Is your safety management effective?

Dr. Thanet in his PhD dissertation has studied effective and efficient safety programs. Many construction firms have difficulties in allocating budget to improve their construction site safety. They have no idea which safety programs are really effective and efficient.

I copy and paste Dr. Thanet's PhD abstract as below:

SAFETY PROGRAM PERFORMANCE IN THE THAI CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

ABSTRACT

The construction industry has been globally regarded as a relatively hazardous industry. It has always been reported that fatal accidents and injuries in construction remain consistently at a very high level despite a significant downward trend in recent years. Similarly, in Thailand, the construction industry has faced a wide range of challenges, one of which is the frequent occurrences of accidents at the workplace. Safety programs are now considered to be one of the most important approaches to eliminating work-related accidents and injuries. An effective safety program can substantially reduce accidents because it can help management build up safer ways to operate and create safe working environments for the workers.

The Thai Government has taken significant steps to improve safety in the construction industry by promoting the establishment of safety programs at the enterprise level. It has been suggested that the following 17 safety programs should be implemented as business core functions: safety policies, safety committees, safety inductions, safety training, safety inspections, accident investigations, first aid programs, in-house safety rules, safety incentive schemes, control of subcontractors, selection of employees, personal protection programs, emergency preparedness planning, safety-related promotions, safety auditing, safety record keeping, and job hazard analysis. However, the accident occurrence rate in the construction industry still remains at unacceptable levels. This shows that the industry suffers from an inability to implement safety programs which achieve improved safety performance.

To help the industry, therefore, it is worthwhile to conduct research focused on investigating effective and efficient safety programs, and identifying the key factors influencing the success of safety programs. The findings therefore can be used as a guideline by construction sites to implement safety programs successfully.

This study was conducted with 35 medium and 35 large-scale construction projects taking part. To assess safety programs, an evaluation tool was developed by using scientific methods based upon Thai safety regulations and standards, and which was validated by a panel of safety experts. Multiple regression analysis was used to create models that reflect a set of the most effective and efficient safety programs for safety performance improvement.

The effectiveness of safety programs was evaluated by studying the relationship between their actual status and associated site safety performance. It was found that 4 of the 17 safety programs, namely accident investigations, safety inspections, control of subcontractors, and safety incentives, are the most effective in reducing accident rates at construction sites. The most effective safety programs in minimizing the occurrence of unsafe acts at construction sites are safety inspections, accident investigations, control of subcontractors, and safety incentives. And lastly, accident investigations, safety inspections, job hazard analysis, safety inductions, and safety auditing were the most effective factors in eliminating unsafe conditions at construction sites.

To evaluate the efficiency of safety programs, this study quantified amounts of staff time and budget allocated for safety program implementation based upon the perception-based survey and correlated them with safety performance. Multiple regression analysis yielded models which showed that 5 of the 17 safety programs, namely accident investigations, control of subcontractors, safety incentives, safety inspections, and safety auditing were the most efficient in improving accident rates. The most efficient safety programs in preventing the occurrence of unsafe acts were accident investigations, job hazard analysis, in-house safety rules, safety inspections, safety committees, and safety incentives. Lastly, safety committees, safety incentives, accident investigations, safety auditing, and safety inspections were found as the most efficient factors in controlling unsafe conditions on the sites.

Furthermore, this research also investigated critical success factors (CSFs) for safety programs. These CSFs are important to guide contractors to implement safety programs successfully. The CSFs are regarded as the limited number of activities in which results, if they are satisfactory, will ensure successful implementation of safety programs. Therefore, the final output of this study will enable contractors to choose effective and efficient safety programs and to implement them by understanding the CSFs. This study showed that management support, appropriate safety education and training, teamwork, clear and realistic goals, and an effective enforcement scheme were perceived by the respondents as the most significant factors that need considerable attention in order to ensure successful safety programs. However, this study found the current problems which may lead to failure of safety programs were lack of management support, lack of appropriate supervision, lack of sufficient resource allocation, lack of teamwork, and lack of effective enforcement. Improving these priority factors to satisfactory levels would lead to successful safety programs, thereby minimizing accidents.

In conclusion, in light of this research, a package of comprehensive strategies for achieving improved construction safety performance was provided. In other words, the study gave a set of the most effective and efficient safety programs for implementation on construction sites as well as critical activities or known as critical success factors (CSFs) that can ensure the successful implementation of the safety programs.

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A part from his PhD dissertation, Dr. Thanet has published in many journal and conferences as below:

• Aksorn, T., and Hadikusumo, B.H.W. (2007). Critical Success Factors Influencing Safety Program Performance in Thai Construction Projects, Safety Science.
• Aksorn, T., and Hadikusumo, B.H.W. (2008). An Evaluative Tool for Construction Safety Programs. Professional Safety. American Society of Safety Engineers.
• Aksorn, T., and Hadikusumo, B.H.W. (2007). Gap Analysis Approach for Safety Program Improvement. Journal of Construction in Developing country, 12, 1.
• Aksorn, T., and Hadikusumo, B.H.W. (2006). Critical Success Factors of Safety Programs Implementation in Thai Construction Projects. Proceedings of CIBW99 Conference on Global Unity on Safety and Health. Beijing, China. June, 2006.
• Aksorn, T., and Hadikusumo, B.H.W. (2006). Investigation of Critical Success Factors of Safety Programs Implementation in Thai Construction industry. Proceedings of the Tenth East-Asia-Pacific Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction. Bangkok, Thailand. August, 2006.
  

Posted by

Dr. BHW Hadikusumo
CEIM Coordinator
http://www.set.ait.ac.th/ceim/

" CEIM offers Master and Doctoral degrees in Construction Project Management and Infrastructure Management in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam "