Technology is redefining the contractor-carrier relationship
As IoT technology on construction jobsites is becoming more mainstream, builders now embrace its safety and risk mitigation benefits.
The construction industry is undergoing a lot of change, which presents far-reaching implications, and opportunities, for insurance professionals. While the industry had experienced decades of lagging digitization, caused in part by the difficulty of developing technology for the complex jobsite environment and reluctance to change how things have always been done, those challenges are now being addressed. New industry developments and market forces are creating a watershed moment, driving construction firms to digitize.
Growing market demand, along with increasingly sophisticated projects, a shortage of skilled workers and record outside investment in construction tech start-ups, has fueled tech innovation and motivated construction firms to adopt advanced Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. These technologies, including wearable devices, equipment and environmental sensors, and drones, provide critical visibility into what’s happening across often large, remote and diverse project sites. By automatically capturing real-time activity data, such as where workers are located, where equipment is in use on site, current temperature and humidity levels, and more, project leaders and teams can stay on top of potential safety issues, mitigate risks and control unexpected losses.
As IoT technology on the jobsite is becoming more mainstream in 2019, firms are realizing the benefits of collecting, applying and sharing data that connects workers and supervisors on site, and provides visibility to risk managers, insurance professionals and other project stakeholders off site.
Elevating site safety and emergency preparedness
Emerging solutions are helping to eliminate the traditional, manual methods that can still be found on most jobsites, such as using air horns to signal an emergency evacuation or relying on workers’ shouts for help if someone falls or is in distress. Instead, new wireless, construction-specific tools are sounding loud and visible alarms around the site to help ensure fast and safe evacuation in the event of an emergency. In addition, wearable devices automatically alert safety personnel if someone falls and allows workers to report hazards or signal distress from the field easily and immediately, avoiding the logistical challenge of trying to get cell phone signals on jobsites. Not only do these tools help workers and safety personnel be prepared for and respond to an emergency more effectively, they improve potential response times, reduce the risk of compounding injuries and limit unnecessary exposure to fellow workers. In addition, they can also lead to a more accurate and complete picture of risk by engaging workers in the hazard identification process.
New technologies also help keep first responders safer. Now, armed with accurate, real-time information, first responders don’t have to blindly enter a jobsite when there is a fire, gas leak or other dangerous situation without knowing which workers and resources are on site or where they are located. The ability of technology to easily communicate hazards — regardless of the site’s layout or an individual’s location — is elevating emergency preparedness and mitigating the risks associated with outdated, legacy safety methods.
Replacing assumptions with objective data
While safety has long been an industry priority, until recently, project leaders, corporate safety directors, risk managers and their insurance providers have been forced to rely on paper records, point solutions and historical look-backs to gauge safety behaviors and overall risk performance — an incomplete process at best.
Today, emerging technologies are not only identifying which workers and resources are on site and where they’re located but also how they’re interacting with each other within an active work area. To date, point solutions have largely focused on one specific asset or function (e.g. equipment or tool, payroll or scheduling software) or have been limited technically (e.g. by range or total number of connected devices). Emerging platform solutions represent a significant step forward, enabling a more holistic look at workers, resources, and safety and site conditions across project sites as they interact with each other.
This technology is enabling contractors and insurance professionals to replace assumptions and anecdotes with objective, real-time data. With digital records showing which workers are on site, where they’re spending their time, and when and where safety incidents occur, insurers can streamline claims administration, combat potentially false claims and better understand and address their clients’ risks. Working together, contractors and their insurance carriers can combine new and existing data sets to determine the biggest loss risks, such as workers with less than 90 days experience on site, and adjust their practices accordingly.
In time, aggregate safety and risk data could also be used to develop industry best practices or benchmarks that help organizations gauge how their safety records stack up, and even to predict and possibly prevent future accidents.
Embracing innovation for immediate benefit
Technology is having a big impact on the construction industry, transforming the way tasks are completed, projects are managed and risks are mitigated. It is also it changing the way contractors are identifying, responding to and reporting safety and other risk-related issues. While change is never easy, particularly for risk-averse industries that have been doing things in the same manner for decades, forward-thinking contractors and carriers are beginning to use technology to revamp their safety and risk management culture and practices.
It is also helping to redefine the contractor-carrier relationship from one-off transactions and historical project look-backs to an on-going partnership that continuously evaluates and refines safety and risk-related practices.
Insurance providers and construction firms have the same goals: keeping workers safe, reducing risks, and minimizing costs to improve their bottom lines. As the construction technology market matures and more solutions are introduced, the gap between contractors and insurance providers that embrace and benefit from technology and those that don’t will widen. By working together to leverage technology and data, develop use cases and new insights and drive digitization, construction contractors and insurance professionals can position themselves for success in 2019 and beyond.
Pete Schermerhorn is president and chief executive officer of Triax Technologies, Inc. He can be reached on LinkedIn or by email. These opinions are his own.
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