Safety meetings in the construction industry: How to re-energize them?

I - Some figures

The construction sector is highly exposed to risks

1 employee out of 18 suffers a work accident per year, i.e. 1 work accident every 2 minutes.

In 2018, across all sectors, the construction sector accounted for approximately :

• 14% of the accidents at work
• 5% of commuting accidents
• 15% of occupational diseases

In 2018, the number of work accidents in the construction industry increased: there were 88,531 work accidents (+1.9%).

The main causes of accidents were unchanged: manual handling (48%), falls from height and level (31%) and hand tools (15%).

II - What is the purpose of the safety meeting and who does it concern?

Safety briefings involve both new arrivals and new work sites. They are essential to ensure safety and understanding of the rules for all employees.

In the building and public works sector, the age of the employee does not significantly differentiate accidents from those in other sectors. In the building and public works sector, 14 to 24 year olds account for 11% of cases, 25 to 44 year olds 49%, 45 to 64 year olds 39% and those over 65 less than 1%.

Therefore, a new entrant does not necessarily mean a young or new/inexperienced employee but rather refers to anyone new to the industry or simply new to a position. 

The challenges that any employee will face are the same: knowing the safety rules, becoming familiar with a new environment, new tools, knowing the potential hazards and the best practices to adopt. A well-trained employee is a well-prepared employee and therefore safer.

III - What does the regulation say?

The law requires company managers to ensure the safety and protect the health of workers, in particular through information and training (art. L.4121-1) and on the basis of the general principles of prevention (PGP) (art. L.4121-2).

The Labor Code provides for specific provisions on safety information and training for all workers (art. L.4141-1 et seq.) but also for workers on fixed-term contracts and temporary workers (art. L.4142-2).

III - How do you achieve engaging safety meetings?

Safety issues remain a constant concern in a sector marked by a high proportion of accidents.  Therefore, there is a step to be taken to create a "safety culture" and safety training sessions are one of the effective measures to contribute to this. 

In order to conduct your safety briefing in such a way that the employee is an actor of the training rather than a spectator of the lesson, you can use immersive learning methods that work both on site and remotely.

With Immersive Factory you can enjoy a safety meeting animation on the virtual campus where each of your employees can move around in different spaces thanks to their personalized avatar. 

With access to a wide range of over 50 HSE workshops co-developed with leading industrial groups, your safety briefings will be dynamic and engage 100% of your employees, changing from the paper and pen and passive listening routine. Our exercises available in multi-devices (PC, VR & VR standalone) are based on immersive learning for a better retention and learning to reduce accidents in a concrete way.

Test the virtual campus 

With Immersive Factory, adopt an innovative solution to stay ahead of the competition while contributing to the implementation of a safety culture in your company and more broadly in your industry thanks to an easy-to-deploy tool.

Our innovative solution uses gamification & edutainment to re-motivate and re-engage employees, making them happier while ensuring their safety.

Thanks to our customizable tool, you can ensure the consistency of each site's actions on a single, multi-device tool, allowing each learner to train safely, wherever they are. The intuitive back office and real-time access to key performance indicators (KPIs) allows for constant monitoring of team efforts and achievements.

If you would like to learn more, contact us at contact@immersivefactory.com or book a demo with our customer success manager.