What is the current status of health and safety in construction?

Safeguard’s State of the Nation survey yielded some interesting results regarding health and safety across a broad range of industries. In order to ascertain a clearer picture as to the construction industry in particular, Safeguard provided industry-specific data to Site Safe.

Of the State of the Nation survey respondents, 257 selected Construction as their industry sector. Respondents were asked to choose from five responses to each question, on a scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’.

The recorded results below are the percentage of construction industry respondents who selected either ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ to each of the questions.

In New Zealand, the safety of workers is taken seriously: 73.7%

In New Zealand, the health and wellbeing of workers is taken seriously: 50.2%

New Zealand's health & safety performance is improving: 73.2%

Overall, the health & safety regulator, WorkSafe New Zealand, is performing well: 44.8%

In the last 12 months my experience with WorkSafe New Zealand has been satisfactory: 59.9%

Organisations in New Zealand view health and safety as an opportunity to improve, not just to comply: 38.8%

In my experience, most health and safety professionals are competent: 60.2%

Health and safety has improved in my workplace over the last 12 months: 78.3%

In my workplace we have identified our critical risks and have effective controls in place to minimise the chance of harm: 85.3%

In my workplace, workers are involved in identifying risks and making decisions about how to control them: 75.8%

In my workplace, when a worker raises a health & safety issue his or her views are heard by management: 77.5%

I am confident no one at my workplace will be harmed or made unwell as a result of activities in my workplace: 44.3%

In my workplace, staff are regularly asked for input into how health and safety is managed: 72.5%

In my workplace, senior managers and/or board members regularly ask questions about health and safety: 72.1%

In my workplace, we discuss health and safety risk with other businesses which share our site: 73.8%

For further information or to view the entire State of the Nation survey results, visit https://safeguard.co.nz/.