As construction contractors grapple with key safety issues (i.e. fall prevention), keep track of government regulations and cope with a diverse workforce, they do so within the context of a safety culture.

In order to help improve that culture, the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) are making available to the public presentations and other materials from a workshop they held recently: The Safety Culture & Safety Climate in the construction industry.

The workshop was implemented as part of the NORA Construction Sector Council research agenda, in conjunction with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

The goals were to 1) help define what these terms mean, 2) identify ways to measure safety culture/climate on sites and 3) identify effective ways to improve safety culture/climate. Participants included small and large contractors, unions, academics and consultants.

“Participant evaluations and post-workshop feedback indicated a great deal of enthusiasm for the meeting and in some cases offered ideas for potential follow-up activities,” according to the CPWR.

The materials that are available include:

• Presentation: Safety Culture and Climate Framing the Issues for Construction, by Steven Hecker
• Presentation: Assessing Safety Culture, by Anthony O’Dea, CSP, CHST, STS
• Presentation: AGIC Strategic Safety Initiative, by Carl Heinlein, CSP, OHST, STS
• Presentation: Evaluating Safety Culture and Climate: Key Measurement Issues, by Tahira M. Probst, Ph.D.
• Presentation: TCM & Safety Culture, by Tony Barsotti
• Handout: NORA Strategic Goal 8.0, Safety Culture & Climate
• Handout: Selected Safety Culture/Climate Assessment Tools
• Handout: Rubric adapted from: PARKER, D., LAWRIE, M. & HUDSON, P. (2005) A framework for understanding the development of organisational safety culture Safety Science, 44, 551 - 562.
• Handout: Tools for a Safety and Health Program Assessment from the Construction Safety and Health Outreach Program (OSHA, 1996)
• Handout: Defining Safety Culture And Safety Climate
• Handout: List of Solutions/Interventions

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