Safety Training in Construction: Do Toolbox Trainings Work?

Toolbox training has become common practice in the construction industry. With the continued high numbers of fatalities and injuries plaguing the construction industry, the investigative team designed a quasi-experimental pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of toolbox training. The study took place in Butte, MT with a small, heavy civil construction company. The lead investigator conducted six weeks of toolbox training sessions. A 23-question pre-test examination was administered to establish the baseline knowledge. At the end of the six training sessions, participants were reevaluated with a final post-test to determine if the information was retained. Statistically significant (p = .009) gains in performance were observed suggesting that toolbox trainings did have a positive impact on worker knowledge retention. The study has a number of limitations discussed in the article that influence inferences.