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This study explored the common sense approach (CSA) to safety on a large UK construction project via safety climate survey and ethnographic observations. Common sense was defined as the practical knowledge and judgement of workers based on long-term experience, training and experiential learning and being able to behave in sensible ways and make practical decisions.

Previous research highlighted that health & safety (HS) has become ridiculed due to excessive bureaucracy and red tape, resulting in a compensation culture which leads companies to try and eliminate all risks by all means – even when unattainable.

Other research has found that workers from small and micro firms relied more on their own knowledge and experience compared to larger firms/projects which rely more on structured management systems and approaches and thus this type of approach was explored in the context of larger-scale projects. [*** Although noting that smaller to mid-sized construction firms do tend to kill a higher percentage of people.]

Results
Expectedly, workers wanted a more CSA and to be given more discretion and responsibility – leading to better engagement and risk awareness. Excessive bureaucracy, where people are told how to act and rules to follow, was seen to disengage people where they don’t need to think or make decisions, nor fully understand the process. 67% of workers admitted to sometimes using their judgement over rules.

Smaller firms, and subcontractors were found to employ more CSA, which led to frictions with larger contractors.

Excessive compensation cultures was seen to damage trust and relationships. The compensation culture has contributed to health and safety becoming “increasingly ridiculed” (p530). As a result of the erosion of trust, there is said to be “less opportunity to learn about future accidents” (p536).

They gave examples of how blanket PPE rules were inflexible, over-the-top, and could in some cases increase risk & admitted to having to break rules in order to finish the job. Safety glasses were a common source of resistance to blanket rules – which some people felt at times made work more difficult and unsafe.

Management, including some supervisors, were sceptical that workers could be trusted. Some believed that this approach of common sense would be “laughed out of court” – although they admitted to not always enforcing PPE due to it damaging relationships. A supervisor noted that he would get his crew to wear all PPE when the safety advisor was around “out of respect” (p534).

Some other findings from the survey data revealed: (And noting that it’s the perceptions of people)

• 75% of people strongly agreed or agreed that their own experience will keep them safe
• For workers challenging co-workers not wearing various types of PPE, speeding or using a phone in an unsafe place, it ranged from between ~54% up to 62% for “always”
• At one point the primary researcher overhead a conversation between the safety advisor and construction workers. The advisor asked a worker to secure his crotch-strap on his lifejacket. The worker wasn’t happy and suggested that the advisor didn’t understand all of the working positions the worker would need to get into and that the strap could get caught on things; creating a hazard.

Some held the view that excessive PPE etc. can lead to false assurance that people are safer than they are, instead of trusting their experience etc. Also, the focus on compliance to rules was seen to take focus away from “the real safety issues”.

Some other findings from the survey data revealed: (And noting that it’s the perceptions of people)
75% of people strongly agreed or agreed that their own experience will keep them safe
For workers challenging co-workers not wearing various types of PPE, speeding or using a phone in an unsafe place, it ranged from between ~54% up to 62% for “always”

At one point the primary researcher overhead a conversation between the safety advisor and construction workers. The advisor asked a worker to secure his crotch-strap on his lifejacket. The worker wasn’t happy and suggested that the advisor didn’t understand all of the working positions the worker would need to get into and that the strap could get caught on things; creating a hazard.

Other examples were highlighted where workers believed the strict rules or PPE made things far more difficult or more dangerous for them.

One worker relayed their thoughts by saying “Health and Safety is a bit of a joke at times – it goes
too far. You wouldn’t be able to finish the job without sometimes breaking the rules.
You just need to use your own common sense as a risk assessment sometimes” (p533).

Some points around increasing trust via more responsibility for workers to craft their own work and decisions was then covered.

[*** Note: As is common when I post things about rules and workarounds I get the usual “so you want to throw out all of the rules?”, or throwing out the baby with the bathwater and variations of that theme. No, that is not what this is about. The goal is to more often listen and learn from workers rather than falling back to familiar command and control, which is more comfortable and easier from an office.]

Authors: Oswald, D., Aboagye-Nimo, E., Smith, S., Raidén, A., & Sherratt, F. (2015). In THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2015 September 7-9 (p. 529).

Study link: http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/25948/

Link to the LinkedIn article: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6936802179164839936?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_updateV2%3A%28urn%3Ali%3AugcPost%3A6936802179164839936%2CFEED_DETAIL%2CEMPTY%2CDEFAULT%2Cfalse%29