Application of Strategic Safety Practices in Construction Industry of Lafiya, Nasarawa State

Abstract

This study aims to assess the application of strategic safety practices in the construction industry of Lafiya, Nasarawa state, to explore the benefits behind the strategic practice of safety and reduce the level of accidents in the construction industry. The construction industry in any country is associated with vital contributions to national economic development through strategic planning, design, and construction in transforming various production processes into constructed facilities. The study adopted a quantitative design, and data were collected through a questionnaire survey from randomly drawn professionals. Seventy-seven structured questionnaires were distributed to the professionals, the study adopted a simple random sampling technique, SPSS software version 22 was used for data analysis, and the results were presented in tables. The study reveals safety performance in Lafiya's construction industry, with major safety areas being design preparations, construction processes, meetings, and site safety. Major planning and control strategic safety practices include structure design, site investigations, plant operations, and construction work. The least controlled practices include site layout plans and risk identification. The least controlled practice is temporary structure stability control. This study also revealed that the independent variable strategic safety practices explained 31.0% medium effect size in safety performance, with significance at p<0.001. Therefore, the study also revealed that the beta coefficient showed that the planning, control and operation are the significant determinants of safety performance as indicated by the standardised beta coefficient of 0.278, 0.364 and 0.156 and t-statistics of 2.754, 3.611 and 1.584 which are significant at 0.007 and 0.001 significance level and insignificant at 0.117.respectively. The independent variable strategic safety practices explained 31.0% medium effect size in safety performance, with significance at p<0.001. The study concluded that the beta coefficient showed that the planning, control and operation are the significant determinants of safety performance as indicated by the standardised beta coefficient of 0.278, 0.364 and 0.156 and a t-statistics of 2.754, 3.611 and 1.584, which are significant at 0.007 and 0.001 significance level and insignificant at 0.117.respectively. It is recommended that the construction firms ensure that the safety of the workers must be given attention. This will lead to an increase in the workers' productivity. It is recommended that the contractors give attention to the maintenance of equipment or plant, which leads to the peration of strategic safety practices on the construction site. However, correct and sufficient safety warnings or precautions for workers on the construction site should be taken into consideration.