Safety has changed dramatically in the construction industry in the past century. If we journey back 100 years, when the Empire State Building was constructed, we would have seen a very different construction jobsite. Men would have been hanging off the top of the structure with little to no harness and would have been more likely to wear newsboy caps than hard hats. Today, we can’t enter a jobsite without the right PPE (personal protective equipment).

And yet there is still a perception that construction is an unsafe industry to work in. If you have been listening to The Peggy Smedley Show podcast, then you know a Dodge Construction Network survey found safety ranked first by a large margin among the concerns that discourage people from considering a career in the construction industry. However, contractors who are already in the industry rank safety concerns a distant eighth among the factors that they believe prevent people from joining the industry. There is a rather large discrepancy there.

Still, what we can take away from all of this is a contractor’s commitment to safety needs to be given high priority if they want to recruit new workers to the industry and make it attractive to young and new talent. If they are not addressed, safety concerns could discourage about two thirds of people from joining the industry—something the construction industry simply can’t afford.

A New Perspective on Safety

Although there is a new perspective we must also consider. Interestingly, safety isn’t just a physical concern anymore. Rather, people are concerned about safety as it relates to stress, burnout, fear, and disconnect. An EMCI Wireless survey of 1,000 American workers digs into this. Let’s take a closer look at a few safety concerns that aren’t necessarily physical.

Stress: The survey has uncovered that 43% of workers have taken time off due to stress. Gen Z, in particular, struggles with this, with one in four reporting they have quit due to concerns.

Words: More than half of workers have witnessed hostile verbal conflicts at work within the past year, and 25% of those surveyed were involved.

Burnout: 63% have considered quitting due to burnout at least monthly and 45% say safety concerns distract them weekly. Certainly, this is different for different generations. 

Another challenge is workers aren’t confident other workers or leaders would protect them in a true emergency. Roughly 84% know their workplace has an emergency plan, but just 55% understand it clearly.

What Can Be Done?

Workplace safety is part of workplace culture. For eons, there wasn’t a culture of safety in the construction industry, and now we are truly beginning to see one emerge—at least as it relates to physical safety. Of course, there are always more steps we can take to ensure a safer workplace in a new age of work.

Here are a few ideas:

• A safety strategy must address both physical and psychological dangers. This means measuring and identifying burnout, stress, and mental health in addition to physical hazards.
• Companies must come forward with a plan—and they must communicate it to their workers. Workers must understand the plan and believe it.
• Leadership must embed safety into the very culture of the workplace. It isn’t a separate piece for a separate leader or a separate team. It is foundational to the core of the business. Key to this is trust. People must feel comfortable speaking up and leaders must listen.

In 2025, there is more than one layer of safety to consider in the construction industry. Hard hats and jobsite safety are key and foundational but so is ensuring the hearts and minds of workers.

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