A Survey of Factors Influencing the Productivity of Construction Operatives in the State of Qatar

Despite the significant developments in construction technologies, operatives remain the key drivers in the industry. In most countries, construction labour cost comprises 30 to 50% of the overall project’s cost, and thus it is regarded as a true reflection of the efficiency and success of the operation. Following the announcement of awarding the FIFA 2022 World Cup hosting rights to the State of Qatar on December 02, 2010, the State will be spending tens of billions of dollars on hundreds of new construction projects. The objective of this research, therefore, is to identify, explore and rank the relative importance of the primary factors influencing the productivity of construction operatives in Qatar. To this end, a statistically representative sample of contractors was invited to participate in a structured questionnaire survey comprising 35 productivity factors, which were shortlisted based on previous relevant research studies and the input of local industry experts and professionals. Using the “Relative Importance Index” (RII) technique, the following 10 factors are perceived to be most significant to the productivity of operatives: (1) skill of labour; (2) shortage of materials; (3) labour supervision; (4) shortage of experienced labour; (5) communication between site management and labour force; (6) lack of construction managers’ leadership; (7) high temperature weather; (8) delays in responding to “Requests For Information” (RFI); (9) lack of providing labour with transportation; and (10) proportion of work subcontracted. The results obtained fill a gap in knowledge of factors impacting construction labour productivity in Qatar, which can be used to provide industry practitioners and policy makers with guidance for focusing on, acting upon and controlling the most significant factors perceived to affect the efficiency of operatives.