Why do instances of unsafe employee behavior persist in a company even when various measures are implemented to improve occupational safety, safety culture, and operational efficiency? There is no simple answer to this question, and efforts to understand the nature of this phenomenon are ongoing.
How can we determine what measures need to be taken to reduce the likelihood of unsafe employee behavior, and what should be done to improve human reliability and manage human factors in the workplace?
Many organizations comply with federal, industry, and corporate workplace safety requirements (occupational health and safety, industrial and fire safety, etc.) and monitor their enforcement.
Compliance with regulatory requirements is filtered through the lens of human nature (individual personality traits and socio-psychological characteristics of teams), and in practice, we observe varying employee behaviors depending on numerous internal (psychological) and external (socio-psychological) conditions.
Paradoxically, the occurrence of unsafe behavioral patterns among staff is the best opportunity to gain new insights that are needed right here and now in each specific organization.
Identifying the causes of unsafe acts by employees makes it possible to define measures aimed, among other things, at increasing worker reliability.
Punishing staff without conducting a root cause analysis of unsafe acts can create a "fear of trust" both in the employee and among their colleagues, which in the future may lead to avoidant behavior, underreporting, or even concealing safety-critical information.
Objectivity in reviewing unsafe acts by personnel can be ensured by an independent committee, preferably involving a human factors specialist.
Measures resulting from the analysis of unsafe employee acts can be used to improve organizational and operational processes.
Conclusion: analyzing unsafe employee behavior is an opportunity to develop the organizational culture and the company's safety management system.