Measuring Safety Climate of a Construction Company

TLDR

Safety climate provides contractors and owners with insights into attitudes and perceptions that can consistently improve safety performance. The study aimed to identify a safety climate that enhances safety culture and positively influences perceived safety performance on construction projects. A questionnaire survey was administered to 1,500 hard‑copy forms across 22 Hong Kong construction sites, yielding 1,120 valid responses from a leading company and its subcontractors. Factor analysis revealed two climate dimensions—management commitment and employee involvement, and inappropriate safety procedures—that together explained 43.9 % of variance and significantly predicted workers’ safety performance perceptions, with an inverse relationship to inappropriate practices, indicating safety climate as a useful tool for assessing and improving site safety and informing managers and practitioners.

Abstract

Safety climate can benefit contractors, specialty contractors, and owners of industries by providing them with the knowledge of attitudes and perceptions that can help to consistently achieve better safety performance. The objective of this research was to determine safety climate that would enhance safety culture and positively impact perceived safety performance on construction projects. A safety climate questionnaire survey was conducted on the construction sites of a leading construction company and its subcontractors in Hong Kong. Approximately, 1,500 hard copy questionnaires were distributed and the response rate was excellent, resulting in 1,120 valid questionnaires being collected from 22 construction projects. By means of factor analysis, two underlying safety climate factors were extracted, accounting for 43.9% of the total variance. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that these climate factors, "management commitment and employee involvement" and "inappropriate safety procedure and work practices" were significant predictors of workers' perceptions of safety performance. The findings indicated that the relationship between perceived safety performance and "inappropriate safety procedure and work practices" was inversely correlated. The results suggest that safety climate can be used as an effective measure of assessing and improving site safety for projects under construction. The findings of this study and the methodology might be useful for research at other construction sites in other regions and countries. This work provides useful information for project managers and safety practitioners who desire to improve safety climate and safety performance on construction sites.