Universities teaming up on best safety practices for small construction companies

November 12, 2025

Manoa, HI — Researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Oregon State University will partner to create best safety practices “based on the nature and stresses of small construction businesses.”

Funded by a grant from the nonprofit Job-Site Safety Institute, the project “embeds researchers directly within real jobsites.” The goal: to produce a guide encompassing best practices, training and behavioral interventions for construction operations with 20 or fewer employees.

To accomplish this, the researchers plan to complete various case studies and interviews. They’ll examine how work operations, workplace culture, decision-making influences and stressors affect residential construction projects.

“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,” JSI Executive Director Rob Matuga said in a press release. “The project will allow researchers to be immersed in the daily realities of the jobsite, 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 onsite.”

Vineeth Dharmapalan, principal investigator and assistant professor of civil, environmental and construction engineering at UHM, added in the release that “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.”