In Australia there are over 15 occurrences of serious injury every hour, and more than 1.2 million weeks are lost each year as a result of safety related incidents.
For some, these statistics will not be surprising. What may be surprising however is that these injuries are not equally spread across all individuals and organisations, even within the same industry or role type.
Some individuals routinely suffer more injuries than others, and some organisations are more unsafe than others.
Research shows that people factors are a major contributor to injury rates. Such factors include the beliefs and attitudes of employees regarding safety, the values and behaviour of supervisors and the overall safety climate and culture within the organisation.
These people factors are things that can be managed and controlled. The organisations with fewer incidents than expected aren’t just lucky; they are doing the right thing regarding the people factors within the operation.
Safety Climate
Safety climate refers to the perceptions that employees have of the value and importance that the organisation as a whole places on safety. If you actually ask employees how much they think their organisation as a whole value safety, and how much their supervisors value safety you will see large differences between organisations.
Organisations with more positive safety climates have fewer accidents and injuries.
Beliefs and Attitudes of Employees
Even in an organisation with a positive safety climate there will still be some employees who have more accidents and injuries than others. In this case, it is often the employee’s individual behaviour that is related to the accident rate.
There are a number of individual factors that differentiate employees from one another, two that have been the subject of most research are:
- Locus of control for safety: People with an internal locus of control believe that injuries occur for reasons that are under their control, for example, their own behaviour or caution. People with an external locus of control tend to believe that accidents and injuries occur for reasons that are beyond their control, such as fate, luck or chance. People who are more external are less likely to see any benefit in trying to behave safely, and for that reason are more likely to suffer accidents and injuries at work.
- Sensation seeking: People with a high need for sensation seeking are excited by risks and danger. They lack inhibition, and will often place themselves in risky situations for the thrill hey experience. They are, of course, more likely to suffer from accidents and injury at work.
Locus of control and sensation seeking are relatively stable factors that are unlikely to change within an individual over time.
For this reason, Onetest recommends using psychometric assessments of such factors to screen out job candidates before they become employees. In this way, the organisation can ensure that only those people who are likely to behave safely, and re-enforce a positive safety climate, are brought on board by the organisation. Our experience shows that between 10 and 20 percent of job candidates would be classified as high risk on the basis of such factors.
In summary, yes, people factors are a significant contributor to accident and injury rates in organisations. However, lowering injuries requires establishing a positive safety climate and culture, which requires a genuine commitment to safety from the top of the organisation down. In addition, organisations need to ensure that they employ people who are going to support and bolster this positive climate. Screening candidates on their safety attitudes and beliefs will ensure that only those who will support a high safety culture are employed.