How Live Field Data Improves Jobsite Safety in a Pandemic and Beyond

Overview

In early 2020, the construction industry, which has consistently taken extensive measures to prevent workplace hazards and to ensure the safety of workers, confronted a new threat: protecting its workers from an infectious disease. Fortunately, the industry was used to a changing environment and quickly adapted. Safety measures such as increased health screenings, equipment cleaning, new protective equipment, limits on worker capacity at jobsites, and other physical distancing measures were implemented to decrease the transmission risk of COVID-19. Despite these efforts, COVID-19 remains a threat.

The spread of COVID-19 not only has negative impacts on the health, safety, and well-being of workers, their families, and the community at large, but it's also simply bad for business as it can strike randomly, wreaking havoc on schedules built around workforce and contractor management.

One solution that Deltek + ComputerEase customers have used to improve jobsite safety, ensure compliance with COVID-19 protocols, and manage overall risk and liability is WorkMax’s workforce management platform. Customers choose WorkMax for its robust integration with Deltek + ComputerEase using ConnectMax to keep data in sync. The WorkMax platform has one app (available on Android and iOS) with three easy-to-use solutions for TIME, FORMS, and ASSETS. WorkMax connects teams, captures live field data, and allows leaders to manage and inform their workforce from any device, anywhere at any time. So, how can WorkMax keep workers safe and projects on track? Let’s find out.

Fever. Cough. Chills. Headache. Nausea. Loss of taste and smell. Varying from mild to severe illness, there is a wide range of symptoms recorded for COVID-19. It’s critical for companies to track and record their workers’ potential COVID-19 symptoms to prevent illness from spreading on a jobsite.

What is the first thing workers do when arriving at a job? They clock in. Utilizing WorkMax TIME, employees can clock in with their location and identity verified by GPS and biometric identification. Once clocked in, WorkMax FORMS presents the employee with a customized questionnaire to ensure compliance with company, state, and local regulations.

Information from the app is synced with Deltek + ComputerEase ensuring that you have accurate timesheets (to the minute) reflected within your accounting solution that can verify location and identity with certainty. This eliminates buddy punching and gives you accurate insights into your workforce deployment.

Within the WorkMax platform, completed COVID-19 screening forms can be automatically sent to supervisors and managers to determine the safest path forward should a worker present COVID-19 symptoms. WorkMax’s workforce management platform also allows supervisors and managers to quickly see which on-site workers performed similar tasks on a project. In the event a worker tests positive for COVID-19, this can help determine which workers may have had potential exposure to COVID-19. This will allow leaders to take the necessary safety precautions to ensure the health and safety of all their employees.

For COVID-19 contact tracing, it’s critical to know who is on your jobsite. WorkMax utilizes facial recognition to compare an employee’s profile image with their clock in/out photo and alerts supervisors and payroll administrators of any discrepancies so that you can confidently know who is on your jobsite. To take it to the next level, WorkMax has GPS and geo-fence confirmation tracking to tell you where employees are physically at when they clock in, clock out, or change tasks. Not only does the face recognition and GPS tracking capability practically eliminate time theft and buddy punching, it has become a crucial tool during the pandemic to assist with accurate and reliable contact tracing.

For those concerned with maintaining the proper social distance and the potential transmission of COVID-19 on shared mobile devices to track time, there’s no need to worry about that with WorkMax. Supervisors can use WorkMax’s rear-facing camera to clock employees in on a mobile device while still maintaining a safe, 6-foot-plus distance and gathering the facial recognition data needed to ensure accuracy. 

One constant of the pandemic has been change. With ever-shifting guidance being handed down from lawmakers and regulatory agencies, it is critical employers have the ability to share the latest COVID-19 safety and training information as quickly, efficiently, and safely as possible.

WorkMax allows companies to directly link training videos embedded in the cloud-based forms that can be accessed by every employee, at any time, and on any device. This means employees can quickly share COVID-19 developments and deploy training videos on specific safety procedures. The mobile form’s digital signature is captured confirming they viewed the training and provides the employer the compliance documentation required by various regulatory agencies.

Supervisors and safety managers can see all of the completed training forms for each employee and can receive the forms each time an employee completes a safety training. In addition, workers also have the opportunity to easily ask questions and give feedback on training and procedures.

As the construction industry looks to the rest of 2021 and beyond, leaders can utilize WorkMax to collect and share live field data in real time to prevent the spread of COVID-19. For more information on WorkMax TIME, WorkMax FORMS, or WorkMax ASSETS, visit us on the Deltek Marketplace.