Don’t blame employees for unsafe behavior

If you observe unsafe behaviors, you should question employees about them. “Their answers often have to do with their perceptions – or the reality – of their working conditions,” says Judith A. Erickson, a Ph.D. who has studied employee behavior. “For example, if production deadlines are stressed over safe performance, employees are going to take shortcuts to get the product out the door.”

Erickson says that when employers look at employee behavior as the main cause of injuries and accidents, they avoid the wider organizational variables that affect safety performance. The following variables should also be considered, before actions are taken against employees:

* ineffective communication
* the environment – temperature, air quality, humidity
* job complexity
* adequacy of training
* maintenance errors
* production pressures
* mental and physical capability to perform task(s)
* organizational culture