By Tim Slingsby, Director of Skills and Education, Lloyd’s Register Foundation
“The U.S. construction industry has a better than average track record in terms of accidents on site, but the sector cannot rest on its laurels.” – Tim Slingsby
Safety in the construction industry in the United States has come leaps and bounds – but it’s still being held back by lapses in training and a lack of clearly defined responsibilities.
While the industry deserves praise for the advances that have been made in terms of awareness, training, education, and reporting, construction remains one of the riskiest for an employee to work in. Statistics for the ‘fatal four’ – falls from height, struck-by accidents, electrocution, and incidents where individuals are caught between objects or machinery – continue to put the sector in a worse position than all other industries.
The Bureau of Labour statistics says the construction industry has the most fatal injuries, with one in five fatal injuries reported across all industries to be found on construction sites. At Lloyd’s Register Foundation, and according to our World Risk Poll (for which data was collected by global analytics firm Gallup, which conducted 147,000 interviews in 142 countries and territories around the world), 21% of people in the U.S. construction industry said that they or someone they know had experienced harm in the past two years in their workplace, roughly in line with the all-sector national average of 23%.
The advances made are also clear. When we asked whether employees had received workplace health and safety training, 64% of respondents in construction declared that they had received training in the last two years. This is a much better performance than the U.S. all-sector average of 46%.
However, 22% of those working in construction – more than one in five – say they have never received any health and safety training. Although this is better than the U.S. all-sector average of 33%, it is still a worryingly high figure given the safety-critical nature of the industry they work in and the risks they are regularly exposed to.
When we asked if workers were worried that they could be seriously harmed at work, 65% of U.S. respondents in construction said they were not worried at all (the U.S. average is 69%). 27% said they were somewhat worried (the U.S. average: 23%), and only 8% said they were very worried (which is the same as the U.S. average).
While it would not be positive or conducive to productivity or worker wellbeing to be constantly worried about being injured at work, it is important that low rates of worry are justified by a consistently strong safety culture and that they do not lead to complacency.
In our World Risk Poll, 14% of workers in construction in the U.S. told us they had received health and safety training, but that it was more than two years ago. This is in addition to the 22% who say they have never been trained.
What is driving this lapse in training rates?
There may be several contributory factors, but a big factor may be that construction is often an unstable form of work, with many employees currently working under part-time or temporary contracts. Our research suggests that, across all industries, including construction, part-time and self-employed workers are much less likely to have received occupational health and safety training than full-time employees.
A second issue might be responsibility. Many contractors employ subcontractors who, in turn, use agency or temporary workers. Who then has the responsibility for safety training? All too often, nobody takes responsibility, and the worker is left at risk.
All of this has a direct impact on reporting rates. Our research suggests that there is a direct correlation between occupational health and safety training and the likelihood of an employee reporting an accident or near-miss, if one occurs.
The more recently people have had training, the more likely they are to report workplace harm if they experience it. Individuals who have received workplace safety training in the last two years are 3.3 times more likely to report such harm, compared to those who have never received any. Those who have been trained, but more than two years ago, are 1.8 times more likely.
Low reporting rates, combined with a potential lack of awareness due to low training rates, mean that the true extent of workplace harm is rarely revealed. That’s why safety and health interventions that are both regular and tailored must be a priority for both businesses and policymakers, along with clear reporting tools for all employees – including both part-time and full-time.
Special efforts must be made to reach those who are most at risk and ensure they have a holistic understanding of what safety and health means, as well as an in-depth knowledge of essential procedures in place to keep them safe.
Continual training is vital in ensuring construction workers are kept safe. I like to think of training as gardening. Planting a seed is a great starting point, but even after a tree starts to grow, it still needs regular care in order to thrive, instead of becoming a potential hazard. That’s the same thing with training; initial training is a must, but regular refreshers are just as crucial to keep things top of mind and prevent lapsing into bad habits.
In sectors like construction, it only takes one moment of carelessness or neglect to abide by what may seem to be an overly cautious rule or procedure for an injury, or worse, to occur.
There is no question that construction workers are more exposed to risk than others due to the nature of the work they do. Our World Risk Poll found that construction is the second most dangerous occupational globally. However, many developed countries have succeeded in bringing down workplace harm rates for construction, more in line with the rest of the economy.
The U.S. construction industry has made progress, but the overall situation is mixed. Everyone deserves to be safe: that’s why we must continue to strive to do better.
The World Risk Poll data around workplace harm is presented in our latest report, Engineering safer workplaces: Global trends in occupational safety and health. The full report is available here.
Lloyd’s Register Foundation is a global safety charity with a mission to engineer a safer world. We support research, innovation, and education to make the world a safer place. Learn more at www.lrfoundation.org.uk/regions/americas.