A better working environment on the construction site starts long before the first brick is laid: at the tendering and contract stage. That is the main conclusion of new research by the National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA) in Copenhagen, Denmark, which sets out five concrete recommendations for clients, contractors and working-environment coordinators in the construction and infrastructure sector.
A study of seventeen construction projects
A team of six researchers, including senior researcher Sisse Grøn and professor Jeppe Ajslev, followed seventeen construction and civil engineering projects between September 2021 and March 2026 (one of the original eighteen dropped out). They analysed contracts, safety and health plans (PSS), tender documents and technical specifications, together with experienced working-environment coordinators. They also carried out 51 site observation days and conducted 91 semi-structured interviews, including with working-environment coordinators and site managers. The research was funded by the Danish Working Environment Research Fund (Arbejdsmiljøforskningsfonden). The researchers note as a limitation that mainly main contractors were studied, that there was no systematic calibration between assessors, and that participating clients may have had an above-average focus on the working environment.
Five recommendations as one coherent package
Based on this analysis, the NFA arrives at five recommendations, which the researchers explicitly present as one coherent package:
1. Describe the working environment concretely and clearly in tenders and contracts, and make the safety and health plan an active part of the agreements.
2. Set out working methods for working-environment work in advance, in particular safety rounds, which must be carried out and followed up systematically.
3. Assess risks concretely and tackle them as high as possible on the prevention hierarchy.
4. Address psychosocial working conditions explicitly in the safety and health plan, such as time pressure, coordination, roles, conflicts and project changes.
5. Set clear frameworks for cooperation between the project parties in advance, both on paper and within the project organisation.
According to professor Ajslev, no single contractual requirement on its own makes the difference: it is precisely the combination of a well-developed basis of agreements, clear methods and systematic working-environment work that produces better safety conditions.
Researcher Sisse Grøn points out that the working environment is not always factored in concretely enough during preparation, which can later lead to disputes over responsibility, costs and delays: “A good working environment is not created only on the construction site, once the tradespeople get to work.” Ajslev: “The more concrete, the better the shared starting point for the parties involved once construction begins.”
Context
The findings align with broader European figures on safety in construction. According to Eurostat figures, 776 fatal workplace accidents occurred in the construction sector in the European Union in 2024, accounting for around 23 percent of all 3,367 fatal workplace accidents in the EU that year. This made construction the sector with the highest number of workplace deaths in the EU in 2024. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) identifies construction as the sector with the greatest risk of accidents.
For HSE professionals worldwide, the core message of the Danish research is that safety gains in construction cannot be achieved on the work floor alone, but must be established early in the process: in how contracts are tendered, agreements drafted, and cooperation between clients and (sub)contractors organised. This insight is not specifically Danish: fragmented chains of main contractors, subcontractors and changing project teams are characteristic of construction projects in almost every country. The recommendations therefore form a practical framework that clients and safety coordinators everywhere can use.
Source: Ny forskning giver fem anbefalinger til bedre arbejdsmiljø i byggebranchen, 22 October 2026
Additional research: eunews.it on Eurostat figures on workplace accidents EU 2024, EU-OSHA Factsheet 36 on accident prevention in construction
