How Will Selective Attention Affect Construction Safety

Construction safety is a sensitive and significant issue that requires the undivided attention of all workers at the workplace. Any slight loss of concentration and alertness will lead to dire consequences. From the moving of items to the drilling of holes, maximum attention is vital. Many accidents occur due to workers’ lack of concentration. The construction industry carries so many risks and safety threats that can escalate quickly like wildfire. Fortunately, courses such as Basic Traffic Control Course (BTCC), work at height course for workers and the compulsory CSOC training can help boost construction safety, although these alone are not sufficient.  

What is selective attention? It is when you do not give your full attention to something. Ideally, you need to give your full and undivided attention to any task. This will help you focus and get it done accurately. Unfortunately, many people assume that they can multitask well, and thus, end up giving selective attention to tasks. However, some jobs are too risky for workers to multitask. For example, for an office job, such as typing reports, multitasking will not affect your work severely. However, if you are working at a construction site and is in charge of drilling holes, multitasking is too dangerous and risky. 

Also, for an office job, you can rectify the mistakes you made when you multitask. If you miswrote a report, you could delete and rewrite it again. However, if you are working at a construction site, that is certainly not the case. You will not be able to reverse an inaccurate drill on a wall. Dreadful and unimaginable consequences are also involved if one were to multitask and lose focus at a construction site. For example, one may accidentally drill his or her finger by accident. This is certainly avoidable if you do not multitask and concentrate.  

It is imperative to train all workers at the workstation to stay alert around the clock, as well as the importance of doing so. Maintaining full focus is certainly not a topic that construction workers should take for granted; many people tend to break the rule of undivided attention. Here are two ways you can utilize to manage selective focus at a construction site.  

1. Ensure that nobody works with their mobile devices 

There are several ways to implement this rule. One is through confiscating all mobile phones from workers before they head to their respective working stations. Only provide a few walkie-talkies for workers who will communicate any looming danger. In the case where workers have to have their phones with them, ensure that you inform them to switch their phones off during working hours. 

For this implementation to be carried out successfully, fines for offenders should be introduced if they are caught using their phones while working. 

2. Check on the mental health of your workers regularly  

Mental health is crucial to undivided attention. Whenever someone has something bothering him or her, one cannot concentrate fully. It is, thus, necessary to check on the mental stability of all your workers from time to time. If it is possible, have the human resources manager at the site to hold regular meetings to make sure that this implementation runs smoothly.