07/02/2014. Learning Outcomes. Safety Culture 3 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

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1 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Topic 10 Health, Safety & Employee Wellbeing Learning Outcomes Identify how relevant human factors affect health and safety behaviour Understand the concept of safety culture Know why accidents occur and differentiate between theories of accident causation Differentiate between the behaviour-based approach and attitude-based approach to health and safety Demonstrate the effect of ergonomics on workplace health and safety Examine the relationship between job characteristics and safety Understand the implications of stress and bullying in the workplace Establish the role of the HRM function in promoting health, safety and wellbeing at work. Safety Culture 3 How do you measure it? How do you know if you have a good safety culture? Does the absence of a positive safety culture only become apparent after a major accident e.g. Chernobyl 1

2 4 Safety Culture Definitions tend to be broad e.g. values, beliefs, attitudes, social mores, norms, rules, procedures, and behaviour Hard to capture all elements in a study In theory, can be grouped under 3 headings: Norms & rules for dealing with risk Safety attitudes Capacity to reflect on safety practices 5 Safety Attitudes as a Measure of Safety Culture Idea is that safety cultures reflect the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and values that employees share in relation to safety. Captures concepts such as overt management commitment; personal need for safety; personal appreciation of risk; attributions of blame; conflict and control; and supportive environment Theories of Accidents Causation 6 Heinrich s Axioms of Safety (Domino theory) Injuries result from a completed series of factors, one of which is the accident itself Accidents occur only as a result of an unsafe act by person and/or a physical or mechanical hazard Most accidents from unsafe behaviour of people Unsafe acts do not always result in an accident/injury Reasons why people do unsafe acts can aid in corrective action 2

3 Theories of Accidents Causation 7 Heinrich s Axioms of Safety (Domino theory) Severity of accident is largely fortuitous, & the cause is largely preventable Accident prevention techniques are analogous with best quality & production techniques Management should assume responsibility for safety as it is in the best position to get results Supervisor is key person Direct costs and hidden costs Behavioural Theories of Accidents Causation 8 Accident Proneness Risk Homeostasis Learning Theories Petersen Accident-Incident Causation Model Withdrawal Behaviour Ratio Serious injury Minor injury Property damage accidents Near misses 3

4 Accident Cost Iceberg 11 Costs of Accidents Can include: Safety admin costs Medical centre costs Welfare repayments Cost of time to other employees Replacement labour costs Damage to plants / machinery Costs arising from accident investigation 12 Human Factors and Health and Safety HF focus on humans and their interaction with products, equipment, facilities, procedures and work environments. Emphasis on humans and how above characteristics influence behaviour. This approach identifies & applies information about human behaviour, activities, motivation and limitations to the design of the workplace. 4

5 13 Traditional Approach to H&S Engineering design approach. Centred on ergonomics domain Issue of safety in hands of engineers & ergonomists Organisations have also focused on cognitive errors of employees Glass ceiling in terms of ongoing improvements => we need to consider other human factors and how they contribute to accidents 14 Characteristics of HF Perspective Machines, procedures and systems are built to serve humans and must be designed with end user in mind Design of machines, procedures and systems influences safety behaviour of employees Recognition that people, machines, procedures and work environment do not exist independently. Use of objective data to generate information about human behaviour. Categories of Human Factors Personal Job Organisational Attitude Attributions Motivation Perception Memory Info processing Equipment design Machine systems Working height Job tasks Size Technology Culture Goals and strategies 15 5

6 Employee Wellbeing Ergonomics Characteristics of users Design of work furniture Task requirements Visual Postural Temporal Job Characteristics What constitutes a good job? Need to consider: Individual expectations Notions of work Eklund (1998) developed a set of 11 characteristics of a good job, aimed at redesigning blue-collar jobs. 6

7 Stress Mental Workload and Error 20 Characteristics of MWL describes the input aspects of tasks mental aspects of MWL are conceptualised in terms of information processing should not be minimised - as would be necessary in the case of e.g. carcinogenic air pollution - but optimised. 21 7

8 Work Capacity 22 Employee s capacity to carry out physical work Personal Factors: E.g. Environmental factors E.g. Bullying "repeated inappropriate behaviour, direct or indirect, whether verbal, physical or otherwise, conducted by one or more persons against another or others, at the place of work and/or in the course of employment, which could reasonably be regarded as undermining the individual s right to dignity at work" (HSA, 2007) Relationship with HRM Culture Commitment Lead by example Policies and procedures Adequate resources 8

9 Next Steps See Carbery & Cross (2013) Chapter 11 For more information on Chernobyl disaster, see BBC documentary here: 9