Factors affecting employee productivity in the UAE construction industry

Productivity rates of construction trades is the basis for accurately estimating time and costs required to complete a project. This research aims at developing a regression model for predicting changes in productivity, when the underlying factors affecting productivity are varied. These factors were broadly categorised as general work environment, organisational work policies, group dynamics and interpersonal relationships and personal competence of the employees as applicable in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The most significant factors amongst these were determined through surveys using the Severity Index and the Chi Square computations for significance. The factors were regrouped into factors that afforded practical variation at site and productivity data was collected using different combination of the most significant factors of Timing, Supervision, Group Dynamics, Control by Procedures, Climate and Material Availability. Construction activities such as Excavation, Formwork, Reinforcement, Concreting, Block work, Plaster and Tiling have been studied and the increase or decrease in productivity obtained was compared to the actual site average productivity; then analysed statistically using the MINITAB software, and linear regression models established. Validation is underway at other sites, but early field data on one site, indicate that the regression models arrived at - were capable of predicting productivity changes within ±15%.