271

EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SAFETY

MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND STRATEGIES IN
CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
Carlos Razuri1, Luis F. Alarcn2 and Sven Diethelm3

ABSTRACT
In an effort to improve their safety performance a group of Chilean construction
companies proposed University researchers to carry out studies to develop a project
management system that integrates production and safety management within the context
of companies that were implementing Lean Construction. This paper discusses the results
of an initial study to identify factors that significantly influence safety performance of
construction projects in Chile. Fourteen best practices (variables) that correlate closely
with safety performance in projects were identified. A questionnaire survey was then
conducted on 60 construction sites. The relationship of different variables with the project
injury rate (PIR) was tested using the Kendalls Correlation Coefficient. An incremental
analysis of safety management strategies was developed using highest impact variables in
order to investigate project strategies that were more effective influencing project safety
performance. The study results show that safety performance is influenced by all the
variables initially identified, specially, the orientation and specialized safety training for
management; project planning; and participative practices. The study also demonstrated
that there is a positive correlation between the number of safety best practices
implemented and the project injury rate (PIR). The high impact practices identified are
currently being used for the development of an integrated management model that
integrates production and safety management.

KEY WORDS
Safety, safety practices, lean construction, construction industry, safety performance.

INTRODUCTION
The development of a management system that integrates production and safety
management was inspired by the work developed in Brazil by Saurin (2002) and
Cambraia (2004), based on the Last Planner System (LPS). However, as a first step
for the development of an integrated management model, it was necessary to know the
state of the art in safety management in the Chilean construction industry and to evaluate
which safety practices impact positively in the project safety performance. This was the
focus of the exploratory study discussed in this paper.

1
Graduate R.A., Escuela de Ingeniera, Universidad Catlica de Chile, Casilla 306, Correo 22, Santiago,
Chile, E-Mail: cerazuri@uc.cl
2
Professor of Civil Engineering, Escuela de Ingeniera, Universidad Catlica de Chile, Casilla 306, Correo
22, Santiago, Chile, E-Mail: lalarcon@ing.puc.cl
3
Manager, Production Management Center, Universidad Catlica de Chile, Casilla 306, Correo 22,
Santiago, Chile, E-Mail: sdiethel@ing.puc.cl

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272 Carlos Razuri, Luis F. Alarcn and Sven Diethelm

A literature review was made with the purpose of identifying safety best practices in
construction projects. A survey was designed with the purpose of identifying those
practices that impact positively on project safety performance in the context of this study.
The survey was carried out over a four month period and included the participation of 60
project managers of 16 Chilean companies. This paper discusses the results of this
exploratory study and its implications for the development of the integrated model. The
proposed integrated model is described in (Razuri 2007).

LITERATURE REVIEW
In 1993, the Construction Industry Institute (CII) conducted a study with the purpose of
showing owners and contractors how to achieve zero accidents on their construction
projects and to convince managers of the real value of an effective safety program (CII,
1993). The report presented by CII showed that the implementation of five high-impact
techniques should allow companies with good construction safety programs to advance
in safety excellence, and thus achieve zero or near zero accidents on construction
projects. This study was followed by a validation study conducted in 1998, concluding
that the five high-impact techniques played an important role in safety performance
(Hinze et al., 2000). The five high-impact techniques identified by the CII in 1993 were
extended in 2002 (Hinze 2002), and revealed the importance of using several safety
techniques in construction projects. These techniques were grouped into nine groups:
management commitment; staffing for safety; planning: pre-project and pre-task; safety
education: orientation and specialized training; worker involvement; evaluation and
recognition/reward; subcontract management; accident/incident investigations; and drug
and alcohol testing.

SURVEY DESIGN
Since there were no previous studies in Chile on the matter, all the best practices
(variables) found in the literature review were chosen for the elaboration of the survey
(Fang et al., 2004; Fung et al., 2005; Hinze, 2002; Hinze et al., 2000, 2003; Huang et al.,
2006; Jaselskis et al., 1996; Mohamed, 2002; Sawacha et al, 1999; Abudayyech et al.,
2006), assuming that the data analysis would determine the extension of the application
of each one. The survey initially was subjected to several tests and validation processes.
The final version of the survey included approximately 158 questions, 69% of the
questions required short answers like yes or no.
The dependent variable of the study was the Project Injury Rate (PIR), which
measures the number of injuries over a million man hours worked (NCh436, 2000). The
independent variables were the selected safety best practices: owner commitment;
management commitment; staffing for safety; behaviour-based safety program;
evaluation and recognition/reward; drug and alcohol testing; safety committee; safety
education: orientation and specialized training for workers and management;
accident/incident investigations; pre-project planning; pre-task planning; site specific
safety program; and subcontract management.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

In order to select the companies that would compose the sample, the Honours List in
Safety Management 2006 of the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC) was used.

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 Evaluating The Effectiveness of Safety Management Practices and Strategies 273
in Construction Projects

This list identifies the companies with better safety records within this association. At
project level, a total of 123 surveys were sent to the project managers, 60 of which were
responded. A criterion was established to determine the surveys validity and, before
analyzing the data, it was necessary to eliminate some of them. 17 surveys were
discarded and 43 were finally included in the study. This number was validated as a
statistically valid sample size for the purpose of the survey.
The data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions). In
order to evaluate the survey, a dispersion and correlation analysis was made. The
correlation analysis was carried out to analyze the relationship between safety practices
implemented and the PIR with a suitable level of significance. The specific test used to
assess the relationship of different variables with safety performance was the Kendalls
Correlation Coefficient. According to the level of significance of the association of two
variables, one can draw conclusions about the strength of the relationship between the
two variables. Correlation is considered statistically significant if the level of significance
is below 0.05. Nevertheless, Hinze (2002) argued that a level of significance in the
interval between 0.05 and 0.10 is considered indicative of a tendency.
The results are presented using the effectiveness index (EI), which is the quotient of
the average PIR of projects which did not implement a safety practice divided by the
average PIR of those projects that did implement this practice. Only safety practices that
showed a level of significance below 0.10 were chosen for further analysis.
(1) EI = Average PIR of projects with practices not implemented/ Average PIR of
projects with practices implemented
An incremental analysis of safety management strategies was made in order to better
understand the strategies of projects that have a positive impact on safety performance. A
dispersion graph analysis was also used to identify relationships between the PIR and the
number of safety practices implemented.

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
Table 1 shows a breakdown of the different project types included in the sample and the
average PIR for each type of project.
Table 1. Type of Projects in the Sample

Response Number Average PIR

Building /Residential construction 23 21.04
Highway construction 1 37.04
Civil Works 6 7.87
Industrial Construction 11 5.4
Maintenance 2 5.39
Correlation Coefficient = -0.44 Level of Significance = 0.00

Due to space limitations, the detailed results presented below are limited only to the 8
practices that showed the highest EI, starting from the highest impact in decreasing order.
Summary results for all the practices are shown later in Table 10.
a) ORIENTATION AND SPECIALIZED TRAINING FOR MANAGEMENT
Safety training is basic for management commitment and leadership. More than half of
the projects (55.8%) provided safety training project managers and field supervisors. In

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274 Carlos Razuri, Luis F. Alarcn and Sven Diethelm

only 37.5% of these projects a test was administered at the end of training sessions, and
in 18.6% of the projects a minimum level of safety training received was required to be
promoted of category.
Table 2. EI for Orientation and Specialized Training for Management.

Safety Practices Sig. EI

Do field supervisors and project managers receive safety training? (no / yes) 0.01 1.66
Are field supervisors and project managers given a test after they have received 0.01 2.49
training? (no / yes)
Does career enhancement require that a minimum level of safety training has 0.03 3.24
been received? (no / yes)
How often is safety training provided to field supervisors and project managers? 0.00 8.60
(weekly / only at the beginning)
b) PROJECT PLANNING
The analysis showed that there was a direct relation between planning best practices and
safety performance. Those companies (81.4%) that made a constructability review before
initiating the project construction and which included safety in the planning process,
improved its safety performance.
Table 3. EI for Project Planning.

Safety Practices Sig. EI

Is constructability a part of the planning process? (no / yes) 0.04 2.17
Is safety a part of the constructability review? (no / yes) 0.05 3.71

c) BEHAVIOUR-BASED SAFETY PROGRAM

This practice was found mainly in heavy construction projects. Less than half (30.2%) of
the projects had a formal behaviour-based program. 37.2% of the management and
supervisory personnel received overview training in behaviour-based safety philosophy
and concepts.
Table 4. EI for Behaviour-based Safety Program

Safety Practices Sig. EI

Is there a formal behaviour-based safety program on this project? (no / yes) 0.00 3.28
Do management and supervisory personnel receive overview training in 0.00 2.28
behaviour-based safety philosophy and concepts? (no / yes)
Are safety observers used this project? (no / yes) 0.00 2.55

d) DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING

This study showed that projects (34.8%) that conduct a drug and alcohol testing program
had better safety records. In 24.9% of the projects, the test was done randomly,
including the administrative personnel in the tests.
Table 5. EI for Drug and Alcohol Testing.

Safety Practices Sig. EI

Is there a substance abuse testing program on this project? (no / yes) 0.00 3.09
Are staff personnel also tested in the random tests? (no / yes) 0.07 2.31

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 Evaluating The Effectiveness of Safety Management Practices and Strategies 275
in Construction Projects

e) ORIENTATION AND SPECIALIZED TRAINING FOR WORKERS

All of the projects conducted orientation training to all workers. 72.1% of the projects
had a formal training program, and 58.1% of the projects controlled the program
fulfilment by means of training indices. Most of the projects (81.4%) provided safety
training to workers with an average of 4.0 hours per month per worker.
Table 6. EI for Orientation and Specialized Training for Workers.

Safety Practices Sig. EI

Is there a formal safety training program on the project (no / yes) 0.10 1.49
Is there a safety training index on the project (no / yes) 0.09 1.33
Are workers tested after they have received training? (no / yes) 0.00 1.94
Other than orientation, do workers receive other types of safety training? (no/yes) 0.06 2.02
How much additional training do workers receive? (1 hour / more than 5 hours) 0.00 6.25

f) SAFETY COMMITTEE
Most projects (69.8%) had a safety committee, which evaluated and controlled the
conditions of work by means of safety inspections. It was observed that in 60.5% of the
projects, this committee gave inspection reports to the project manager.
Table 7. EI for Safety Committee.

Safety Practices Sig. EI

Is there a formal safety committee on the project? (no / yes) 0.01 1.81
Does the safety committee deliver inspection reports? (no / yes) 0.10 2.90

g) PRE-TASK PLANNING
When crews analyzed the risks prior to performing their work (83.7% responded
positively), there was a positive impact on safety performance of these projects. 60.5%
of the crews prepared and analyzed or plan before each new task. It was observed that
projects (25.6%) where not only the crew participated in the analysis of the risks had
better safety indices.
Table 8. EI for Pre-Task Planning.

Safety Practices Sig. EI

Do crews analyze task risks prior to performing their work? (no / yes) 0.05 1.46
Do all crews prepare and analyze or plan before each task? (no / yes) 0.00 2.24
Who participates in the preparation of this plan or analysis? (crew only/others) 0.08 2.92

h) SAFETY INCENTIVES PROGRAM

Those projects with a formal safety incentive program (76.7%) had better safety records
than those that did not have it. Most of the projects (79.6%) evaluated safety
performance of the field supervisors showing a positive impact on safety performance. In
less than half of the projects (34.9%), the company sponsored safety dinners.
Table 9. EI for Safety Incentives Program.

Safety Practices Sig. EI

Does the company have a formal safety incentive program? (no / yes) 0.02 1.91

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276 Carlos Razuri, Luis F. Alarcn and Sven Diethelm

Are field supervisors evaluated on safety performance? (no / yes) 0.01 2.22
Does the company sponsor safety dinners for this project? (no / yes) 0.00 2.49

SUMMARY RESULTS FOR ALL THE PRACTICES

In general, the results obtained from the analysis validated the results from previous
studies because most of the variables included in the study had statistically significant
correlations with safety performance. However, the results shown in Table 10 provide a
general vision of the effectiveness of safety best practices in the context of the study that
can be helpful to design comprehensive management strategies to improve safety
performance.
Table 10. Summary rank of effectiveness index.

Id Variable Group Average

EI
i Orientation and Specialized Training for Management 3.99
k Project Planning 2.94
d Behaviour-based Safety Program 2.70
f Drug and Alcohol Testing 2.70
h Orientation and Specialized Training for Workers 2.61
g Safety Committee 2.36
l Pre-Task Planning 2.21
e Safety Incentives Program 2.21
n Subcontract Management 2.07
c Staffing for Safety 1.99
b Management Commitment 1.93
a Owners Role 1.91
m Site Specific Safety Program 1.78
j Accident/incident Investigations 1.77

Some of the highly ranked practices are very important for the purpose of designing a
management model that integrates production planning and safety, the final goal of this
study. For instance, the importance of project planning and task planning for safety
performance is once again corroborated (Hinze 2002). This is very important to support a
management model that seeks the integration of safety with production planning and
control within the context of the LPS. This notion is also supported by other studies
developed in companies implementing Lean Construction, such as the work developed in
Brazil by Saurin (2002) and Cambraia (2004), results on safety performance improvement
using the LPS reported by MT Hjgaard (LCI 2002), and benchmarking data analysis
results reported by Ramrez et al (2004).
DISPERSION GRAPH ANALYSIS
Practices with a high level of significance in the correlation analysis (smaller than 0.10)
were selected for this analysis. The dispersion graph shown in Figure 3 suggests a
relationship between PIR and the number of safety practices implemented in the project.
A correlation coefficient of = -0.64, a level of significance of = 0.00 and R2 of= 0.41 were
obtained.
Projects with more safety best practices implemented show better safety performance
than those with only a few safety practices. From this analysis, it is possible to conclude

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 Evaluating The Effectiveness of Safety Management Practices and Strategies 277
in Construction Projects

that there is no magical prescription such as a single best practice. Also, it is not just a
matter of implementing a bunch of good practices. If we combine the previous analysis
of the most effective practices (table 10) with the results of the dispersion graph (Figure
1) we can carry out an analysis of the most effective combination of best practices
(strategies). The following section suggests a type of incremental analysis that can help
to understand the performance improvement mechanisms and to choose the most
effective strategies.

Figure 1. Dispersion Graph: PIR vs. Number of Safety best practices

INCREMENTAL ANALYSIS OF MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Considering the limited sample size for each project strategy, the incremental analysis is
not intended to lead to statistically valid conclusions. This type of analysis is performed
to better understand mechanisms and strategies that lead to better performance and to
identify patterns associated to high or low performance.
This analysis was made with practices which had the top seven EI, with the exception
of drug and alcohol testing, since these were voluntary for workers. Therefore, the
practices analyzed were: orientation and specialized training for management; project
planning; behaviour-based safety program; orientation and specialized training for
workers; safety committee; pre-task planning; and safety incentives program. For the
purpose of the analysis, a combination of safety practices in a given project will be called
a safety management strategy in the following paragraphs. Each strategy has an Expected
Relative Project Injury Rate (ERPIR). ERPIR was calculated taking as a base line the
average PIR of the projects studied (14.71). If a project with a certain management
strategy has a PIR of 30, the ERPIR will be 15.29 (30 - 14.71), which means that this
project is 15.29 over the average.
Figure 2 shows a rank order of alternative strategies in descending order of benefits.
The strategies were ranked according to their ERPIR. The top 9 projects in safety
performance had similar safety management strategies and common practices

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278 Carlos Razuri, Luis F. Alarcn and Sven Diethelm

implemented, such as: behaviour-based safety program, formal safety committee, and
safety considerations during pre-project planning. 8 out of these 9 projects considered
safety training for workers; safety training for management; and safety incentives
program. On the other hand, low performer projects on the left hand side of Figure 2 did
not have a safety management strategy based on the most effective practices.

Figure 2. Expected Relative Project Injury Rate vs safety management strategies.

Combinations 1, 2, 7, 9, 12, 16, 18 and 19 were selected to evaluate the incremental

impact of the implementation of safety best practices. Figure 3 shows that the
effectiveness of safety strategies increases with the number of safety practices
implemented in a project. Marginal PIR improvement due to the implementation of a
particular high impact practice decreases as the number of implemented practices
increases.

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 Evaluating The Effectiveness of Safety Management Practices and Strategies 279
in Construction Projects

Figure 3. PIR evolution according safety practices implementation.

A significant impact of behaviour-based safety programs can be observed comparing
Combinations 16 and 18. Each combination was observed in 5 projects that have similar
strategies, except behaviour-based projects. Even though, the analysis of Figures 1 and 2
is based on a limited number of projects for each strategy, the performance patterns
observed are very reasonable and provide insight into the characteristics of best and worst
performers. The author believe that in future studies, with more data available, this type
of analysis can provide the basis for designing more effective management strategies.

CONCLUSIONS
The correlation analysis indicated that most safety best practices analyzed contributed to
improve project safety performance, validating results obtained in previous studies in this
study context. This exploratory also contributed to identify the most effective practices in
the context of the future implementation of a management model that integrates
production and safety management.
Participative practices like safety training for management and workers, safety
committees, safety tasks analysis by the crews, behaviour-based safety program and the
project planning variable had the highest indexes of effectiveness in project safety
performance. The practices identified as the most effective are actually stimulated by
Lean Construction methods and practices.
The dispersion graph analysis showed a good correlation between the number of
safety best practices implemented and the PIR, the larger the number of implemented
practices, the lower the PIR. However, good safety performance is not attained only with
the implementation of an isolated safety practice or a large number of practices in any
order or combination. The incremental analysis showed that the top 12 performer
projects share a set of common practices that are present in all of them: orientation and
specialized training for management; project planning; orientation and specialized
training for workers; safety committee; and safety incentives program. In addition the top

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280 Carlos Razuri, Luis F. Alarcn and Sven Diethelm

7 performers included behaviour-based safety program and the top 2 performers included
pre-task planning. The analysis also showed the significant marginal impact of behaviour-
based practices in high performance projects.
The exploratory study described in this paper provided the basis for the design of a
management model that integrates safety best practices with production management
using the LPS. The initial implementation of the management model in three companies
is reported in Razuri (2007).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Support was provided by GEPUC and associated companies. We also appreciate the
collaboration of the Chilean Chamber of Construction for its permanent support of this
research.

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