Insights from the field:

We know daily planning conversations between frontline leaders and those closest to the work are the most accessible and cost-effective tools to activate a strong safety culture. We’ve reached out to SmartTagIt users in the field for the strategies they’ve used to get immediate, measurable improvements from these interactions. Their advice is safety gold.

Ben Jackman / BMWC Constructors, Indiana
  • Make a list of what the day will look like and assign each person a task to discuss.
  • Knowing that the video will be viewed by superiors will allow you to show you are working hard to get folks engaged.
Bobby Holman / DPR Construction, California
  • Recognize folks/workers who you would like others to emulate.
  • Give folks something to strive for/make friendly competition.
Ceferino Rodriguez / H&G Systems, Texas
  • Allow the workers to lead the safety planning conversation.
Chris Jennings / H&G Systems, Texas
  • Break up the monotony. Keep it simple and fun, but to the point.
David Hernandez / Structure Tone Southwest, Texas
  • Sincere acknowledgement of good work to show you care. Check in on workers throughout the day and compliment them on their work.
  • Speak to the workers in a way that you are here to HELP them.
David Rivera / Pepper Construction, Indiana
  • Realize the level of freedom that SmartTagIt provides.
  • Get everyone to look for specific hazards, get everyone to understand that safety is everyone’s responsibility.

Realizing Gains—How long does it take?

We wanted to know how long it takes to see a return on investment after field leaders begin to incorporate some of these tactics into their crew interactions. To be honest, we were a little shocked at the results.

Using data from 500+ crew leaders who use SmartTagIt to record their planning talks, we compared the quality of conversations in the first recording to the quality in the 14th. Of these users, 63% had better conversations after just a few weeks of use. 

Consider how powerful the impact of this can be: When done well, daily planning conversations are linked to greater production, on-time delivery, better employee retention, less rework, and far fewer accidents and injuries.

How we did our analysis

FactorLab’s machine learning model is able to objectively score conversations captured in videos uploaded via the SmartTagIt app. Developed together with researchers at the University at Buffalo, the model creates a composite score based on a set of seven mutually reinforcing components of every planning conversation. While it isn’t necessary to be great at all of them, improvements in one or more impacts performance in the others.

What good conversations look like:

Stay tuned: What about the 37% of users in our analysis who took longer to see improved conversations? In a future post we’ll be learning more about the barriers they may be experiencing and exploring ways to work with them in new ways.