A blue-collar insight into improving construction labour productivity

This research is a follow-on study from a nationwide survey conducted among UK project managers, reported in Chan and Kaka (2003), aimed at identifying the potential areas of improving construction labour productivity, and represents one of the latest attempts in the UK to tap into the perceptions of the 'blue collar' sector of the construction workforce. The preliminary results presented in this paper stems from data collected from 59 site operatives and reveal a high potential in the areas of communication, usage of plant and equipment, specification and quality requirements, supervision and rework. A comparison between the results from the project managers' survey and this study highlights a gap in the thinking of 'white collar' and 'blue collar' workers, with the former more aligned to strategic issues and the latter more focused on the task to be completed.