Job-Site Safety Institute Announces New Grant to Study Best Safety Practices for Small Construction Businesses
Mick McDonald
mmcdonald@bmico.com
RALEIGH, N.C. (September 4, 2025) – The Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI), a nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to improving safety and protecting lives, has announced it has awarded a new grant to The University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and project team partner Oregon State University to explore best safety practices based on the nature and stresses of small construction businesses.
Operating under unique constraints that can potentially influence their ability to implement safety measures effectively, small home building contractors (i.e., those with 20 or fewer employees) face significantly higher injury and fatality rates than larger firms.
"This grant is exciting for JSI because this research brings us to the front line of construction sites, where safety isn't just a manual or checklist but a real-world experience,” said Rob Matuga, JSI Executive Director. “The project will allow researchers to be immersed in the daily realities of the job-site, where they can listen to the voices on the ground, and observe the hidden risks, habits, unspoken rules, and human factors that truly shape safety on site.”
This grant will fund research that consists of conducting ethnographic case studies to investigate the work undertaken by these small construction firms. The study will document work operations, workplace culture, decision-making influences, and stressors that influence safety outcomes within residential construction projects, including new home construction and renovations.
“Most U.S. studies of safety in small construction businesses have relied on surveys, which provide breadth but not always depth,” explained Dr. Vineeth Dharmapalan, Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering at The University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. “Our work embeds researchers directly within real job sites to conducting direct observations, interviews, and utilizing stressor checklists. Our aim is to capture the daily pressures behind safety decisions. Triangulating these perspectives will allow us to create best practices that are both solidly evidence-based and grounded in the lived experiences of small contractors.”
Based on insights garnered from the study, this grant will allow for the development of practical safety guidance for small construction businesses to improve safety in their workplaces, which includes best practices, safety training programs, and behavioral interventions tailored for small businesses.
“Improving safety requires addressing fundamental aspects and principles of human performance, decision-making, and risk tolerance in the presence of uncertainty and risk of injury. Doing so requires research methods that expose these features from the individual worker level all the way up through the organization,” said Dr. John Gambatese, Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University and project consultant. “Ethnographic research allows us to go beyond self-reported data to uncover the subtle trade-offs small businesses make between safety and productivity. This approach will yield rich, granular stories enabling us to craft guidance that truly reflects what happens on site, and ensuring recommendations are practical and actionable for small firms.”
Learn more about the Job-Site Safety Institute at www.jssafety.org.
About JSI: Founded by Builders Mutual, JSI is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. This research and educational organization is dedicated to eliminating all job-site related injuries and deaths in the construction industry. Research by JSI will play a critical role in improving on-the-job safety and saving lives.
About The University of Hawai‘i at Manoa: The University of Hawai‘i at Manoa is a world-class university providing affordable, quality higher education to the people of Hawai‘i and conducting pioneering research to address critical issues facing the state, country and the world. UH Manoa proudly serves more than 19,000 students pursuing more than 225 different degrees. Coming from every Hawaiian island, every state in the nation and more than 100 countries, UH Manoa students thrive in an enriching environment with a global exchange of ideas. For more information, visit www.manoa.hawaii.edu, or follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/uhmanoa) and X (www.x.com/uhmanoa).
About Oregon State University: Oregon State University (OSU) is a research-intensive university with more than 35,000 students located at its main campus in Corvallis, OR and additional campuses in Newport and Bend, OR. As a land, sea, space, and sun grant university, OSU targets educating students and conducting research to develop new ideas and solve real-world problems faced Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, the U.S., and the rest of the world. Its strategic plan "Prosperity Widely Shared" includes being a proactive driver of economic, workforce, and community development, a goal that maps directly to improving human health and well-being. To fulfill this goal, researchers in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at OSU focus their expertise on research to improve safety and health in the construction industry.