Simple change needed to reduce workplace fatalities

Every single fatality in the workplace is a tragedy, which makes the recent figures released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) particularly stark: of the 138 workers killed in work-related accidents in 2023/24, 51 were in Construction, nearly twice as many as many as the 23 fatalities in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, the second worst sector. The numbers are also trending in the wrong direction, with 29 fatalities in 2021/22 and 47 in 2022/23.

The highest causes continue to be falls from height, struck by moving vehicles and struck by moving objects, which between them account for 70% of all fatal injuries. This highlights how we are not learning from previous mistakes.

The industry continues to suffer from “temporary learning”, where we often plaster over the cracks and give a safety briefing without tackling the systematic and cultural issues that contribute to an incident in the first place.

The good news is that changing from temporary to permanent learning is possible, and we have the tools with which to achieve this. Some of these changes are easier to implement on a company-by-company basis, while others require a broader industry change.

Company level challenges

A lessons learnt briefing for example might stick with some people forever, however most people will forget the content at some stage, while employees may join after and could miss out on the learnings it provided if not properly trained. Instead, it is important to change how we operate to permanently design the risks out as much as possible.

We can do this by taking time to understand the root cause(s) of high potential events and tackling those root cause(s) at source. Actions required must directly address the root causes and must then be embedded as business as usual. This will move us from a place of delivering a TBT or updating a RAMS document, to actually addressing the things that will make a difference in reducing or eliminating risk (permanent learning). 

Construction is full of high-risk and complex activities, but the majority of workplace incidents are caused by the absence of basic controls, especially when looking to prevent staff falling from height or being struck by a vehicle.

It is incredibly frustrating when a fatality investigation brings up again how such basic things could have stopped the event happening. None of its massively complicated and the simple steps can be the difference between life and death.

Behaviour is often blamed as the root cause of an accident, but I believe behaviour is the output of the environment you create. Creating an environment for people to work safely and to speak up can be the difference between life and death. The simple message that everyone can play their part is really important.

Industry level challenges 

But creating this environment has become increasingly challenging in recent years, due to factors that may be outside of one company’s control such as internal and external financial instability. The cost-of-living crisis is impacting us all, while more construction companies are also going bust, meaning margins are becoming tighter. This results in a sector that is high-risk and low reward, which can in turn encourage people to cut corners. The skills shortage is also a contributor, as skilled staff leaving the sector creates a knowledge gap.

To fix these wider challenges, we as a country need to find a way to stabilise the industry or it is likely the statistics will stagnate, or worse, continue to rise. I love this industry that we work in; construction is a wonderfully diverse industry, full of opportunities, but there's no doubt we must improve. 

Mental health

While the fatality stats are shocking, we must also remember that the physical health statistics should not be read in isolation from the industry’s mental health challenges. Physical and mental health go hand-in-hand, and our suicide rates are among the highest in the UK, averaging approximately two suicides a day in the construction industry.

We've come a long way when it when it comes to mental health and construction, but most of the measures we take are reactive, such as providing counselling if a staff member is at their wits end. We need to move towards a place of implementing proactive controls to reduce or remove the triggers that create poor mental health in the first place.

These may include the way we pay people, the weeks away from home, the long hours or the lack of job security due to zero-hour contracts. There are so many things the industry could do differently to create an environment where mental health can thrive. 

Changing culture 

What can we do to create environments for people to succeed and work safely? The Cycle of Success model that I developed may help people with this:

Competence

• take time to plan your works and make sure that you have enough time and resource to do it safely
• make sure you have the right people involved in planning and carrying out the works
• competence is defined as skills, training, experience and attitude

Process

• make processes simple and easy to follow
• only do things that add value

Culture

• senior management needs to show that H&S is important to them. This will then cascade to everyone else in the organisation. Leadership tours are a good way to show visible leadership
• promote a positive, open culture where people can speak up about things that aren’t right, which will allow you to learn as an organisation
• targets like Zero Harm can often drive a culture of under reporting, and you can’t fix a secret
• build trust with your workforce by engaging with them and acting on or feeding back to them regularly

Compliance

• check that what you have agreed to is actually happening. Regular audits and inspections are a good way of doing this
• ask yourself, is how you think you are performing actually how you are performing and how do you know?

Learning

• take time to understand why things go well and why they don’t, don’t paper over the cracks
• try to avoid temporary learning and adopt permanent learning methods to embed learning and reduce or eliminate the likelihood of the same thing happening again. Permanent learning methods include building learning into the way you work, rather than just relying on a briefing to change future events.