An industry-wide survey conducted by Procore and Dodge Construction network shows a number of important trends among specialty contractors. The report found that one of the most impactful issues for steel workers is safety. Steel fabrication and erection work has unique challenges that is compounded by pressures being felt across the industry, like labor shortages and outdated process and systems.
Steel contractors surveyed ranked the following items as the top causes of safety incidents, from most to least prevalent:
- Behavior/Practices of Other Trades on the Project
- Distractions or Inattention
- Lack of Sufficient PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)
- Unsafe Conditions on the Jobsite Tolerated by the GC
- Insufficient Training of Newer Workers
- Fatigue due to overtime
This list provides an interesting and intuitive bird’s-eye view of the safety challenges steel contractors face. Here’s a closer look at some of them.
Behavior and practices of other trades on the project, was rated higher by steel contractors than any other respondents. Why is that? By the very nature of their work, steel crews are required to bring their own stringent practices around safety and field coordination. They also frequently interact with most other trades on the jobsite, thus it is only natural to encounter some differences. Those differences, however, can be at best frustrating and at worst fatal when the other contractors take a more easygoing approach toward safety.
Communication is key here, not just on site with the other crews, but with the general contractor. Because as we see, unsafe conditions being tolerated by the GC is the fourth item on the list.
This is another situation where steel contractors may feel a lack of control, especially considering the strong predisposition in their trade toward technology-based and quantitative tracking of safety standards. When this approach differs from the GC’s or another trade’s, it can create friction, but it’s in both the GC’s and steel contractors’ best interests to foster a culture of both safety and collaboration. Working and communicating with the GC in order to apply that tech and safety expertise to the project is a valuable team endeavor that benefits the whole jobsite.
Not every problem comes from imperfect interactions with others. Steel contractors face many of the same issues other trades do in the form of constant distractions, a lack of PPE, insufficient training, and too much overtime. These all coincide in one way or another with perhaps the biggest issue facing all of construction: the ongoing labor shortage.
Mitigating the loss of tenured employees
In their responses to the survey, 58% of steel contractors said that half or more of their projects are being negatively affected by the labor shortage — more than any other trade in the report.
It hardly needs to be said that understaffed or underskilled teams open themselves up to major safety risks, especially in the high-risk steel trade. An understaffed company or project can lead to overworked crews and fatigue, which can lead to taking shortcuts or making subpar on-the-spot decisions. And since the work is still in high demand, progress can be prioritized over things like safety training and development of new ironworkers.
There is a never-ending struggle to keep jobs on schedule in today’s labor market, which is why it’s important to improve these processes and procedures, ensuring safety best practices and training without overly affecting productivity.
Investing in the workforce is more important than ever considering the dramatic rise in retirement among construction trades. Ironworkers are actually better off in this respect than others: 41% of electrical contractors plan to retire in the next five years, compared with 29% in the steel trade.
That said, there’s no easy way to do without more than a quarter of your workforce, especially when it’s the most experienced workers leaving. Tenured employees have a deep understanding of the trade and industry at large, and are the ones who know best how to plan, build, and install work both correctly and safely. Their experience strengthens the safety culture at any company and instills newer employees with critical knowledge.
This wave of retirement can’t be put off, so companies need to focus now on how they can ensure safety standards and other best practices are followed, before they lose the people who embody them.
No cutting corners with temporary workers
In the meantime, temporary labor is how 40% of steel industry respondents said they are addressing the shortage — more than any other trade in the report. While temporary workers are a perfectly reasonable option to help projects stay on schedule, it can also introduce serious safety risks.
Steel work involves very specialized equipment and materials, and if temporary workers are not familiar with these, the results can be disastrous for both the project and the people. The solution is to make sure that the training process for temporary labor is no different from onboarding any other new employee, in terms of time, certifications, content, and studying. But activating temporary workforce is mostly done when a project is behind schedule, which is why shortcuts are often taken.
Tech-based labor management tools are designed to avoid this kind of mismatch between project cadence and workforce availability. By analyzing years of projects, costs, absences, and other data, they produce insights and predictions regarding labor conditions and needs, and a live look at productivity and trends across the company. With better information, project managers and field leadership can avert situations where temporary labor needs to be spun up on short notice.
One way to make sure your trained-up workforce is operating safely and at full capacity is minimizing time spent on low productivity tasks like tracking down documents or doing daily logs on paper. The data shows that a third of steel contractors see 20% or more of their employees’ time wasted this way. Every hour spent on tedious, time-consuming tasks with no positive impact on a project is time that a project manager and safety director could be using to do the job they’re trained for.
Standardizing and streamlining administrative processes by investing in automation and management technology will help tip the balance in favor of employees putting their skills and experience to work where it has the most impact, rather than filling out paperwork or sorting through emails.
Offsite construction and assembly is another labor-saving approach. Prefabrication is not only faster, it could also be safer. Separating and specializing different steps of the construction process and performing those tasks in a controlled shop environment can help produce safer working environments.
Shop conditions are much easier to control, and technology like live measurements from the field allow much more to be accomplished before on-site work commences. Fewer variables in the work lead to more consistent results, and it also sidesteps the trade coordination that can be especially vexing to steel contractors.
Putting tech to work on safety
From drones and wearables to AI and machine learning, the latest tech is increasingly being used across the industry: 77% of large companies and 69% of small companies said they are using or plan to use these and other technologies. That the numbers are strong across all company sizes suggests the industry at large is shifting in this direction, not just those with lots of capital or especially large or complex project management.
Steel contractors are especially adept at using software and tech across their business in general. The survey showed they are out in front in the key categories of preconstruction and construction analysis, and ahead of many in project execution — all places where tech can make a big difference. Clearly, steel contractors are open to using software to manage their business, and the same openness can be applied to adopting safety-related technology and software.
The speed and pressure of today’s construction industry are making all categories of specialty contractors reevaluate their approach to labor and technology. A shortage of skilled workers, condensed project schedules, and increasingly complex cross-trade coordination affect most, and steel erectors and fabricators face unique challenges due to the nature of their work.
But it’s not all bad news: steel contractors are showing special initiative in adopting and using tech to keep their labor pool effective and streamline management processes. This helps PMs and safety directors keep up, but they also need to develop a culture of safety that integrates strong communication protocols with other trades and GCs. Consistent and structured training programs for onboarding new and temporary employees are a must for safety, and new technology should be put to work quickly but carefully as well.
By rounding out their already robust approach to safety management, steel contractors will be able to weather the storm of today’s market and labor conditions and come out stronger on the other side.
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