SafetyInsights.org

Data from Tahira Probst et al. on the links between workplace injury underreporting and the relationship with safety climate.

Data was from >1300 employees of 38 US construction companies.

They found, expectedly, that BLS surveillance data is “flawed and underestimates the true rate of injuries within U.S. companies”.

Indeed, this data indicates that while the injury rate reported to OSHA was 3.11 per 100 workers, actual injuries was ** 10.90 **.

Expectedly, those with poorer safety climates were much more likely not to report – not reporting 81% of eligible injuries compared to those with higher safety climate performance at 47% of underreporting.

They talk about the irony of how organisations promote their commitment to safety and/or safety performance.

The irony being that “organizations that have a lower commitment to safety are more likely to inadvertently or otherwise skew their injury data such that they appear to have similar safety outcomes as organizations with a positive safety climate” (p1152).

They also cite points around why organisations have become so obsessed with poor measures (largely injury and incident data):

(1) Some state and federal regulators in some countries require them

(2) the occupational safety and health industries track them

(3) large contracts are granted (or not) based on them

(4) rating bureaus use them

(5) executives believe them

(6) managers are rewarded based on them

(7) administrators can manipulate them

Authors: Probst, T. M., Brubaker, T. L., & Barsotti, A. (2008). Organizational injury rate underreporting: the moderating effect of organizational safety climate. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(5), 1147.

Study link: https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0021-9010.93.5.1147
Summary of study: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/organizational-injury-rate-underreporting-moderating-ben-hutchinson
Link to the LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_data-from-tahira-probst-et-al-on-the-links-activity-7024875041288818688-m4Kv?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop