The Influence of Safety Training on Improvement in Safety Climate in Construction Sites of a Firm

Abstract

Background and Objective: Health and safety studies carried out to identify the causes of accidents have shown that wrong perception, unsafe behavior and weak culture are the most important causes of the high number of accidents. Many authors believe that safety training is one of the most influential factors on safety climate level of the organizations. Considering the importance of safety climate in occupational accident reduction and prevention, this study was done to assess the influence of safety training on improvement in safety climate in construction sites of a firm.Materials and Methods: In this study the level of safety climate in company, including two workshops, were estimated using a validated questionnaire post and prior to the training intervention. For this purpose, 347 employees were randomly selected from 2 workshops using Morgan statistical table and considering the total numbers of employees. The paired and independent t-test as well as one-way analysis of variance were applied to statistically analysis the results. SPSS version 19 was used for statistical analysis. Results: Safety training increased total scores of safety climate factors in site No.1 from 3.28 ± 0.34 to 3.66 ± 0.35. In site No.2, total scores of safety climate factors improved 12.5% from 3.06 ± 0.38 to 3.44 ± 0.47. The results also indicated that training intervention program significantly improved the score of some safety climate factors such as management commitment, safety training, safety communications, and employee involvement in safety, work permit system, safety rules, and safety rule breaking. Conclusion: Safety training is likely to improve safety climate in both sites of a construction firm. Safety training as a powerful mechanism showed a positive effect on safety climate (a subset of organizational culture) in two workplaces.