Raising site standards can create a high-performance construction workforce

Competency is often taken for granted. It is assumed all too often that everyone who turns up at a construction site is legitimately qualified to be there, but with issues such as modern slavery as prevalent as ever we know this isn’t always the case. As the industry continues to evolve, can we still rely on top-down enforcement to create operational efficiency?

Industry-wide standardisation is key when it comes to pulling together productive workforces and safe construction sites. However, in an industry which employs more than two million people, creating and meeting this benchmark can feel like an almost impossible task.

What are the current standards, are we meeting them and what are the next steps towards going above and beyond?

Traditionally, standards have been introduced in the form of regulation. Dating back many years, legislation has been put in place by regulatory bodies in an effort to standardise the way the construction industry functions and crack down on issues such as modern slavery and health and safety. Examples of this include Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 which are, in part, enforced by Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Issues with regulation arise when it comes to interpretation and enforcement. With many seeing it as red tape, it is not applied the same way to all sites across the board. Legislation also takes a long time to put in place or update, resulting in the construction industry evolving at a very slow pace.

While regulation often feels like it tells you what you can’t do, accreditation lets others know what you can. It has become fundamental in ensuring best practice, quality and efficiency across the whole sector by testing, measuring, inspecting and certifying everything from raw materials and building products to professional services. Accreditation body UKAS is recognised by the government to assess against national and international standards, measuring everyone and everything against the same yardstick and increasing reliability. In comparison to regulation, accreditation also allows the industry to adapt more quickly by creating certifications as and when new ways of working, such as BIM, arise.

The job of juggling this plethora of guidance falls to contractors, under the guise of tasks such as risk management, health and safety, and reporting. Using risk management as an example, it is ultimately the case that if you can identify, monitor and mitigate risks, you will have a safer, more compliant and productive construction site.

With such a multi-faceted job, efficiency is also key. In this context, efficiency does not relate to the speed at which we work – although keeping projects running on time is its own challenge – but instead finding ways to be as cost effective as possible while maintaining productivity and quality of work. Data has become paramount to this process, both in terms of collection and centralisation, to monitor project progress and create accurate reports. The issue up until now has been concerning how to store this data, but with the industry becoming increasingly digitally minded we no longer need to rely on putting pen to paper.

The nature of regulation and accreditation means that many will see their enforcement as being entirely top-down, ultimately being the responsibility of regulatory bodies and filtering down to the likes of main contractors and site managers. This may be where we’re going wrong as an industry. The workforce themselves can play a huge role in establishing and maintaining standards, and encouraging digital transformation, as the ones on the ground day in day out. By embracing digital solutions such as ours they take responsibility for their own worker journey and hold themselves accountable for remaining competent and compliant.

Contactors are constantly seeking the most qualified and competent people to work on their sites, but how do we judge competence man to man or woman to woman? With unqualified workers being such a risk to themselves, for other workers and projects as a whole it is essential that we are able to accurately and efficiently vet workers before they step on site. This is where our enhanced contractor vetting comes in. Using an online portal we can check, capture and store right to work documents and accreditations on a role specific basis, replacing and updating documents when needed as qualifications change. 

Find out more about our enhanced contractor vetting solution here or contact us for a personalised consultation. Alternatively, explore how our full range of pre-site, on-site and in-site solutions can help you raise site standards.