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Human error from workers with low safety awareness is accountable for 91% of lost time injuries, according to an Accident Risk Management study.
At the start of the program 50% of workers were identified as having low safety awareness.
However, by the end of the training program 67% of workers showed a complete turn around in their attitudes to safety, achieving a high safety awareness level.
People and Quality Solutions business development manager Anthony Thomas said the benefits of the course included a decrease in absenteeism of around 20–30% and an improvement in workers’ job satisfaction.
“Systems are only as good as the people who conform and comply with the system,” he said.
“There is the belief sometimes that fate, luck and chance make accidents, not the fact that ‘I have made a poor safety choice’ or ‘I have a poor attitude to safety.’
“We encourage a rethink, or a shift of mind for workers to give them more control over their workplace environment … and workers feel more in control of their lives.”
The success at the Hunter Valley mine was against the odds: the program had to contend with shutdowns, longwall change outs, corporate restructuring and mergers taking place during the 18-month training period.
The program begins with a survey assessing the accident risk level of the employee, followed by an education program tailored at encouraging workers to take control of safety issues in their workplace environment.
At the end of the course safety attitudes are re-measured and providing there is substantial improvement, the worker will be given a nationally accredited course certificate, which lasts for three years.
The course was developed and written by psychologist Carl Reams.
“Empowering people with rational thinking about their environment and circumstances enables them to make better safety related choices, inside and outside the workplace,” he said.
“Psychological safety awareness coaching will result in sustainable changes in behaviour, substantially reducing accidents and injuries by up to 75 percent.”
People and Quality Solutions have been running the AS&QA course in Australia and New Zealand since 1996.
