Thinking Beyond Compliance: Creating a Culture of Care for Field Workers

Written by Stephen Shang, CEO and Co-founder of Falcon Structures

In the world of industrial and construction operations, compliance is often the baseline for safety and well-being. Regulations and standards ensure that workers are provided with the minimum necessary protections, but you have to wonder, is that enough? To truly safeguard the health and well-being of employees, organizations need to think beyond compliance and foster a culture of care. 

Workplace Compliance & Its Limits

Compliance regulations around worker safety enforce a checklist mentality for many companies. Often, the motivation to comply is driven by the avoidance of fines or having legal action brought against the organization.

While meeting the minimum requirements for worker safety is appreciated, it’s a far cry from actively seeking ways to improve worker safety and well-being. Regulations may dictate workers wear personal protective equipment (PPE) and receive safety training, but they don’t address the more nuanced challenges of working in a difficult, labor-intensive environment. Sure, your construction worker has a hard hat. But does he have an air-conditioned area to take a break and eat lunch? To put this into perspective, Texas employers aren’t even legally obligated to give their workers breaks. Compliance is certainly not synonymous with care.

Why Care About Caring?

Organizations are understandably driven by the bottom line. But let’s consider how the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) came to be. The high rates of workplace accidents and fatalities in industries like manufacturing, construction, mining, and resource extraction were alarmingly high in the decades before OSHA was signed into law in 1970. Essentially, the government stepped in to protect workers when companies would not. 

Despite these steps to safeguard worker health, the same industries continue to carry sobering statistics for their workers. Just look at the industries with the highest suicide rates in 2017:

1. Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction
2. Construction
3. Other Services (e.g., automotive repair)
4. Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting
5. Transportation and Warehousing

The CDC attributes workplace factors like low pay and low job security, long shifts, and job stress to the increased risk of worker suicide. Among the top guidance for companies that want to act is to “eliminate working conditions that threaten safety, health, and well-being.” 

We’ve seen our customers in manufacturing, construction, and other industries tackle this issue with enhanced employee facilities. These organizations come to us to supplement their facilities and improve the day-to-day of their workforce through structures that offer comfort, protection, cleanliness, and other overlooked human needs. Here are a few examples of how our customers have built a culture of care with improved facilities.  

Examples of Care over Compliance in the Workplace

Bathrooms 

Companies must provide their employees with somewhere to use the restroom. However, the quality of the restroom and walking distance to it are common pain points for employees. Porta potties are an unpopular solution - just browse the candid comments on any construction workers’ forum, like those on Reddit or Quora. 

Walking distance is also a factor in employee happiness. Take a recent manufacturing customer of ours. Their facilities were built in the first half of the 20th century and didn’t include enough bathrooms for the substantial female workforce that’s there now. Female employees had to walk 10+ minutes to get to the bathroom, then another 10 minutes to return to their spot on the manufacturing floor. To save the employees energy, time, and discomfort from “holding it” too long, this customer opted for container bathrooms to be placed within the manufacturing facility, making the distance to the bathroom much shorter. 

Break Areas 

Workforces that spend their time in the elements are often without a breakroom, which makes for an unpleasant - and sometimes dangerous - work experience. A climate-controlled break area lets workers cool off or warm up in extreme weather, rest during breaks, and eat lunch away from the elements. Some of our customers modify their container breakrooms with kitchenettes and bathrooms for a fully functioning space. 

One of our customers, an air freight company, recently added cooling and warming break areas to their site. The climate-controlled containers can be relocated across the tarmac as needed, giving employees a space to cool off, warm up, and take shelter when the weather turns bad. 

Locker Rooms 

Even if the job doesn’t include exposure to hazardous materials, many industrial positions leave workers dirty and sweaty. Rather than leave these workers to change back into street clothes and go home covered in work grime, employers can offer a clean and spacious locker room. One of our customers recently installed a two-story container locker room on their manufacturing site, complete with 10 showers and an open space for lockers and benches. Not only do the employees like it and feel cared for by management, but the company sees it as an investment to improve their employee retention. 

By making an effort to recognize and address the struggles of their workforces, organizations can set an example within their industry of prioritizing care over mere compliance. These industries that have known beleaguered workforces for so long are steadily improving their standards of care. We’re pleased to come alongside these companies to find ways to solve the biggest pain points for their essential workers. 

Interested in starting a modified container project? Reach out to our team at 512-231-1010 or email us at Sales@FalconStructures.com.