Influential factors associated with construction managers’ propensity to implement safety measures for older workers

Construction managers play critical roles in facilitating the retention and safety of an ageing workforce. This study aims to examine the factors underlying the high behavioural intention of construction managers to implement safety measures for their older workers. A vignette study was conducted amongst 161 construction managers in Hong Kong. The factors examined covered the dimensions of the characteristics of older construction workers, types of safety measures, and the perceptions and demographics of construction managers. The results revealed that participants most frequently (46%) treat those aged 60 years and over as older construction workers. The perceptions in awareness of workforce ageing (p < 0.01), age norms (p < 0.01), and attitude towards older workers (p < 0.01) of the participants play critical roles in influencing their likelihood of possessing high behavioural intention to implement safety measures. Participants who work in small (OR = 1.659, p < 0.05) or very large companies (OR = 1.965, p < 0.01) or have limited work experience (the OR of work experience is 0.981, p < 0.05) tend to have high behavioural intention of implementing safety measures. In addition, the participants are less likely to implement safety measures for semi-skilled workers (OR = 0.793, p < 0.05) but more likely for those who have a history of accidents (OR = 1.319, p < 0.05). The findings of this study provide a conceptual framework associated with the influential factors that predict the motivation of construction management in enhancing the occupational safety of older workers.