Enhancing Project Performance through the Introduction of Safety Programs

The construction industry of Hong Kong bears a very poor site safety record. Although the overall accident rate has gone down a little, the fatalities have risen dramatically during the past few years. The annual accident rate per 1000 workers is twice of the United States, 25 times that of Japan and nearly 30 times that of Singapore. In the past, the Hong Kong government adopted a laissez-fair approach in managing constrcution safety, hoping that the market force would regulate the safety performance. However, the approach has proven to be ineffective. In combating the poor safety records, the Hong Kong government has lately introduced a series of safety programs, which consist of encouraged and mandatory schemes aiming at nourishing a better safety culture in the construction industry. This paper reports the findings of a research study, which was undertaken to examine the impact of safety programs on project performance. The effectiveness of the safety programs, client's satisfaction on cost, time, quality, functionality and overall satisfcation; as well as design team leader's and construction team leader's satisfaction of 110 recently completed projects were measured and analysed. Using factor and stepwise multiple regression analysis impact of safety programs on project performance was identified. It was shown that projects where effective safety programs were implemented could lead to better quality, higher designer's overall satisfaction, higher client's satisfaction on cost, improved functionality, higher client's overall satisfaction and higher contractor's overall satisfaction.