Приоритет офисного соответствия при закупках подрывает эффективность технологий безопасности на стройплощадках

Why Safety Technology Fails Before It Reaches the Jobsite Procurement decisions prioritizing office compliance over jobsite usability create a digital burden and undermine safety tech adoption. - By Melvin Keyani - Aug 13, 2026 Construction has invested heavily in digital safety technology over the past decade. Artificial intelligence, digital permit-to-work systems, workforce management platforms, inspection applications and mobile safety reporting tools have transformed how organizations collect information, monitor performance and demonstrate compliance. Despite this investment, organizations often assume digital safety technology fails because workers resist change or because implementation falls short. Recent research suggests something different. In many cases, the conditions that determine whether technology succeeds or fails are established before workers ever log into the system. They are created during procurement. Many organizations continue to encounter a familiar challenge. Systems introduced with the expectation of simplifying safety management often become underutilized, inconsistently adopted or viewed by frontline workers as an additional administrative burden rather than a practical tool that supports safe work. When this occurs, attention typically focuses on implementation. Organizations respond by increasing training, strengthening communication or encouraging workers to embrace change. While these interventions are important, they often address the symptoms rather than the underlying cause. This research examined why digital safety technologies succeed in some organizations but struggle in others. Drawing on interviews with frontline construction workers, experimental usability studies and mixed-methods analysis, the findings consistently demonstrated that technology adoption is shaped as much by organizational decision-making as by software capability. These conditions are established during procurement, where decisions about functionality, governance and organizational priorities shape how technology will ultimately be experienced by the workforce. The Procurement Decisions Workers Never See Technology procurement is commonly viewed as a commercial and technical exercise. Procurement teams assess cybersecurity requirements, reporting capability, integration with existing business systems, contractual obligations and overall cost before selecting a preferred solution. These are entirely legitimate considerations and remain essential for effective organizational governance. However, procurement also determines which voices influence the design and configuration of the technology that workers will ultimately use. In practice, procurement decisions frequently prioritize organizational requirements such as compliance reporting, auditability and management oversight, while comparatively little attention is given to how the system will function within the realities of construction work.