Incident management in construction is one of those taboo things that construction project managers hate to think about. However, it’s critical, what with an industry-wide health and safety track record for being the industry with the most workplace deaths. ⁽¹⁾

Imagine making incidents easier to prevent, report, and manage. I don’t want to overpromise, but in my experience, that is exactly what you get when you implement a robust incident (and inspection) documentation and management solution like 1st Reporting.

In this article, I’m going to share with you my experiences of managing incidents in construction-related scenarios. With over two decades of managing these sorts of events under my belt, I’ve got a few tips I’d love to share with you to help make your job of managing that much easier (and hopefully less stressful).

Understanding Incident Management for Construction

Due to construction site hazards, whether conditional, equipment-based, or material-moving, there are seemingly endless possibilities for hazards and risks. With that said, let’s define the basics so we’re on the same page when we dive deeper into the subject.

What is Incident Management for Construction?

Incident management refers to the systematic process of identifying, assessing, responding to, and resolving incidents or disruptions within a construction project. These incidents can range from technical failures and security breaches to natural disasters and operational mishaps. The primary goal of incident management is to control and minimize the impact of these incidents on business operations, customer service, and overall productivity.

In the context of construction, incident management involves handling various types of incidents that occur during project execution, such as safety hazards, equipment failures, accidents, or any unexpected events that may disrupt workflow or pose risks to workers, property, or the environment.

It’s sort of like juggling while riding a bike: On the one hand, you want to ensure all workers are safe and there are no accidents; on the other hand, you need to coordinate work to get done quickly in order to facilitate project cost forecasts and deadlines.

Critical aspects of incident management in the construction and other industries include:

• Identification: Promptly identifying and documenting incidents as they occur or are reported by workers or stakeholders.
• Assessment: Evaluating the severity and potential consequences of incidents to determine the appropriate response and mitigation measures.
• Response: Implementing predefined procedures and protocols to address the incident effectively, including mobilizing resources, communicating with relevant stakeholders, and initiating corrective actions.
• Resolution: Take necessary actions to resolve the incident, restore normal construction project operations, and prevent similar incidents from recurring in the future.
• Documentation and Analysis: Documenting all aspects of the incident, including the response actions taken and lessons learned, for analysis and improvement of incident management processes.

Effective incident management is crucial for ensuring the safety of workers, minimizing project delays and disruptions, protecting assets and resources, and maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements. It involves coordination among various stakeholders, including project managers, supervisors, safety officers, and external authorities or agencies, to address incidents promptly and effectively.

Importance of Effective Incident Management

Through the act of implementing effective incident management at your construction sites, you improve your chances of avoiding:

• Safety risks and hazards 
• Team member injury or illness
• Delays or job shutdowns
• Increased operational costs and fines

To avoid, prevent, mitigate, and manage incidents and accidents effectively, you need a robust system to keep procedures in check and document incident observations and steps taken accordingly. However, managing said procedures will present a number of challenges. Next, I’ll address how we can best manage them.

Common Challenges in Construction Incident Management

When I worked with construction projects, I found there were a few things that tended to creep up as challenges to incident management:

• Communication Barriers—Communication in complex construction scenarios can pose a real challenge, especially when coordinating multiple trades, various subcontractors, team representatives, team leaders, and other stakeholders.
• Remote Crew Management – If you’re managing multiple construction sites, keeping on top of all your various teams, subs, and other contractors can be a real challenge, especially if you’re not on site all the time.
• Data Inconsistencies—One of the most common issues I faced when managing complex construction projects was data inconsistencies. Sometimes, equipment or materials arrive with a slight variation from what is expected. Furthermore, the paperwork may have been written poorly, as I’ll explain next.
• Poorly Managed Paperwork—When I say poorly managed paperwork, I don’t necessarily mean that you managed your paperwork appropriately. What I am referring to is paperwork completed by various contractors or even members of your own team who have problems writing legibly.
• Hidden Hazards – Construction sites have plenty of visible hazards, but some hazards are not visible, like mental health. According to the CDC, construction and extraction industries have the highest rate of suicides among all sectors. ⁽²⁾

How 1st Reporting Simplifies Incident Management for Construction

1st Reporting is a mobile application developed to help teams like yours stay organized. It tracks everything from work orders to site inspections, hazard analysis, or any other type of audit or incident. You can use it to track incidents like injuries, equipment failure, hot work permits, LOTO, and even PPE inspection.

The American Society of Safety Professionals recommends five things that managers in construction can do to improve safety: ⁽³⁾

1. Educate the Workforce—Upload equipment manuals, incident response procedures, and company SOPs to your employee ‘Handbook’ within the 1st Reporting dashboard. This will allow you to share training materials with your team members easily.
2. Look Out for Worker Well-Being – Ensure your team members communicate, completing regular check-ins with team leaders to ensure everyone’s well-being is considered and needs met. A healthy, happy workforce is achieved.
3. Understand the Project—In addition to understanding the nature and elements of the construction project, it’s critical that you ensure your team members, subcontractors, and others who come to the site understand the project. Ensure that those who don’t have a robust understanding of the project receive an on-site escort to ensure that they remain safe while on site.
4. Remember the Hierarchy of Controls—In my opinion, this one falls into the Educate the Workforce tip. That is, it is critical to remind all stakeholders on site of the hierarchy of controls. By reminding all involved about the order in which their efforts to neutralize hazards like stored energy are to be completed, you help your stakeholders achieve a higher degree of safety and understanding of hazards.
5. Employ Effective Safety Management—This last tip is more general in nature but true to the point. Ensure that your team members have all of the required safety equipment, training, and procedures to proceed with their responsibilities without endangering or risking the health and well-being of any team member or other individual.

With these tips in mind, let’s look at how the 1st Reporting features are helping construction teams like yours to dominate incident management challenges.

Mobile Documentation

1st Reporting empowers your team to complete inspections, audits, and incident reports from anywhere using their mobile devices. The app works seamlessly on Android and iOS mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Furthermore, it also works on Windows and Mac systems for laptops and desktop devices.

1st Reporting also has a powerful offline mode that enables your team members to complete forms and reports when not connected to a mobile data connection. Once their device re-acquires a connection to the cloud, the app automatically uploads the data input into the app to the secure cloud storage supported by ISO-certified 1st Reporting’s secure solutions.

Real-Time Access and Cloud Storage

1st Reporting uses secure cloud storage to ensure that your company’s data is secure. Simultaneously, our solutions also enable you to gain real-time access to forms and reports completed by your team members, empowering your team to have accurate real-time report collaboration.

GPS Tracking and Customizable Map Interface

The 1st Reporting app comes with report GPS integration, which logs both the time and location of report editing and submission. Using a customizable map display in your management dashboard, you have unprecedented insight into when and where report creation occurred.

Customizable Forms and Notifications

Customization is the name of the game, and no one plays better than 1st Reporting. The form builder/customizer in 1st is a powerful tool, mainly if you include the relationship element. The relationship element in the form builder lets you dynamically control which other reports are connected to or generated by your form. Coupled with an automated trigger customizable notification system, you’ve got a powerful process automation tool at your fingertips.

Critical Benefits of 1st Reporting for Construction Incident Management

There are plenty of benefits to using a mobile device to complete inspections and incident documentation. For one, you never have to worry about deciphering poor handwriting again. Nor do you have to worry about a lost or damaged report. Aside from these apparent benefits, there’s a few more that are noteworthy and worth consideration:

Improved Efficiency and Accountability

Dynamic linking and follow-up reports streamline operations using the relationship element in the form customizer. Furthermore, the added GPS integration of time, location, and user information helps to push accountability initiatives without any effort involved.

Faster Emergency Response Times

Customizable notifications (both trigger and message customizable) dramatically reduce response times. You can ensure the appropriate person receives notification to provide your clients with unprecedented incident response management.

Enhanced Data Accuracy and Accessibility

Accurate data collection and easy access improve decision-making and inter-team communications. The secure cloud storage makes access easy for your appointed team members. Furthermore, the forced field setting in the form customizer elements enables you to ensure you get the correct information you need from your field operatives.

Cost Savings and Risk Mitigation

Using a robust system like the 1st Reporting app results in cost savings and risk mitigation through better incident management. The increase in efficiency, coupled with the savings of incident prevention, makes using an app like 1st Reporting far more than just cost-effective; it makes it irreplaceably effective.

Implementing 1st Reporting in Your Construction Projects

By now, you must understand that using an app like 1st Reporting makes incident management for construction (and, in fact, all industries) easier and more cost-effective, and it enables much better response times. Through implementation, your team can realize a new level of efficiency in your operations. However, you might feel daunted by the task of integrating an app into your daily operations. Believe me when I tell you that it’s easier than you think, and once you get things underway, you’ll wish you’d switched sooner.

Steps to Get Started

Getting started with 1st Reporting is pretty straightforward; just follow these steps:

1. Choose a small test group to begin within your team.
2. Decide which incident, inspection, or other forms they will use the app to complete. Create those forms using the custom form builder in 1st Reporting.
3. Invite the test group to install 1st Reporting on their work smartphones or other devices.
4. Set up a brief training session to show your team how to use the app and complete the forms you want.
5. Ensure you have open channels for feedback communication from your test group. Their experience with the app on the ground will help you shape your integration process to suit your team better.
6. Invite subsequent groups to join and ensure you again collect feedback to improve app integration and training further.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 until all of your teams are using the app.

For a more detailed guide on how to integrate the 1st Reporting app, read our guide: Integrating Mobile Apps into Traditional Field Reporting Processes.

Simplifying Incident Management with 1st Reporting

Key Takeaways:

• The 1st Reporting app offers a comprehensive solution for incident management in construction, addressing common challenges and streamlining processes.
• By implementing 1st Reporting, construction teams can improve efficiency, enhance accountability, and mitigate risks effectively.

Empower your construction projects with the 1st Reporting app and revolutionize your incident management practices. Schedule a demo or try it yourself today and experience the difference firsthand.

Article Sources

1. “Most Dangerous Industries – Injury Facts.” 2023. Injury Facts. December 21, 2023. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/work/industry-incidence-rates/most-dangerous-industries/.
2. “CDC Archives.” 2024. Cdc.gov. 2024. https://archive.cdc.gov/#/details?url=https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p1115-Suicide-american-workers.html.
3. “5 Important Issues in Construction Safety.” 2019. American Society of Safety Professionals. 2019. https://www.assp.org/news-and-articles/five-important-issues-in-construction-safety.