Targeted Safety Programs

Construction firms are realizing that the initial investment and the continuous efforts to maintain a good safety record do pay off by not only reducing injuries on the job site, but by also contributing to an “on time” and “within budget” project delivery. Conscientious construction companies generally have well developed safety programs. These companies devote financial resources to maintain the health of their work force and to prevent high medical and insurance costs. Progressive organizations, like those who make up the membership of CII, are setting their goals at not only reducing injuries, but eliminating them. This expectation is called the “zero-incident” objective.

Target safety programs are techniques or approaches employed to reduce or eliminate specific types of hazards. These programs are generally implemented by firms that are proactive about construction safety.

CII decided to go beyond simply finding good corporate programs in its latest research into safety. Having already examined safety programs to see how overall safety management has been used to pursue the zero injury objective, CII wanted to investigate implementation details of programs that are designed to prevent specific types of injuries – target safety programs. To do that, it formed the Target Safety Research Team.

The research team’s goal was to answer a fundamental question, “How do construction firms and projects develop, structure, and successfully implement effective programs to prevent or to address specific types of jobsite hazards?” The study primarily focused on the procedures utilized to ensure successful development, implementation, and management of target safety programs that have effectively been implemented on commercial and industrial projects. This publication summarizes the research team’s investigation and findings.