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What percentage of safety performance is explained by the elements of an SMS? New study to be posted soon finds ~30% of performance explained by SMSs.

Data from 359 Singaporean construction companies was evaluated to explain the determinants of safety performance, and particularly the interaction of safety climate and SMSs.

Overall they found that:

·       An SMS positively influenced safety performance. However, the “SMS can only explain 30.9% of the variance in safety performance”

·        When safety climate was added to the model, the proportion of explained variance elevated to 54.7%.

Significant associations were found between subcontractor involvement and safety performance. Moreover, their involvement also influenced safety climate, which subsequently improved SMS effectiveness; supporting greater integration and cooperation.

Hence “In today’s business environment, a long-term relationship is more important than short-term profit”. 

Given that just over half of safety performance is explained by the elements of an SMS and safety climate, this, of course, leaves a fair chunk of unexplained performance in this model.

So while both are important, there’s lots more to good performance than the SMS and climate.

Ref: Kim, N. K., Rahim, N. F. A., Iranmanesh, M., & Foroughi, B. (2019). Safety science, 118, 48-56.

[Note limitations – the data was based on safety people input and was cross-sectional]

Study link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.05.008

LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_what-percentage-of-safety-performance-is-activity-7121611574733144064-kPLF?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop