An Alternative Safety Performance-Monitoring Tool: The Safety-Sampling Method

A number of performance-monitoring tools have been used in the Hong Kong construction industry to monitor safety performance. They include the traditional Safety Officers’ regular inspection, Safety Supervisors’ daily Inspection, accident statistics, and a more recent approach, the use of safety audit. These tools all have their strengths and weakness. The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) is currently developing a number of railway infrastructure projects. These railway Infrastructure projects may employ in year 2002 up to a maximum of 20,000 construction workers that accountfor 1/4 of the total construction workforce in Hong Kong. It is therefore important for the Corporation to have an efficient and effective safety petformance-monitoring tool to monitor the safety petformance of its Contractors. This study analyzed the strengths and weakness of the various safety petformance-monitoring tools and used an action research approach, based on a safety audit and feedback system designed by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. The objective of the research was to develop an alternative safety petformonce-monitoring tool, which can supplement other safety performance-monitoring tools for use by the KCRC.