The construction industry is booming. In Malaysia alone, the value of construction work done in the first quarter of 2021 grew by 10.5 per cent compared to year 202 quarter four (14.2%) year-on-year, amounting to RM31.4 billion. With the rise and growth of the construction industry comes its history known for its high incident rates and poor safety performance. There is just too much occupational hazard in the work environment and the tasks needed for it.

In most cases, workers’ unsafe behaviours cause accidents in construction. That is probably why system dynamics modelling exists today to provide safety on a construction site.

The safety culture of a construction firm determines how successful the company is. As a result, they understand the need for safety practices and attitudes to ensure workers don’t fall victim to the ‘fatal four’ defined by OSHA: falls, strikes by objects, electrocution, and caught-in or caught-between. Observance of this policy aims at preventing business disruptions, high insurance costs, and hefty fines. Professionals know they must keep construction sites safe to ensure project quality, retain workers, and increase ROI.

Construction companies need to find additional ways to ensure worker safety beyond personal protective equipment and regular inspections on the job site to reap these benefits.

To stay competitive, companies are always on the lookout for ways they can improve their performance. Construction firms need not look far. By enhancing their safety culture, they can begin to improve their safety performance. Training, policies, and procedures need frequent updates to meet changing needs and adapt to changing times.

Below are some ways that can reinforce the construction safety culture. You can check the list below and apply any of them to suit your needs.

The industry has become accustomed to personal safety equipment, but designers and manufacturers can further improve your firm’s safety culture by implementing innovative protective gear and tools. Operators benefit from tools like handwheels, which allow them to control their machinery efficiently. Employers can monitor job site workers with wearable devices such as smartwatches and glasses. They keep track of individual locations and notify dispatchers if any injuries occur.

Workers can prevent injuries and construction incidents by receiving safety training. During onboarding and apprenticeships, new hires usually receive safety training, but pairing them with an exemplary veteran can enhance a new employee’s understanding of the company’s safety practices firsthand. New employees can develop a safety-conscious attitude by completing this activity.

Along with training new hires, you can also provide refresher courses for your seasoned employees to remind them of basic protocols and keep them up-to-date on site-specific rules. Rather than making them optional, you should make these pieces of training mandatory.

Provide engaging training and connect safety practices with personal experience. Adhere to safety practices so they can enjoy spending time with their families after a hard day’s work. As a result, workers can realise that safety attitudes extend beyond a construction site since they can take them wherever they go.

Management can remind employees about the importance of these values by sending them texts, emails, or even mobile apps.

Reiterating safety as a core value is the most basic improvement. Construction professionals should refocus their attention on security as a guiding principle for everyone, especially workers.

According to the Center for Construction Research and Training, toolbox talks are the best to share safety measures with job site workers. Utilise it to inform workers about general health and safety issues every week. Ask them questions and solicit feedback so you can develop effective policies that reflect their needs and address on-site demands.

Direct worker participation is essential to improve the safety culture in construction. In addition to providing them with training, you should also assign them responsibilities to keep everyone and themselves safe. Bring together employees from all departments and levels of the company to form a safety committee. Using their experience and knowledge, entrust them with reviewing or updating the company’s safety program.

You could also establish a site-specific all-employee incident response team to provide basic first-aid if any of the four fatalities occur on your site — slips, objects struck by, caught-in/between, and electrocution.

Involving workers and making them accountable helps them realise the value of safety in their daily routines. It encourages them to follow the rules and compels fellow workers to adhere to the same guidelines to ensure safety.

In addition to making construction tasks more accessible, technology can also upgrade a company’s safety culture. You can prevent construction accidents by monitoring the safety of the construction site with various technologies.

Provide workers with scannable QR badges indicating their training and certifications. By doing so, you can send the right person to operate any equipment. Additionally, these badges serve as trackers. Sensors warn workers of potential danger and help site supervisors locate injured workers quickly over indoor GPS in case of accidents.

It is even possible to use drones to inspect the site before and after every workday. Inspections daily help identify safety concerns and mitigate risks. Even if you are far away, you can quickly survey the area and decide how to proceed. The drones can also assist you in communicating your concerns to engineers and other professionals so that safety is always a priority.

Giving incentives and simple rewards such as chocolate bars, candies, hats, and gift cards to grocery stores and other establishments as a way of thanking them for their commitment to safety. Employee rewards motivate employees to work harder and perform flawlessly. Safety habits will indeed become better with good practices.

Safety requires time and training, so companies need to take measures to report incidents. Encourage workers to report unsafe conditions to their supervisors and fellow workers’ violations of safety codes. Maintain anonymity and offer constructive feedback to encourage compliance.

Furthermore, you should ensure that your supervisors report unsafe conditions so that you can use this data to develop better prevention strategies in the future.

The last safety culture improvement method is delegating cleanup responsibilities to workers. Keeping the site clean ensures the health and safety of workers. Cleaning rotation assignments encourage everyone to participate. It can also help them understand that cleanliness is a crucial element of worker safety.

Worker and site-specific safety policies and practices are critical elements in improving construction culture safety. By using innovative tools and wearable technologies, workers are more accountable for the protection and success of the organisation.

As the construction industry fragments, the need for detailed information and growing client expectations of delivery times make it increasingly necessary to communicate effectively. Unfortunately, information exchange is notoriously inadequate, resulting in poor project performance.

Similar challenges happen in construction engineering and management. Construction activities and projects’ complexity and dynamics have increased due to increasing construction scales and ever-changing construction environments.

In theory, these construction systems are of complex interdependent components, including multiple feedback processes and nonlinear relationships.

System dynamics modelling provides a powerful way to study feedback processes and their causal relationships in complex construction systems. The effectiveness and efficiency of a construction process depend on such a method.

Traditional planning and management techniques and risk analysis and management have failed to uncover the most disruptive factors on projects, leading to duration overruns. It is understandable now that the loss of key project personnel is highly disruptive to communication. An underestimation of uncertainty results from failing to recognise and account for this eventuality. System dynamics is an approach to modelling projects which emphasises the interrelationships and concentrates on the whole project.

For those involved in mega project delivery, system dynamics modelling can deal with behavioural factors of construction systems and their interactions with construction processes. The majority of traditional modelling methods do not provide this advantage.

The use of system dynamic modelling will help organisations plan the most effective safety implementation process to achieve their safety goals within a scheduled time frame.

In addition, you can see the project organisation as a complex system, and system dynamics modelling can make sub-systems interrelated to pursue and reach project goals. With the help of system dynamics modelling, construction project managers can react appropriately to changes and understand how they influence the behaviour of the entire project system. An increasing number of studies have suggested using system dynamics modelling in current construction management research, such as planning project activities, managing construction risks, and identifying the causes of rework.

Construction faces more risks than any other industry. It would be best if you considered any potential occurrence that could hinder your plans as a risk. Construction projects can be very challenging, especially when there are many possible risks involved.

Construction work, in a sense, is unpredictable by nature. Each project is unique. Construction involves a large number of independent companies working together. The project manager must deal with the same issues other industries face, such as weather, labour, and supply.

The best way to minimise risk in construction projects is to prepare for everything that can go wrong. Let’s learn more about the types of safety risks that a system dynamic model can prevent.

In an in-depth academic study, Nerija Banaitiene and Audrius Banaitis identified seven key areas where construction projects had severely derailed. To determine how contractors perceived each risk, the study’s authors interviewed 40 contractors. And these are the seven critical risks in a construction project.

After you’ve learned about some of the most common construction project risks, it’s time to identify those unique to your project. It is essential to identify potential risks during the preconstruction phase of the project for the whole project to be accepted.

You can analyse risks by holding brainstorming sessions with your project team and your stakeholders. This is where system dynamics modelling comes in handy.

A project must consider all potential outcomes for it to have a full evaluation. All teams will have a chance to contribute their expertise and knowledge through a brainstorming session. Understanding the size, scope, and location of past projects provides valuable information.

Following the brainstorm, it is vital to have regular meetings with your project team. Reviewing existing risk plans will facilitate the identification of any additional risks that may arise at a later date.

You can also utilise technology to identify risks during construction planning projects. There are different tools/software available today that workers can use to monitor. Workers on-site can use an app to track project progress, raise issues, and notify the project manager (including sharing photos). Therefore, no risk goes unreported.

Construction safety regulations and quality specifications can be adhered to and contributed to using these applications or software. Not only that, documentation, reference materials, and records are available to ensure that the organisation meets the standards and provides accountability along the way.

Every company faces different construction risks – a risk that might affect another business might not affect you. Once you identify your chances, you should prioritise them based on two factors: (1) the likelihood of them materialising and (2) the potential impact on your business.

First, address risks with a high impact and high probability, then those with a low impact and low probability. For example, a price increase in the materials for your project may hurt your margins, so it should be with medium priority. The likelihood of natural disasters is low, but their impact is high. If a hired contractor not fulfilling their part of the job, this would be an example of a high impact and high probability risk.

Following the evaluation of the risks, you’ll want to select a response strategy for each hazard. There are four methods for responding to threats:

If you feel unprepared to handle a significant risk or do not have a risk management plan in place, it is best to steer clear of the project or modify its scope. Consider avoiding areas that are prone to earthquakes, for example.

Though costly, this solution may ultimately be less expensive than accepting the risk directly. You could, for example, transfer the risk to your insurance provider or negotiate with a supplier or subcontractor to pass the responsibility to them.

Mitigating risk means creating a plan to reduce the risk as much as possible. For example, to reduce the risk of injury, you can train workers and provide appropriate safety equipment.

Sometimes, you have to accept the risks involved in completing an assignment. Suppose, for example, that you decide to take the weather delays, but plan to improve project management to overcome the problems.

The response strategy you choose will depend on how resilient you are to risks and how rewarding the project might be. If you determine that a higher reward – such as gaining a loyal repeat customer or entering a new market – is worth taking the risk, there may be a higher risk involved.

By now, it should be clear that risk management is an essential aspect of securing your company. Creating a risk management plan requires a lot of effort, but it provides vital benefits for your company. The list below summarises the benefits when you have risk management in place.

It is easier to assess your future projects once you’ve set up a risk management plan. Your team members have the knowledge and tools they need to make decisions and avoid risks, improving your company’s efficiency.

On construction sites, risk management plans can also help teams adhere to safety and security standards. Consequently, there are fewer safety hazards so that projects can move more quickly.

Over time, as they balance risks, teams can gain more confidence in their projects when they develop a sound plan. As a result, teams can save time and resources on their projects since they can plan and fix any mistakes.

Unmanaged risk can hurt the profitability of your business. In any event, there is minimal risk if there is an implementation of the risk management plan. Profits increase over time as streamlined operations, enhanced safety, lower costs, and increased project confidence are in place.