8 Ways How Checklists Improve Construction Safety

by Olivia Wilson Content Writer

A construction checklist is basically a list of standardized steps, created especially for repetitive tasks and is a key elements of construction safety. These checklists let project managers to connect critical elements of a construction project, describing activity-specific information as well as different project phases. A construction inspection checklist aids in classifying and assessing specific materials, items, tasks, equipment and much more carefully.

A recent report from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) revealed that 20% of the 5,333 workers that died on the job in 2019 were in the construction industry. In the UK, the fatal injury rate in the construction sector (1.62 per 100,000 workers) is around 4 times the all industry rate.

The majority of construction industry workforce make use of manual checklists to enhance construction safety. Manual inspection processes are cumbersome and time-consuming. They are also susceptible to many human errors, which explains the high rate of workplace injuries and fatalities in the construction industry.

Digital checklists are an excellent solution to enhancing construction safety. Project managers who have already switched a checklist applications, are experiencing better team agility and productivity, in addition to realising health and safety benefits. When a checklist app in your mobile device or smartphone becomes your go-to checklist tool, all the necessary information and records you require are just a few taps away.

There are several apparent advantages of using a mobile device-based digital checklist application that helps you manage and maintain your work site.

1. Easily Create Customised and Standardised Checklists: A great checklist application lets you prepare and handle lists as well as workflows. You may have detailed lists and sub-lists with different iterations and versions on the basis of your specific needs. You can also have customised checklists and you can standardise a few based on your project’s needs. Standardisation and customisation helps you avoid any possibility of task duplication, concentrate on the ultimate goal and meet first-time quality consistently.

2. Oversee Complicated Projects: Big construction projects are sophisticated as well as lengthy. Handling a notebook-based checklist with numerous items is perhaps not the best approach to managing a sizeable project. Using a digital checklist application, you can create a list of any required length without compromising on mobility and usability.

3. Detailed and Fast Audits: Maintaining and ensuring the team's health and safety is a challenging task, particularly at a construction site. A single incidence of injury or fatality is may not be too concerning, but ensuring construction safety requires dedication and attention. With a digital checklist tool, you can carry out regular audits quickly which makes sure that nothing goes undetected ever. Moreover, it will allow you to keep the whole team and key project stakeholders updated all the time, on the risk and possible issues without losing them in huge piles of documents.

4. Templates: Most checklist apps come equipped with checklist templates that allow you to get started with inspections immediately. The most advanced versions come with sizeable template libraries, developed by experienced project managers that can be used as a beginning point for the construction project. In addition to saving you a lot of time, these help you capitalise on the knowledge of expert project managers while creating your own construction checklists.

5. Paperless Approach: In today’s digital era, going paperless is great for any business. Many green building construction projects need their contractors to use digital tools, which helps minimise their carbon footprint. The global green building materials market is estimated to reach £280 billion by 2022. That means, if you want to maximise on this opportunity, a checklist application can aid you in going paperless. Apart from helping you get the prospective business, going paperless enables you company to become more efficient. You may no longer require keeping track of each checklist form. Moreover, you can complete your on-site inspection without the need for sorting and organising paperwork at the end of the day.

6. Smooth Collaboration: Paper checklists make the process of collaborating with your project stakeholders and team members tedious and challenging. When you use a checklist application, you can involve everyone, exchange ideas and make remarks in real-time. This also allows for faster information flow, eventually improving construction safety and the overall quality of your project.

7. Real-Time Data Collection: Access to real-time data at a construction site is critical to achieving first-time quality. A great checklist application makes this possible by saving the data to the cloud and making it instantly accessible by team members. This feature aids project supervisors in taking corrective steps without any delay.

8. Collect, Annotate and Markup Pictures: Finally, a good checklist app collects, annotates, and marks-up pictures. You can simply click real-time photographs using your smartphone and further add them to your inspection report. You will no longer require carrying around a standalone camera with you, downloading those pictures to a desktop computer, and send them over emails to the relevant project teams. Image annotations bring depth and clarity to your inspection reports, which ensures that every person involved in the project understands all references.

Improving Construction Safety with Construction Management Software

Safety is the top priority of any construction project. Workers required to be protected from all potential risks of getting injured, and a digital checklist solution is the key element of the best practice to enhance safety.

If you want to switch from paper checklists to a digital solution, consider having an advanced construction management software that usually come with all the benefits discussed above and much more. Nearly all of the best commissioning validation services in the UK are now paperless, and are using construction management software and commissioning management software to improve quality, efficiency and safety.

These checklists are typically pre-loaded with hundreds of field-specific checklists, ready be used and customised. The software comes with everything you may think you would need to carry out high-quality inspections in the most efficient and accurate manner. There are ready-to-be-used checklists for all kinds of general construction activities and tasks as well as dedicated lists for specialty construction jobs. They also come with ready-to-modify forms to have personalised checklists and multiple specialised checkpoint formats.