{"id":105321,"date":"2022-02-08T11:45:51","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T11:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=105321"},"modified":"2022-02-09T10:21:28","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T10:21:28","slug":"burnout-in-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/burnout-in-construction\/105321\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnout is a real issue that the construction industry needs to recognise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wes Simmons, Non-Executive Chairman of Open ECX<\/a>\u00a0explains to PBC Today the issue of burnout in the construction industry, and how the sector can keep its workers safe<\/h2>\n

The pandemic has highlighted several issues within the construction industry, that have been desperate for attention for years. Covid-19 forced companies to review ways of working, ensuring the best practices are in place to keep construction workers safe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most sectors are keeping new, better, employee-first processes in place \u2013 such as working from home initiatives, flexible working, and wellbeing schemes. At Open ECX we have instigated several initiatives that we discuss in more detail below.<\/p>\n

But for the construction industry, the issues are a little more complex. Working from home and flexible working initiatives are impossible for many construction employees and there must be a focus on making up for lost time in a project driven environment.<\/p>\n

Building back should of course be a priority, but we must ensure we build back better; mental wellbeing<\/a>, balance, and the environment, should all be taken into consideration by those in construction.<\/p>\n

Working in construction can be physical, which comes with obvious dangers – whether that be accidents on site, exposure to hazardous materials or continuous pressures on your body. Historically, these issues have been shrugged off with a \u2018just get on with it\u2019 attitude, leaving many workers ignoring the mounting pressures on their mental wellbeing and work\/life balance leading to issues such as \u2018burnout.\u2019<\/p>\n

Previous bad habits in the industry included paper waste<\/a> \u2013 as most companies operated via old school print outs, and excessive driving \u2013 going from site to site just to gain signatures. Whilst being bad for the environment, it can also be a strain on employees, as they travel from pillar to post for tasks that could be carried out digitally.<\/p>\n

Open ECX<\/a> is a cloud-based solution that sits between suppliers and buyers in the supply chain and automatically processes invoices from suppliers, transmitting the data to the buyer\u2019s finance team, cutting out manual processing and possible human error or delays, which improves efficiencies and allows companies to avoid unnecessary processes.<\/p>\n

Work\/life balance<\/h3>\n

It is recognised that there are a number of behaviours and processes that can help support employees with their work\/life balance and the following are ones that we believe could be introduced in the construction sector to help companies avoid the issues of staff burnout:<\/p>\n