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How technology is transforming the construction industry

Posted on May 1, 2021January 15, 2025 by Shield Insurance Agency

In today’s construction industry market, there’s little doubt that technology holds transformative power.

Not only have new technological advancements led to greater efficiency in day-to-day operations, but they’ve also created new opportunities for companies to gain a competitive edge and focus on strategic growth.

There are several ways technology is making positive impacts on key priorities within the construction industry, including workforce, safety and risk management, and operational efficiency.

Finding solutions for construction industry labor challenges

Labor shortages in the construction industry remain significant and widespread. A new survey by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) found that 80 percent of construction companies report having a tough time filling hourly craft positions, representing the bulk of the construction workforce. On top of that, 56 percent also are finding it difficult to fill salaried positions. According to AGC, preparing, attracting, and re-skilling the future workforce are necessary steps in reducing that figure – and technology can help bridge the gap.

How can technology help with labor shortages? First, investing in cutting-edge approaches can help recruit and retain more young adults from tech-savvy generations into construction careers. Second, technology can streamline labor needs. By adopting tech methods to reduce on-site work time, such as using virtual construction tools like Building Information Modeling (BIM) and automating inventories and the ordering process, a contractor can better manage productivity levels and its workforce.

Addressing construction industry safety and risk

According to the latest Construction Technology Report by JBKnowledge, almost 50 percent of today’s contractors now have dedicated IT departments, and more construction companies are using technology solutions to internally manage workflows like estimating, project scheduling, and project management as well as to improve safety. Here are some of the ways technology is helping with efficiency and safety:

Wearables.

With wearable technology’s popularity and growth in consumer markets, the construction industry is now considering how to use different features to improve worksite safety. Some potential applications for wearable technology include monitoring an employee’s movements or vitals and providing real-time alerts if work conditions become dangerous. Smart helmets, for example, turn traditional hardhats into on-the-ground safety systems that can detect a worker’s level of fatigue or a worksite’s carbon monoxide level or temperature.

Smart helmets turn traditional hardhats into on-the-ground safety systems that can detect a worker’s level of fatigue or a worksite’s carbon monoxide level or temperature.

As another example, gear like augmented-reality glasses can provide workers with real-time guidance and detect errors before an accident, which, along with the proper training, could help improve productivity and safety.

Plusses like these will likely fuel more experimentation with wearables and research on their effectiveness at improving safety. Nearly two-thirds of insurers, for example, expect wearable technologies to have a significant impact in coming years, according to a survey of more than 200 insurance executives.

Mobile devices.

The importance of mobile capabilities has soared, the JBKnowledge report shows, with 83 percent of firms surveyed saying mobile is “important” or “very important” to their operations vs. just 59 percent who thought so in 2012.

The daily use of laptops in the construction field also has increased, from 64 percent in 2015 to 78 percent in 2017. And the use of smartphones, tablets, and other portable devices is quickly streamlining much of the construction process, from creating and approving blueprints to post-construction monitoring.

In terms of safety benefits, the adoption of mobile technologies enables real-time communication with all members of a construction team as well as faster incident reporting and injury documentation, all of which can help reduce the risk of injuries and the cost of worker’s compensation claims.

Boosting worksite efficiency with labor-saving strategies

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Medical stop-loss insurance: Helping health insurance corporate buyers keep pace with medical inflation

Posted on March 22, 2021January 25, 2025 by Shield Insurance Agency

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Over the past ten years, healthcare costs have risen steadily each year as treatment and care options have become more sophisticated and advanced. As a result, corporate health insurance buyers are looking for more effective solutions to manage their healthcare spend, which is their biggest cost behind payroll.

For employers who choose to self-fund their health insurance programs, employer stop-loss insurance protects those groups against large or catastrophic claims, as an alternative to traditional group health insurance and benefits plans. The medical stop-loss insurance sector has experienced dramatic growth in recent years as more employers migrate to self-funded health insurance programs, which offer customizable coverage for employees with disciplined cost containment oversight.

Karthik Mohan, vice president of sales & distribution for the medical stop-loss group at Liberty Mutual Insurance, outlines how medical stop-loss insurance can help organizations keep pace with medical inflation.

The value of medical stop-loss insurance for self-funded health insurance programs

Today, approximately 61% of U.S. employers self-fund their health insurance programs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2019 Employer Health Benefits Report Annual Survey. Frequently, those same employers purchase medical stop-loss insurance, which is a financial management tool that transfers the liability risk arising from large, unexpected claims, like cancer treatments, new therapies for complex conditions, and organ transplants, to an insurance carrier – sparing the employer from unpredictable, catastrophic medical claim costs that can materially impact an organization’s cash flow and bottom line.

Medical stop loss insurance is typically offered with two types of deductible options:

Specific Stop Loss, or “Spec” deductible, for individual stop loss insurance. Coverage protects the self-insured employer in the event of a severe or significantly costly claim for an individual member of the group plan receiving the care, such as a rare cancer condition, new drug treatment or gene and cell therapies
Aggregate Stop Loss, or “Agg” deductible, for group claims. Coverage protects the self-insured employer that experiences medical claims under the group plan that exceed the cap placed on the policy term for the coverage.

Under these programs, the stop loss insurance carrier reimburses the employer for healthcare financial losses above the contractual policy deductible limit.