If you’re in building and construction, you’ll know safety is the first priority. Many companies in this industry are turning to cutting-edge technologies to protect their workers. So it only makes sense for the largest Workers Compensation Scheme in Australia and the world’s fastest-growing operations platform to join forces. icare recently partnered up with SafetyCulture to launch a six-month pilot program aiming to improve safety and efficiency for building and construction companies.
Navigating industry dangers
Working in building and construction comes with many potential risks and challenges, such as falls, electrical shock, and heavy machinery incidents. Despite safety regulations and best practices, the unpredictable nature of these work sites adds additional complexity to mitigating these risks.
icare has been working on various health and safety initiatives across the state. It has called on SafetyCulture to help improve the safety and health of its frontline workers.
The sobering reality is that over the past five years, there’s been a 20% increase in workplace injuries for small businesses in NSW construction. This partnership aims to offer a proactive approach in making safety attainable – meanwhile, saving businesses time and money is a bonus. Tackling these industry-specific challenges requires an all-around commitment to safety training, strict standards, and the continuous improvement of safety practices.
Did you know? 64% of workers believe that some workplace injuries could have been prevented if they had received better training. That includes 10% who say that all injuries were preventable with the right training. Read more in our latest report, 'Feedback from the Field: Room for Improvement'.
Building a better path forward
In response to the pressing need for safer and more efficient workplaces, 100 icare customers who are NSW small businesses from the construction industry were offered a free premium-level trial of SafetyCulture’s workplace operations platform. This initiative aimed to not only meet legal requirements for worker health and safety, but also to make risk management a proactive – rather than reactive – component of business operations.
Through this pilot program, the SafetyCulture platform offers to help building and construction companies:
Meet legal requirements for frontline worker health and safety
Create safer, healthier, and more productive job sites
Enable managers to complete and document work health and safety-related activities with ease
Our user-friendly platform can help streamline business operations through our mobile app (which is pre-populated with an array of industry-specific safety inspection checklist templates). It can also provide workers with online work health and safety training – including risk assessment, pre-start checks, job safety analysis, daily site safety audits, and contractor management. It also has training courses on manual handling, safety standards on machinery, and more.
Initial impact of the pilot program
A couple of months into the pilot program, it’s early days yet, but there have already been some improvements for customers – from plumbing and design, to fire and electrical protection businesses. Early adopters of the program noted SafetyCulture’s comprehensive training, streamlined onboarding process, time-saving audit system, and improved communication channels.
Here is just some of the positive feedback from the businesses:
“I need these for all my large contracts. Now I can show them I do have an audit system in place.”
“So I can communicate to everyone at once – that is awesome.” (About Heads Up, our internal communications feature.)
“This is amazing. It will be great for rolling out toolbox talks and training new starters. Often we onboard new starters six weeks before, but this is a game changer, and will reduce time to onboard.”
icare's collaboration with SafetyCulture is just the beginning of creating a better way of working for frontline workers across NSW. As the pilot program unfolds, SafetyCulture and icare teams are excited about creating safer and more resilient work environments for workers in building and construction – and beyond.
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