Measuring effectiveness of safety programmes in the Thai construction industry

THANET AKSORN* and BONAVENTURA H. W. HADIKUSUMO

Introduction

In Thailand, the construction industry has been experiencing an expansive and increasing volume of market demand in accordance with the high economic growth of the country following its recovery from the financial crisis in 1997. The aftermath of this development has however had an adverse impact on the wellbeing of workers as evidenced by poor safety records at construction sites. This relatively high and stable economic growth in Thailand has led to a rapid increase in construction work and consequently an influx of unskilled workers to the major cities. Most workers currently hired in the construction industry are originally from the agricultural areas and provinces, with a low level of education and skills. In addition to the temporary nature of both construction and agricultural work, many of these workers engage themselves seasonally and tend to split their time between agricultural production and construction works. Such factors therefore make it difficult for the construction industry to maintain high safety standards. According to the Social Security Statistics of Thailand (2004 cited in ILO, 2005), the construction industry has the highest rate of deaths, accounting for close to 100 workers per year. In addition, up to 20 000 workers have suffered minor injuries on jobsites every year. Therefore, there has been a growing awareness within the government and private sectors towards improving construction site safety in order to provide better protection and safety to workers. In order to reduce the unacceptable statistics of accidents and injuries in the Thai construction industry, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare launched a basic safety management framework at the enterprise level wherein the implementation of safety programmes was promoted. Given that the personal safety and health of each employee is of primary concern, the prevention of occupational accidents and injuries is of such consequence that it will be given precedence over operational productivity. On the other hand, according to Siriruttanapruk and Anantagulnathi (2004), improving construction site safety formidable problem due to limited resources available to governmental and non-governmental safety institutions to carry out inspections and to give advice and guidance for implementing safety programmes effectively. From a global perspective, to assist the construction industry in improving its safety performance, several studies (Tam and Fung, 1998; Sawacha et al., 1999; Poon et al., 2000; and Hinze and Gambatese, 2003) have been conducted to identify appropriate safety strategies on jobsites. Research has shown that the development and implementation of an effective safety programme can reduce site accidents (Liska et al., 1993; Findley et al., 2004). However, it is unclear which policies are the most effective programmes in achieving improved safety performance.

A closer look at the methodologies used in the previous studies reveals that effectiveness is commonly measured by correlating the safety programmes with reactive safety indicators (i.e. lost time injury rates, frequency and severity rates, fatalities, first aid cases). However, there are very few studies which measure the effectiveness of safety programmes by using proactive indicators of safety performance. The proactive approach is considered a new measurement paradigm, which can be used to assess the current state of safety level, for example, workers’ attitudes (i.e. unsafe acts) and working conditions (i.e. unsafe conditions). The proactive approach can identify such factors that can contribute to future accidents and meaningfully provide the necessary feedback to management to provide more appropriate preventive measures (Cantarella, 1998; Mohamed, 2003).

In response to the consistently poor safety performance of the construction industry, this study was conducted with construction projects in Thailand and aimed at identifying safety programmes that are clearly proven to be effective in reducing accidents (reactive safety performance indicators) and decreasing unsafe acts and unsafe working conditions (proactive safety performance indicators). The results of the study provide management with practical guidelines for implementing safety programmes more effectively.

Literature review

Several researchers have proved that there is a strong positive association between safety programme implementation and improved safety performance. For example, Jaselskis et al. (1996) investigated strategies for achieving better construction safety performance and established several important factors such as project manager experience and level, supportive upper management attitude, time devoted to safety for project safety representatives, safety meetings, frequency of site inspections and budget allocation for safety awards. Tam and Fung (1998) conducted a quantitative study to investigate relationships between safety practices and safety performance on construction sites in Hong Kong and revealed that improved site safety was associated with involvement of top management, safety orientation for new workers, safety awards or incentive schemes, use of post-accident investigation, safety training, safety committees and level of subcontracting. Similarly, Sawacha et al. (1999) uncovered that a safety programme that has the most effect on site safety consists of management talks on safety, provision of safety booklets, provision of safety equipment, providing a safe environment and appointing a trained safety representative on site.

Poon et al. (2000) recommended that post-accident investigation is the most effective task for reducing site accidents. They concluded that accident investigation can trace the causes of accidents and as such, appropriate preventive measures can be taken accordingly. Findley et al. (2004) proved that the employment of full-time safety managers and presentation of pre-job safety briefs are the key elements of superior safety performance. Their studies pointed out that safety functions cannot be run smoothly without appointment of onsite full-time safety managers who can provide the required and necessary leadership to facilitate preventive and corrective guidance.

In conclusion, these previous studies provide a useful guideline on the subject of construction site safety. The authors summarized the key elements of an effective safety programme based on previous research (e.g. Tam and Fung, 1998; Poon et al., 2000; Goldenhar et al., 2001; Hinze and Gambatese, 2003; and Findley et al., 2004). These studies were conducted to evaluate the influence of safety programmes on improved construction safety performance and revealed that successful safety programmes, however, do not need extensive elements, but should at least include the critical elements including safety policy, safety committees, safety inductions, safety training, safety inspections, accident investigations, first aid programmes, in-house safety rules, safety incentives, control of subcontractors, selection of employees, personal protection programmes, emergency preparedness planning, safety-related promotions, safety auditing, safety record keeping and job hazard analysis. These safety programmes were used as research variables in this study.

Defining safety programme effectiveness

Prior to elaborating on this research on construction safety programmes, it is essential to understand what is meant by the term ‘safety programme effectiveness’. Wojtczak (2002) defined effectiveness as a measure of the extent to which a specific intervention, procedure or service, when deployed in routine circumstances, does what it is intended to do. Erlendsson (2002) defined effectiveness as the extent to which objectives are achieved or ‘doing the right things’. Furthermore, Collins (2005) offered a rather helpful explanation by declaring that managers typically either ‘do things right’ or ‘do the right things’. Doing things right means efficiency, which refers to getting the best output from available resources. Doing the right things means effectiveness, which refers to setting the right goals and objectives and then ensuring they are accomplished. In this study, the effectiveness of safety programmes is defined as the extent to which the implemented safety programmes achieve the intended outcomes. The outcomes were expected to be highly related to improved construction safety performance including the reduction of work-related accidents, unsafe practices and unsafe working conditions.

Conclusions

The effectiveness of safety programmes in improving safety performance on construction sites in Thailand was investigated. More specifically, the relationship between the actual status of safety programmes and associated safety performance was examined. The results show that, overall, large-scale construction projects have better safety performance than medium scale projects, as evidenced by having fewer accidents, unsafe acts and unsafe conditions.

Furthermore, the actual status of safety programmes implemented by participating projects was evaluated. It was found that five safety programmes, namely safety record keeping, safety inductions, control of subcontractors, safety committees and safety training, have very high average evaluation scores. Thus, it is implied that these five programmes are being given appropriate consideration by all construction projects to implement on jobsites.

A stepwise multiple regression technique was employed to create the models that explain the interrelated effects of safety programmes on safety performance. Consequently, three regression models were extracted from the analysis. First, four of the 17 safety programmes, namely accident investigations, safety inspections, control of subcontractors and safety incentives were found to be the most effective in improving accident rates at construction sites. Secondly, the five most effective safety programmes in minimizing the occurrence of unsafe acts at construction sites were safety inspections, accident investigations, job hazard analysis, safety committees and safety record keeping. And thirdly, accident investigations, safety inspections, job hazard analysis, safety inductions and safety auditing were identified as the five most effective factors in decreasing unsafe conditions at construction sites.

In the light of this study, construction managers can use these quantitative results to establish an effective safety programme for achieving improved construction site safety performance.

Abstract

Some safety programmes are more effective than others in improving safety performance at the project level. The effectiveness of safety programmes was evaluated by studying 70 construction projects in the Thai construction sector, examining the relationship between their actual status and associated site safety performance. The actual status was assessed by using an evaluation tool developed in compliance with Thai safety legislation and validated by safety experts. Safety performance was assessed by using reactive and proactive measures. Particularly, the accident rate was used as a reactive indicator, while the unsafe act index and the unsafe condition index were used as proactive indicators. The results demonstrated that safety performance was influenced by the nature of implemented safety programmes. First, safety programmes which positively affect accident rates include accident investigations, jobsite inspections, control of subcontractors and safety incentives. Secondly, five programmes, namely jobsite inspections, accident investigations, job hazard analysis, safety committees and safety record keeping, were found to have the most contributions to fewer unsafe acts. And thirdly, accident investigations, jobsite inspections, job hazard analysis, safety inductions and safety auditing were the most effective programmes in reducing unsafe conditions.

Keywords: Accident, safety, health and safety, performance improvement, Thailand.

*Author for correspondence. E-mail: artty_th@yahoo.com

To cite this Article Aksorn, Thanet and Hadikusumo, Bonaventura H. W.'Measuring effectiveness of safety programmes in the Thai construction industry', Construction Management and Economics, 26: 4, 409 — 421.

Full paper will be available upon request.