Top six Health & Safety Trends in Construction for 2025

Keeping up with safety trends is an effective way for companies to ensure their safety processes measure up to the hazards facing their workers today. Here are six predicted safety trends for the construction industry in 2025:

1). Setting aside time for staff training

We’ve seen increasingly more studies that indicate just how effective training an employee how to do their job safely can be. This helps to ensure that workers carry out the required tasks carefully. BSG, on average, trains over 10,000 construction workers every year and we expect this figure to increase in 2025. So, it is not surprising that we are seeing more companies set aside time for staff training because of the following recognised benefits which can be delivered for businesses:

• Helps your employees to identify hazards and adopt safe and healthy working practices
• Helps to avoid the pain, anguish and financial costs that accidents and ill health cause
• Fosters a positive culture of health and safety, in which unsafe and unhealthy working are not tolerated
• Enables your employees to spot ways to improve health and safety management
• Enables you to meet your legal duty to protect the health and safety of your employees and others

2). Honing in on mental health

Another positive trend sweeping across the construction industry is a heightened awareness of workers’ mental health. According to research, as many as a third of UK construction workers have suffered from mental health problems – leading to increased drinking, non-prescription drug use, self-harm and, in the most severe cases, suicide.

The intense workload attributed to construction has been linked to some cases to the ongoing cost of living crisis exacerbating these problems. The silver lining is that with mental health talk now becoming destigmatized in the workplace, many companies are taking tangible steps to support any members of staff struggling mentally. Such measures include ensuring risk assessments cover both physical and mental health, sharing resources around mental wellbeing and offering practical help in the form of trained peer support.

More people in leadership roles are also speaking up about their personal experiences with mental health – creating a safe space within their organizations in the hopes that this will develop a happier and healthier workforce in the long run. BSG runs its own ‘Mental Health Awareness’ course, which has been developed to provide construction workers with the knowledge, confidence and ability to identify and support colleagues experiencing mental health issues, and importantly, direct them to suitable professional and non-professional sources of help. Please contact us if you would like further information.

3). Better on-site communication

While construction sites aren’t renowned for having open lines of communication, the tide is turning. Many teams now kickstart each day with a morning briefing, enabling management to reiterate safety procedures.

These briefings also give workers an opportunity to air any concerns around the effectiveness of such procedures or whether any hazards that haven’t yet been discussed have come to their attention.

4). More Off-Site Construction

Some new construction management trends address both safety and efficiency simultaneously. Modular construction and prefabrication are quickly becoming an industry standard. While these methods are primarily a waste reduction and productivity improvement strategy, 89% of modular construction adopters say it’s demonstrated safety benefits.

Prefabrication provides a controlled environment, where it’s easier to automate dangerous tasks or assemble parts of buildings and structures away from the dangers and environmental elements of the live job site. Distancing employees from the most hazardous work also reduces the number of on-site workers for final assembly, making it easier to avoid sudden injuries.

5). Regular Construction Safety Audits

These trends point to safety as a whole becoming a larger focus for construction management. Consequently, more construction companies are performing regular checks and audits to stay on top of trends and enforce new safety policies.

Regular checks include ensuring teams meet any applicable regulatory and insurance qualifications. Safety is not just a concern at the contractor level. Project owners, government entities providing construction contracts and more are emphasizing safety. Many new bids and contracts now call for enhanced technologies and measures to ensure worker safety and mitigate risks. Governmental regulations will likely tighten, making these checks more important. Regularly reviewing safety policies also helps reveal any emerging issues so firms can stop them faster. If you would like BSG to carry out a full health and safety audit across your business, please contact us.

6). Emphasis on Prevention Strategies

The shift from reactive to proactive approaches in health and safety is expected to continue to gain momentum in 2025. Companies are investing in prevention focused initiatives to mitigate risks before they escalate. Robust risk assessments, predictive analytics, and early intervention programs are being implemented to identify and address potential health and safety hazards.

From site health and safety evaluations to mental health awareness campaigns, businesses are promoting prevention through education, training, and proactive measures. By empowering employees with knowledge and resources, companies aim to prevent accidents, injuries, and mental health crises before they occur, fostering a safer and healthier work environment.

This is why monitoring and reviewing health and safety performance has become essential for construction companies who are concerned about the well-being of their workforce and who would like to remain compliant with UK regulations and legislation.

BSG members have free access to a comprehensive non-compliance and accident reporting suite, which has been specifically developed to help businesses achieve these goals, and as a means to demonstrate effective health and safety management in the workplace.

By consolidating the information collected through site inspections, BSG can help construction companies to identify noncompliance and accident trends within their organisation.

Reports can be run across any selected time period and can be used to analyse over 50 different types of non-compliance and RIDDOR classified accident occurrences. Organisations can also use BSG reports to compare construction sites, so that poorly performing sites can be singled out and improved.