Utilising workers' tacit health and safety knowledge to produce inherently safer work processes: an evaluation of the CodeSafe system

This research looks at the CodeSafe system which makes explicit construction workers' H&S knowledge, thereby enabling it to be used in the re-design of work processes and ultimately making them safer. Construction workers possess valuable tacit information about work health and safety (H&S). However, most construction organisations do not involve workers in making strategic decisions about how work will be designed and performed. There is a growing understanding of the gap that exists between "'work as imagined' and 'work as performed'. Work as imagined refers to the content of documented H&S procedures and method statements, which are often overly long and complex, yet still do not cover all eventualities. On the other hand, work as performed refers to adaptive behaviour and "workarounds" sometimes used by workers to perform their work safely in the field. CodeSafe Solutions has developed an innovative process for: (1) eliciting the tacit H&S knowledge of construction workers,(2) engaging construction workers in scripting, acting and recording films to visually represent this knowledge, and (3) using Quick Response (QR) code technology to make this knowledge quickly and easily available to other workers who need to access it.