How Wearable Tech Can Optimize Construction Safety & Productivity

Today’s increasingly sophisticated safety wearables and environmental monitors are powerful tools for strategic management of the most important asset on every jobsite — people.

The insights wearables can provide into physiological and environmental health help deliver higher productivity and improved worker well-being. They also aggregate valuable data on hazardous situations and inform proactive interventions that improve safety and productivity while preserving worker privacy.

This article explores why monitoring matters in the fight against jobsite stressors, how personal safety strategies improve productivity and keys to applying wearables to the dual goals of improved output and safer workers.

What are wearables?

Wearable technology — also known simply as "wearables" — includes devices people wear to monitor key health metrics, including core body and skin temperatures, exertion and heart rate, step counts and even fall and impact detection.

Other related health monitors — sometimes called “nearables" — can be placed around workplaces to detect high levels of toxic gases, particulate matter, emissions and other hazards.

These devices link to software platforms, enabling the power to issue real-time alerts for people in distress while implementing long-term strategies that advance the mental health and well-being of the construction workforce.

What can wearables achieve on a construction site?

Heath-monitoring wearables — and nearby nearables — produce many opportunities to detect patterns that can improve safety outcomes not just for individual workers, but whole sites and even across projects.

In the U.S., heat is the number-one cause of weather-related deaths and a major justification for OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention Campaign.

Currently, construction leaders are paying close attention to safety wearables that detect excess heat exposure, as rising temperatures cause 23 million injuries a year globally — and cost $361 billion worldwide, according to the International Labour Organization.

Beyond heat, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics attributed 200 of 1,075 construction-industry deaths in 2023 to “exposure to harmful substances and environments.”

These environmental hazards are on the radar of monitors that sense excess noise, chemical and radiation exposure, vibration, and particulate matter exposure.

Together, wearables and monitors raise awareness of acute conditions demanding immediate, lifesaving intervention, as well as conditions with long-term consequences, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

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Environmental safety and productivity: A correlation

Beyond the physical safety of the wearer, wearables offer a solution to boost the productivity of the existing workforce and skilled labor.

While the jobsite productivity’s multifaceted nature makes measurement challenging, a study of Nicaraguan workers with the sole job of cutting sugarcane demonstrated the value of data-backed policies to relieve heat stress.

In the blistering heat, a structured rest-shade-hydration-hygiene (RSHH) program enhanced their productivity, as quantified by cutting more sugarcane, while delivering ROI of $1.60 for every $1 invested through higher productivity, lower absenteeism, and better health.

Additionally, a study published in Nature Cities found that heat stress causes productivity losses of 29 percent to 41 percent on construction jobsites, not only dragging down output due to fatigue and loss of concentration but also risking “acute fatal outcomes.”

Wearables surface the unseen, and unseeable, conditions that impact productivity, such as workers running a temperature or verging on exhaustion.

Many workers will suppress their health struggles or not report safety incidents for fear of losing their job or a paycheck. Such nonreporting puts individuals at risk while also skewing incident reports.

While privacy concerns remain obstacles to the adoption of wearables, the objections often come from employers who assume that their employees would balk. In reality, the technology can encourage individuals to adopt positive behavior change while also anonymizing the aggregate data collected.

They are likelier to think proactively about their health decisions, such as choosing water over energy drinks, or avoiding alcohol in the late evenings because it raises their heart rate variability.

Through data-driven analysis, front-office and jobsite leaders can optimize work conditions and identify high-risk conditions. Their action plans can mitigate discoverable risks, such as first-shift workers experiencing excess mid-day heat loads or poor air quality.

Strategies for successfully implementing wearables

Adopting safety wearables and monitors doesn’t follow a one-size-fits-all model. Making inroads on productivity and safety depends on intentional data collection and analysis, with these elements in mind.

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  Collect custom data.

  Are workers struggling in the heat? Are they doing confined space entry? Is the region prone to poor air quality or wildfires? Each company can collect quality data addressing its unique challenges, extracting actionable insights for targeted interventions.

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  Track usage.

  As wearables are implemented, review the findings to determine whether wearers are proactively using the devices and which insights they appreciate. Feedback can reveal how users are changing their habits to manage personal well-being.

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  Investigate the anomalies.

  If there's a trend of heat stress spikes at 2 p.m. daily at a specific site, find out why. Visit the site, talk to employees, survey anonymously — and send bilingual safety managers to investigate conditions on the ground.

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  Develop incentives.

  Change management drives impact. Financial and other incentives to encourage use of wearables promote healthy and safe behaviors that elevate job performance.

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  Build linkages.

  When researching the wearables market, look for open-architecture options that integrate with construction management software, data analytics platforms, and ERP systems. Interoperability puts analysis in context, drawing connections from jobsite conditions to productivity metrics, human resources, and other internal cost centers..

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  Align subcontractors.

  Some owners are contractually obligating the use of wearables, pricing them into the job as they ripple down to subcontractors. As industry leaders, GCs can support specialty contractors who might lack the technology literacy needed to adopt and optimize wearables. In addition to paid enterprise solutions, the availability of free, construction-specific apps empowers individual workers to take control of their health.

Taking steps forward in productivity and safety

As extreme conditions alter the nature of jobsites and the construction industry prioritizes wellness, the connections between worker health, safety and productivity are becoming clear.

Wearables and monitors mold data into actionable form, generating productivity advantages while sustaining employers’ commitments to send every worker home safely when the day ends.

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