Implementing safety leading indicators in construction: insights on relative importance of indicators

Lagging indicators have been widely used in the construction industry to measure and improve safety performance for decades; however, they are criticised for providing insufficient information to generate continuous improvement because they only indicate safety outputs. Against this backdrop, industry and academia have investigated safety leading indicators in addition to traditionally used lagging indicators. Leading indicators are proactive in nature because they measure safety initiatives that provide an early indication of impending adverse events, which in turn allows management to initiate corrective steps. Although leading indicators are an emergent area of research, there is limited knowledge to guide their implementation in terms of their selection and use. Having insight regarding their relative importance could thus be useful. To address the knowledge gap, this study conducted a systematic literature review on safety leading indicators in construction which resulted in the identification of 16 safety leading indicators. A subsequent two-round Delphi technique involving industry experts was used to determine the relative importance. The results show that organisational commitment, client engagement, main contractor engagement, supply chain engagement, and designer engagement are perceived by the industry experts as being among the topmost important indicators for safety management performance. The findings would enhance the construction industry’s understanding of safety leading indicators and help organisations prioritise efforts to enhance their safety performance.