Critical Success Factors for Construction Safety: Review and Meta-Analysis of Safety Leading Indicators

Safety leading indicators are measures of the safety management system that correlate with injury rates. The literature on the topic is dispersed and equivocal in the definition, categorization, and measurement of candidate indicators, which makes validation and replication difficult. This study includes a comprehensive review of safety leading indicator research, offers a distinction between leading indicators and other methods of safety prediction, and defines a clear method for distinguishing between active and passive indicators. By applying these definitions and leveraging empirical data, a statistical meta-analysis was performed to compute the relative effect sizes and significance for all salient indicators. Although active leading indicator research is rare and relatively recent, the meta-analysis indicates that inspections and pretask safety meetings correlate strongly with near-term project safety performance. Passive leading indicator research is relatively common and has been conducted for several decades. The results of the meta-analysis indicate that implementing safety recordkeeping, safety resource, staffing for safety, owner involvement, safety training/orientation, personal protective equipment, safety incentives program, and safety inspections and observation each improves long-term safety performance. The findings validate suspected leading indicators and serve as a first step toward standardization. Practitioners may use the findings to justify and target resource expenditures using pervasive scientific evidence.