THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Construction firms around the world all agree: safety is a number one priority on the jobsite. Yet, the latest data from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation reveals that more than one in five construction workers globally (22%) have experienced injury at work in the last two years.
The numbers are revealing, but they are not just statistics. They represent preventable tragedies, often caused by missed signals, blind spots, and slow reactions on dynamic and fast-moving job sites. So how do we prevent these hazards?
The answer is simple. Advanced technologies, like real-time proximity detection, smart wearables, and geofencing, are transforming construction health and safety.
These solutions provide real-time sensing and alert, reducing safety risks on site and providing teams with the awareness, visibility, and control needed to prevent serious incidents in the future.
The benefits of these technologies are well reported, but the construction industry remains slow to adopt. Misconceptions around return on investment (ROI), complicated implementation, and organisational challenges are making businesses hesitant.
Misconceptions are hindering construction safety
The construction industry has modernised significantly in the last decade. Advanced technologies, like drones and autonomous solutions, have become part of the everyday workflow for forward-looking companies.
Yet more broadly, the mindset remains rooted in tradition. This is understandable given the basic challenges and objectives of a construction company remain unchanged. How can companies build as efficiently, profitably, and safely as possible with a tight budget and many moving parts?
As a result, one of the most common misconceptions about safety technology is that it might slow down productivity. This also makes construction professionals reluctant to adopt anything if they think it will overly complicate the way their team works on a jobsite every day.
Traditionally, many industries have struggled to balance safety requirements with productivity goals. It is a similar story with emission-saving technologies; many construction companies want to show they are doing what they can for the environment, but when it might hurt production, it makes a harder case for adopting green technologies.
Addressing safety not only improves the experience of the employee but reinforces a construction firm’s ongoing commitment to its people. It also spotlights itself against competitors during a time when talent shortages and budget cuts threaten stability.
Proving productivity and ROI
For senior construction professionals, demonstrating how these solutions not only greatly increase safety, but also productivity and profitability, is essential for reducing resistance.
For example, not prioritising safety has a financial and reputational cost, not just a human one. In the U.S. construction industry alone, $10.7 billion a year is spent on serious, non-fatal workplace injuries. However, many companies still focus on the upfront costs instead of long-term savings from fewer incidents, lower insurance premiums, and reduced downtime. There will always be an element of risk in the business, but understanding what is causing these risks and having the right controls in place to stop them protects the people, the company’s reputation, and the bottom line.
a year is spent on serious, non-fatal workplace injuries in the U.S. construction industry alone
It’s no longer a choice between safety and efficiency
Safety awareness solutions should first and foremost keep the workforce safe, while also supporting the efficiency, productivity, and reputation of a company.
Our portfolio of safety awareness solutions combines state-of-the-art sensors, cameras, autonomous technologies, and AI to provide a comprehensive safety ecosystem that not only prevents accidents but also enables continuous improvements, cuts costs, streamlines workflows, and keeps projects on track.
The most recent addition to the portfolio, the Leica Xsight360, instantly identifies potential hazards, alerting operators and workers to prevent accidents and near-misses. Additionally, health and safety managers benefit from its AI-driven incident auditing and reporting, which supports the development of proactive and impactful safety strategies to ensure efficiency in the future.
At their core, these solutions address the inherent dangers of construction sites: heavy traffic, large equipment, poor visibility, blind spots. They make the operator’s work safer, but they also make the company’s life easier thanks to reduced rework and project disruption and fewer unforeseen legal costs.
For example, Mercantec in Denmark reported that their personal alert systems not only enhance workers’ safety but also let them concentrate on site-designated tasks more fully, rather than be distracted by possible hazards, increasing overall efficiency on a project.
Minding the gap – the UK leads the way in safety
When it comes to an industry-first approach, the UK has set a trailblazing example, where there is a very mature safety market.
A leading UK tier-one contractor and partner of Leica Geosystems has pioneered an industry-driven approach to safety technology adoption, demonstrating how internal leadership can accelerate change more than government regulations alone.
Over a four-year period, the company undertook a vendor-neutral trial of different safety technologies put to work across multiple sites and use-cases. The feedback from this resulted in benchmark standards for system performance and safety requirements for each task.
This process involved listing a variety of different machines according to their specific detection zones and coverage needs, based on the specificities of that machine, for example its blind spots. Suppliers then had to complete a series of tests to verify that their technology was compliant to these specifications and therefore could deliver in terms of accuracy and performance on the machine and in the cloud.
As a result, the contractor company has set a company-wide mandate requiring specific safety technologies on all machines from 2026, providing clear expectations and sufficient lead time for compliance.
Their approach influenced plant suppliers, other tier-one companies, and joint venture partners, creating sector-wide ripple effects.
The benchmark-based, supplier-neutral framework ensures competition while driving standards up across the sector, creating sustainable and achievable change that benefits the entire construction ecosystem without stifling innovation.
The path ahead
Construction companies face mounting pressures: rising safety incidents, talent shortages, tightening budgets, and increasing regulatory scrutiny. Safety technologies offer comprehensive solutions to these interconnected challenges. These technologies don't just save lives, they deliver measurable business value through reduced downtime, lower insurance costs, and improved productivity.
The industry-led model demonstrates an effective path forward. When tier-one contractors champion safety technology through systematic implementation and benchmark standards, they create sector-wide transformation that benefits entire supply chains.
Embracing safety technology first and foremost protects workers. But it crucially gives companies a competitive advantage, strengthening the bottom line and improving productivity. The technology exists to solve construction’s most critical challenges. The question is when, not if, to implement it.
Find out more about the importance of investing in safety technology and how the latest innovations in the field are revolutionising construction safety: White Paper: Mitigating struck-by and caught-in or between hazards on construction sites | Leica Geosystems
