Development of safety leading and lagging indicators framework for contractor selection in construction projects

Selecting an appropriate contractor is a crucial phase that clients normally conduct to execute projects. For the past few decades, it was found that many selection decisions lean towards accepting the lowest bid offers, which causes many problems during the construction stage. Extensive research has been conducted on the main contractor selection criteria, such as financial stability, technical and management capability. This thesis focuses generally on health and safety criteria, specifically leading and lagging indicators that are underexplored besides the aforementioned criteria. Therefore, a systematic review of 38 empirical studies was conducted to analyse the existing literature on health and safety prequalification criteria for contractor selection in construction. Six main themes were discovered to represent safety prequalification criteria for construction projects, namely experience and work history, safety control system, safety policy and management, accident rates and records, safety promotion and environmental concerns. Under these six main themes, 25 safety prequalification criteria have been substantially published in previous literature, with the most cited criteria being health and safety records. It was found out there is a gap in determining safety leading and lagging indicators in contractor selection. These indicators may help clients in selecting safe contractors and contribute significant impacts to the project outcomes. Following this systematic literature review, the aim of this research was formulated, which is to improve the existing contractor selection procedure in Malaysia by introducing a framework that integrates safety leading and lagging indicators as part of the contractor selection criteria towards creating safer construction sites, while taking into account the challenges posed by the recent disease outbreak. In order to achieve the aim and the research objectives, a qualitative research approach is adopted. 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Malaysian construction professionals who have vast experience in the construction industry and are involved in the contractor selection process. The result shows that there are 10 leading indicators and 5 lagging indicators that can be integrated into the contractor selection criteria. The study identified four significant impacts of utilising leading and lagging indicators for contractor selection process, namely increase in quality of work, effect on project completion time, minimising the additional cost of the project, and increase in safety awareness. A framework that incorporates safety leading and lagging indicators into the contractor selection process has been developed, which is then validated by six experts. This framework was specifically developed to address health and safety criteria in general, with keen interest in the potential challenges posed by disease outbreaks in Malaysia. This framework introduces a novel approach by integrating both safety leading and lagging indicators into the contractor selection. This unique combination has not been extensively explored before in the Malaysian construction industry, thus contributing new perspective in improving construction safety practices. In addition, by incorporating both leading and lagging indicators, this framework offers a more comprehensive and thorough evaluation of contractors' safety performance, which in turn can minimise risk of accidents at construction sites. Finally, this framework also contributes insights into adapting safety measures to unexpected situations, like the Covid-19 pandemic.