ABSTRACT
Given the high proportion of fatal and non-fatal accidents occurring in the construction industry, construction companies constantly seek different and novel strategies to reduce the number of work-related accidents. One such strategy that is mentioned often in the literature is formal, well organized and effective safety training. However, the current safety management literature reported on the effectiveness of health & safety training of large construction firms only operating within developed countries like The U.S, The U.K, and some parts of Europe. However, there is a dearth of research in construction literature in the context of medium construction firms that are typically smaller than the large construction firms and yet they collectively perform a large portion of the construction volume and train a large number of workers on safety issues. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of health and safety training practices of medium & large construction firms in developing countries based on four (4) measures of evaluation namely: reaction, learning, training transfer, and results/impacts. The research objectives were achieved by gathering empirical data from 130 construction firms in Abuja, Nigeria. Descriptive and inferential methods of analysis were used to analyse the data collected in order to achieve the aim of the study. Furthermore, the independent samples t-test was performed in order to see if the differences between the groups are statistically significant at α = 0.05. All these statistical analyses were undertaken using the statistical package for social science (SPSS) for Windows version 23. It was established that majority of workmen (10%-51%) in medium construction firms 'strongly disagree or disagree' with 11 out of 16 key components of H & S training as opposed to workmen in large construction firms in which the majority (27%-39%) 'agree or strongly agree' with 15 of the 16 key components of H & S training. It was also established that two H & S training practices that aid learning of safety knowledge by workers are implemented in medium construction firms, while 10 H & S training practices that aid learning of safety knowledge by workers are implemented in large construction firms. It was also established that two (2) H & S training practices that aid training transfer of the learned knowledge by workers in the job environment, while eight (8) H & S training practices that aid training transfer of the learned knowledge by workers in the job environment are implemented in large construction firms. Finally, it was discovered that the H & S training practices of medium construction firms have results on two (2) key organisational objectives of safety training, while those of large construction firms have results on eight (8) key organisational objectives. Based on the foregoing, the study thus, concludes that the health and safety training practices of large construction firms are more effective than those of medium construction firms in terms of components safety training design and delivery; learning aids of safety knowledge by workers; efficient training transfer of the learned knowledge by workers in the job environment; and impact on key organisational objectives of health and safety training. This therefore, means that the health and safety training practices of large construction firms are more likely to yield better safety outcomes more than building construction firms. The contribution of this study is that it represents an empirical attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of the mechanisms through which medium & large construction firms in Nigeria practice health and safety training to achieve, sustain and improve safety performance within construction. It is useful to construction firms and practicing professionals seeking to improve safety training design and delivery that translates to improved safety performance within construction.