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New technology is cutting workers' compensation claims and fraud across industries.
But in construction, the results are on camera.
Working with Arrowsight, a safety technology company specializing in video-based behavioral modification and coaching analytics, specialty cameras are installed around job sites that capture workers if they disregard safety rules, like scrambling under a load of lumber suspended from a crane or failing to tie into safety harnesses balanced high above the ground. The videos are flagged by a team and safety supervisors are informed. Workers then get feedback and proper training.
In New York, where both the cost of workers' compensation insurance and the frequency and severity of claims are among the highest in the nation, the safety improvements from the camera surveillance are so dramatic on construction sites that insurer Zurich North America announced Friday it will only insure construction wrap-up projects that have installed video analytics and coaching from Arrowsight.
A $2 billion, three-year pilot program on nine large-scale New York City construction job sites showed a more than 70% reduction in workers' comp claims and a near elimination of racketeering charges in NYC when video analytics and coaching from Arrowsight were implemented, the insurer said.
"The dramatic results underscore the power of combining human insight with technology to drive measurable change," Tobias Cushing, Zurich head of construction, told CNBC. "We saw a virtual elimination of serious injuries and deaths on projects with Arrowsight."
Arrowsight cameras on-site.
Arrowsight
Arrowsight uses fixed-point cameras that are moveable, battery-powered and cell-enabled that can operate without electricity or internet.
"We have a whole program where we're using civil engineers overnight to kind of look at all these high-risk work activities and then provide feedback, kind of coaching clips just like you would see on Sports Center to help the supervisors coach the workers to avoid taking these kinds of risks," Adam Aronson, founder and CEO of Arrowsight, said.
It has increased worker safety compliance rates from around 70% before the implementation of Arrowsight to 97% to 100% in many cases, according to the pilot program data.
Arrowsight's technology was already in use in a range of other industries, from health-care facilities to meatpacking plants, before Aronson identified construction as an industry that could benefit from video-based tech.
Posillico Civil was the first civil construction company in the U.S. to work with Arrowsight. The four-year pilot study resulted in the company's Experience Modification Rate (EMR), a key claims-incident rating that factors into workers' compensation premiums, dropping from 0.65 to 0.25. EMR represents a relative safety score, with scores less than one being favorable.
Arrowsight also signed a master service agreement with Chubb this summer with the primary focus on construction.
