Abstract
The purpose of the paper is to investigate safety hazard identification in the con-struction industry towards the improvement of employee’s health and safety (H&S). Unidentified hazards in the construction industry are likely to present the most unavoidable risks. Therefore, hazard identification is paramount to con-struction safety management since risk assessment is the practical means by which hazardous events are managed. The study is mainly literature review with reference to existing theoretical literature, published and unpublished research. The paper presents an overview of hazards and accident causation. The findings from the study have shown that falls at construction sites are the leading cause of death and most of these deaths were attributed to falls from roofs, scaffolds, and ladders. Construction accidents lead to delay in project completion, increase the expenses and ruin the reputation and reliability of constructors. The following were identified as some of the barriers to H&S improvement: lack of information sharing across projects, full-time safety department, subjective nature of hazard identification and risk assessment. The study explores safety hazard identifica-tion in the construction industry towards the improvement of employee’s H&S. The study presents a strong background on hazard identification in the construc-tion safety management.