The total health of employees is maturing

Attention to mental health in this industry is critical, as the construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates in the United States. According to the CDC, approximately 6,000 construction workers died by suicide in 2022, an increase from 2021. To put this in perspective, for every incident involving physical injury, there are potentially six suicides.

Designing effective programs

Creating a supportive culture is difficult when you have an industry made up of employees who don’t feel comfortable talking about mental health. Furthermore, industry statistics contribute to this lack of discussion. “Historically, the industry has rewarded very challenging, low-support environments,” Kagerer explains. “We put people in situations where there are risk factors that multiply the problems. One factor is that sometimes a construction worker doesn’t know where his next job will be. So when you go to where the work is, you leave your support system behind and that can be a challenge.”

Kagerer took on that challenge with an approach based on personalization. “We have identified people not only in our safety team, but also those working in the field to tackle this problem. We wanted to create a better environment by listening to the people doing the work. To do that, leaders were identified by supervisors or foremen as a person to whom others naturally gravitate when seeking help.”

Once identified, these leaders attend a year-long course where they not only learn safety protocols, but also learn safety protocols also learn communication and leadership skills, and some of that training relates to mental health. Once certified, field safety leaders display mental health certification stickers on their safety helmets, ensuring easy access.

“This program has been a game changer,” says Kagerer. “It sends the message that we are all in this together. A person may not feel comfortable going to a superintendent, but he will feel comfortable going to someone he considers a colleague.”

And this year the company launched the Mind Saver program, created by Asma Bayunus, the company’s EHS operations manager. It adds mental health training to the training provided for CPR and first aid.

Reluctance to ask for help

Finding programs that employees prefer is essential. For example, it appears that employees tend not to take advantage of the standard EAPs (Employee Assistance Programs) that their companies offer. A 2024 Firstup survey found that of employees who do have access to wellness programs, only 28% have taken advantage of them, and 23% say they are unlikely to do so. Kagerer has found this to be true through her own experience.

“I’m very fortunate to be able to speak at national conferences, and I’m in a room full of safety professionals and construction professionals, and I asked the question point blank: If you had an employee assistance program and you had a problem, how many of you would raise your hand and take advantage of that? And it’s quiet in the room.”

So Jordan Foster delivers short safety bytes to employee phones on a wide range of topics, including stretch and flex and total employee health. Research from Firstup confirms that these changes are indeed working. Their research found that 32% of employees said they would be more likely to take advantage of wellness benefits if the information was easier to find.

In addition to carefully designing broad programs, Jordan Foster monitors changing working conditions. As heat stress increases, the company is aware of the working conditions and working hours of employees and adjustments are made. Research into working conditions has led to the company establishing a standard number of hours that employees are allowed to work. This is contrary to general industry norms of very long working hours.

How companies view TWH continues to evolve, Kagerer explains. “To use the example of the issue of suicide in our industry, there are so many resources, both at the industry level through different associations, and at the corporate level where people are talking about the issue. Awareness has really increased. Overall, I feel the industry has made great progress on TWH as the industry expands our vision for safety, but there is still a long way to go.”