay silent about unsafe working conditions! Build a reporting culture with your construction team. This includes making it easy to report safety issues.

For example, you can place barcodes or QR codes on equipment, signs, and entrances. Employees can use their connected devices to scan the codes and quickly report the issue to management.

See? With tech, you can have eyes in the field at all times protecting your workers without long paper forms signed in triplicate.

3. Log inspection and safety information

Don’t misplace important safety paperwork.

Not only does this keep you on the right side of the law but it also keeps your employees safe. Paper inspection forms are tedious to fill out.

There’s also a good chance they’ll get misplaced or destroyed on the job site too.

DTI connects your field workers with the office, quickly uploading and storing inspection data. Easily locate your information in the cloud so you’re always ready for an audit.

4. Make it accessible and simple

Office workers aren’t the only ones who need technology.

Arming your project managers and foremen with tech makes it fast and easy to share information between employees, no matter where they are.

Empower your workers with mobile-friendly apps to track communication and safety info. You can either provide employees with devices or offer a stipend to use their personal phones.

Remember, many of your employees might not have a background in technology. They also might not speak English.

Keep your safety reporting solution simple and intuitive to use. Consider offering the software in multiple languages to inform everyone on the team.

It’s hard to change your behavior, but workplace safety is no joke. You have the power to save your employees’ lives with proper procedures.

Tech streamlines the process, but your business has to make the change first.

Resolve safety issues with improved communication that’s facilitated with technology. Stay on track with your projects without compromising human life.

Also...

To learn about all of the trends that we are seeing where construction and digital information management meet click the button below and download whole paper for free: