
Duane Duhamel, director of health, safety and environment at ISN, provides insights on how construction businesses can leverage technology to boost safety on the jobsite in this Q&A.
IRONPROS: What makes implementing safety gear difficult during the summer and in high-temperature jobsites?
Duhamel: Implementing safety protective wear during summer and in high-temperature jobsites is challenging for several reasons. The heat obviously makes wearing personal protective equipment uncomfortable, leading to potential non-compliance. Workers may be tempted to remove or improperly use safety gear to cool off – examples like hard hats, fire retardant clothing, and safety glasses. Additionally, heat-related fatigue and impaired cognition can affect workers' judgment about using safety equipment properly. The influx of temporary workers during summer months compounds this issue, as they may be less familiar with safety protocols and proper protective equipment usage. Balancing the need for protection with comfort and heat management requires careful planning, proper equipment selection, and education to ensure workers use the equipment effectively in hot conditions.
IRONPROS: Wearing safety gear can get very uncomfortable in hot weather. How can businesses ensure safety gear is implemented properly when workers get uncomfortable?
Duhamel: Companies need to establish a heat illness prevention plan and ensure the information is accessible to all employees, especially in extreme weather conditions. It’s also the responsibility of worksite leaders to provide thorough heat safety training and enforce these safety protocols on-site. Project and site leaders should encourage frequent hydration and shade breaks, have accessible cool-down areas, be able to spot signs of exhausted or heat-affected workers and monitor for signs of employee discomfort.
Many times, heat safety issues boil down to an organization's safety culture and the employee-employer communication dynamic. While conducting risk assessments for heat exposure and having a comprehensive, documented strategy are good steps toward ensuring safety is ingrained in a company’s culture, workers who bear the brunt of the risk daily should be empowered to voice their concerns. Leaders should have an open line of communication when it comes to employee concerns so they’re comfortable speaking up before an incident occurs.
IRONPROS: What is the role of technology in improving safety gear training?
Duhamel: Technology gives organizations more visibility into data and historical patterns needed to make critical decisions when it comes to safety and training protocols. When compliance, training and safety information are digitized and easily accessible to workers, it ensures they are knowledgeable on worksite requirements and reminders that are crucial to know during hot weather and other extreme conditions.
There are several technological advances on the market related to wearable technology, whereby these devices can prevent heat stress by monitoring core body or skin temperature, as well as the ambient temperature and humidity. The wearer is alerted of the increasing risk of heat stress.
IRONPROS: What technologies are available to boost the effectiveness of safety gear training?
Duhamel: Data collection and analysis technology helps organizations understand the factors and frequency of safety incidents. This can shed light on the context surrounding the incident and offer direction to leadership on what actions must be taken to further reduce exposure and where additional safety equipment training is needed. Data analysis helps organizations identify risks specific to their contractors and employees, and to effectively design risk reduction strategies.
Additionally, implementing culture feedback surveys allows leaders to regularly seek and evaluate feedback from frontline workers who are the individuals at the tip of the spear or closest to workplace hazards. This process can uncover valuable insights on perceptions and safety culture on the jobsite and offer a good reference point for organizations to improve their culture and address concerns around safety equipment training.
Apps like Empower provide frontline workers direct access to work-readiness information to stay safe on the job. Empower allows workers to view jobsite requirements, compliance status, complete training on-the-go, and manage work-readiness information all from their fingertips. Empower and other apps that give workers access to a wealth of important training information help keep safety measures top-of-mind and allow them to make informed decisions. These apps also enable more personalized training experiences and content so employees use the information that pertains to them on that particular day.
IRONPROS: Please provide an overview of ISN and its mission.
Duhamel: ISN is a global leader in contractor and supplier information management services. At its core, ISN is built by our people, and we take great pride in putting people at the center of our processes. We have more than 20 years of experience connecting over 800 Hiring Clients with more than 80,000 active contractors and suppliers with a mission to promote safety, health and sustainability in the workplace. Our platform, ISNetworld, serves as a world-class forum for sharing industry best practices, benchmarking performance, providing data insights among its members, and helping decision-makers ensure contractor and supplier risk is assessed and monitored.
As the amount of industrial work being outsourced to contractors has grown over the years, so have ISN’s product and service offerings. In addition to ISNetworld, our brands include Transparency-One, a responsible sourcing platform built to bring transparency to supply chain management, and Empower, a mobile app focused on individual workers built to keep them and their work moving forward.
IRONPROS: What can customers expect from ISN in 2025?
Duhamel: In 2025, customers can expect enhanced safety program and culture assessments that allow Hiring Clients to receive more accurate information and contractors to address open action items efficiently with an option to deliver additional training. Along with the release of Toolbox Talks, the AI-powered toolbox talk feature in the Empower app, customers can expect new language offerings.