The effect of time on safety incentive programs in the US construction industry

Abstract

Recently, safety incentive programs have been under scrutiny by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration for their effectiveness to improve construction safety performance. Most of the previous research on construction safety incentives focused on anecdotal evidence examining the merits and demerits of safety incentives. Meanwhile, the long‐term effect of safety incentive programs on construction safety remains uncertain. This research examined how key safety performance indicators changed over time in the presence of safety incentive programs in the US construction industry using primary survey data. The paper's key finding is that the effectiveness of safety incentive programs does diminish with time, as suspected by earlier experts and managers in the US construction industry.

Keywords:

• Construction
• incentive
• safety
• personnel management
• motivation