New technology is reducing workers’ compensation claims and fraud across industries.
But on a construction site, the results are visible on camera.
Specialized cameras are being installed around the work site in collaboration with Arrowsight, a safety technology company specializing in video-based behavior modification and coaching analytics. These cameras capture footage of workers scrambling under timber hanging from cranes, or forgetting to tie off their balancing safety harnesses high above the ground. The video is flagged by the team and the safety supervisor is notified. Employees then receive feedback and appropriate training.
In New York state, where workers’ compensation insurance costs and both the frequency and severity of claims are among the highest in the nation, the improvements in construction site safety with camera surveillance are so dramatic that insurance company Zurich North America announced Friday that it will only insure construction finishing projects that implement ArrowSight’s video analysis and coaching.
A $2 billion, three-year pilot program at nine large construction sites in New York City showed that implementing Arrowsight’s video analytics and coaching reduced workers’ compensation claims in New York City by more than 70% and eliminated extortion charges to nearly zero, the insurer said.
“The dramatic results highlight the power of combining human insight and technology to bring about tangible change,” Tobias Cushing, Zurich’s construction director, told CNBC. “Our project with Arrowsight has seen virtually no serious injuries or deaths.”
Arrow sight cameras are installed at the scene.
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Arrowsight uses mobile, battery-powered, mobile-enabled, fixed-point cameras that operate without electricity or internet.
“We have a program in place where we hire civil engineers overnight to look at all of these high-risk work activities and provide feedback, like the coaching clips you see on sports centers, to help supervisors coach workers to avoid these types of risks,” said Adam Aronson, founder and CEO of Arrowsight.
Data from the pilot program shows that employee safety compliance rates have increased from about 70% before Arrowsight to 97% to 100% in many cases.
ArrowSight’s technology was already being used in a variety of other industries, from medical facilities to meat processing plants, before Aronson identified construction as an industry that could benefit from video-based technology.
Posilico Civil is the first civil construction company in the United States to collaborate with Arrowsight. As a result of a four-year pilot study, the company’s Experience Modification Rate (EMR), a key claim rating factored into workers’ compensation premiums, decreased from 0.65 to 0.25. EMR represents a relative safety score, with a score less than 1 being good.
Arrowsight signed a master services agreement with Chubb this summer, primarily focused on construction.
