Making Safety an Ongoing Part of the Construction Process Through ...

How much does pre-task planning impact safety performance. Results of recent research
studies in construction safety indicate that the impact is significant. Those projects
reporting that pre-task planning meetings are implemented on site reported better safety
performances than those projects without such practice (see Figure 3). Because of
findings such as these, it has been alleged that pre-task planning meetings are among the
most important safety techniques that can be implemented on construction sites.
7
6
Study of Large Projects
Study of Shutdown Projecs
5
Relative RIR
4
3
2
1
0
Yes
No
Is pretask planning a regular part of the project planning?
Figure 3. Pretask Planning and Safety Performance (Source: Hinze 2002, Hinze and Godfrey
2002)
Summary and Conclusions
The pre-task planning meetings have been proven to be effective in reducing workplace
injuries. While there are many variations of conducting pre-task planning meetings, the
principles that are to be followed are quite similar. The fundamentals about conducting
pre-task planning meetings are that the workers conduct a systematic assessment about
the task to be performed, decide on how the work will be done, identify the hazards that
might be encountered in the process, and devise means by which the hazards can be
minimized or eliminated. According to this general concept, when these steps are
consistently followed, the work procedure will be performed in a safe manner.
Recommendations
The success that construction firms have had with implementing pre-task planning
meetings demonstrates that this is a process that should be adopted more widely. Since