Investigation of factors influencing construction site labour productivity in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The construction industry has been cited to have a multiplier effect in the performance of any economy. It is necessary to make the industry more efficient and effective in terms of better utilization of resources and the most important resource includes labour among others. Lack of archival information on labour productivity in Kenya has made planning and production estimation on construction sites difficult. The overall objective of the study was to establish the significant factors that affect labour productivity on construction sites. Ranking the factors that affect construction site labour productivity; assessing factors of labour productivity in the key trades of construction process; and evaluating management factors that can enhance site labour productivity would produce planning and estimating data that assist site labour productivity. The prioritization of the factors which affect productivity in labour intensive construction would be used as guide to onsite labour management. The research design used in this study was the survey methodology. 140 contractors from categories NCA4, NCA5, NCA6 and NCA7 were targeted for sampling. These categories of contractors were chosen because of their capacity to execute medium size construction projects and they are the ones who are mostly involved in labour intensive construction. The survey achieved a 70.72% rate of return. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data for the study using stratified sampling procedure. The results were presented in tables and pie chart diagrams. The findings indicate that lack of training, work planning and scheduling were the factors which were ranked highly as affecting labour productivity. These factors can be improved through skills training, work planning and scheduling. Further, monitoring work during implementation was found to be a key management strategy for it improves site labour productivity. The study recommends that policy makers should enhance project scheduling techniques and put in place strategic management structure that can enhance labour productivity. Further, NCA should come out with a rule on archival records so that construction works can have reference back-ups. Key words: Construction industry, Construction sites, Labour productivity, Factors of productivity, NCA.