Redefining risk for today’s construction organizations
Risk has long been synonymous with safety. But limiting the conversation to physical harm leaves construction organizations blind to the broader threats that derail schedules, drain budgets, damage reputations, and disrupt operations.
From escalating regulatory fines to workforce productivity gaps and chronic schedule overruns, these less visible risks carry real consequences. In an era of rising complexity and shrinking margins, construction leaders need a more expansive view.
Risk is no longer just what hurts your people – it’s anything that undermines your ability to deliver, predictably and profitably.
Redefining risk beyond safety
One customer said it best: “When I see a messy site, I know the job likely won’t finish that day.”
That observation captures how risks compound: a cluttered site poses a safety hazard, threatens delivery timelines, and invites quality issues. Risks aren’t isolated; they stack.
Think about regulatory fines. In many regions, they’re seen as a cost of doing business. And fines have ripple effects: they can lead to halted work, strained regulator relationships, increased insurance premiums, and even lost contracts.
But what if the organization could self-report issues proactively, avoid the penalty, and build trust with regulators?
Or take scheduling. It’s become an accepted norm in construction that timelines will blow out by 30-to-50 percent. In fact, 75 percent of construction professionals say their organization has experienced a project delay or shutdown due to poor communication or misalignment. That “norm” leads to material waste, crew conflicts, and cascading budget impacts.
That’s not just inefficiency – it’s a preventable risk. In a world of AI, real-time data, and predictive planning tools, this kind of drift should no longer be inevitable.
Why the industry tolerates the intolerable
Despite the availability of technology and data, many construction leaders still tolerate inefficiencies that would be unacceptable in other industries. Why?
Because the current definition of risk is too narrow. As long as safety stats look acceptable, everything else is chalked up to the cost of doing business.
It’s time to challenge the idea that fines, rework, and missed deadlines are unavoidable. These are preventable operational failures.
Prevention starts with redefining accountability. Who is responsible for mitigating these risks? Often, they fall through the cracks of organizational silos. Safety lives in one department, scheduling in another, and compliance somewhere else entirely.
A more integrated view of risk requires shared ownership and shared visibility from leadership to the field.
A new model for managing risk
If we want different outcomes, we need different tools and a different mindset. That starts by giving managers and supervisors access to real-time, ground-truth data so they can make decisions based on what’s actually happening – not what they hope is happening.
AI-powered platforms are helping teams predict and prevent risks in real-time – flagging compliance issues, recommending more efficient job sequences, and enabling remote supervision at scale. These tools bring risk visibility to the point of work, surfacing issues that might otherwise go unnoticed and allowing leaders to take preventive action before problems escalate.
They also help eliminate the “cost of doing business” mindset around fines and penalties by enabling early warnings, proactive compliance, and auditable accountability.
One of FYLD’s earliest adopters demonstrated just how transformative this can be. When he saw a year-two version of FYLD, he didn’t ask how to make supervisors cover more ground. Instead, he reimagined the role entirely. He partnered with us to build a command center, replaced unnecessary job site travel with real-time insights, and challenged long-held assumptions about what supervision should look like.
He also understood that fieldworkers needed to evidence their job sites. Think of it as crowdsourcing for fieldwork.
Whether it’s capturing and sharing potential risks immediately via video assessment or documenting how the risk was addressed, crews and leaders gain a shared understanding of who is responsible for safety – and where additional training may be needed. That kind of transparency builds a culture of accountability that’s proactive, data-informed, and focused on putting the right people in the right place at the right time.
Guess what? It also makes organizations more productive.
In one instance, Ferrovial, a global operator of sustainable infrastructure, was tasked with widening a congested stretch of highway in Texas. Typical of the industry, Ferrovial completed most of its daily job hazard analysis reports manually. That’s a risk.
After transitioning to digital reports, Ferrovial increased productivity by 75 percent and completed the project three months ahead of schedule. I could detail the side benefits – upside revenue generation through toll lanes being opened well ahead of schedule or cementing Ferrovial’s reputation with local regulators – but I’ll leave it here.
The organizations redefining risk successfully are:
- Incentivizing holistic risk reduction, not just project completion
- Upskilling teams to recognize a broader range of risk factors
- Aligning data streams so that frontline insights inform executive strategy
- Striving for 100 percent visibility across worksites and shared risk accountability
Organizational change needs internal change agents – people who think big, act boldly, and bring others along. In industries still clouded by tradition, they help teams break free from outdated assumptions and reimagine what’s possible.
Because redefining risk isn’t just about reducing harm. It’s about building resilience, protecting profitability, and creating the kind of performance organizations and communities can count on.
Shelley Copsey
As the co-founder and CEO of FYLD, Shelley Copsey leads a venture that empowers frontline teams and managers in infrastructure and utilities to make data-driven decisions in real-time, leading to greater safety, productivity, and quality assurance. Shelley has over 20 years of experience in the intersection of physical infrastructure and digital technologies, as well as the human transformation required to deliver on the promise of emerging technologies.