This study has been cited a lot, so I thought time to summarise it. It studied the relationship between fatal and non-fatal accidents, and economic activity, in Finnish manufacturing and construction industries (between 1977 – 1991). Note: The age of this study (published 1998 and analysing data from 47-33 years ago) must be considered. Overall… Continue reading Relationship between fatal and non-fatal workplace accidents in Finnish construction and manufacturing

What are some links between procedure use/departure, procedure quality, worker experience, task frequency and more? A study soon to be posted explored these interactions. Researchers Peres & Hendricks, who have published several studies on similar links, explored these interactions via the model 1 and model 2 concept of procedures. Model 1 conceptualises procedures as a… Continue reading Links between procedure use, procedure quality, worker experience and task frequency

Not much to add, but I found the following summary of evidence-based weaknesses of common hazard recognition interventions from Albert et al. pretty handy. Although there will likely be few surprises here – it may be a helpful resource, particularly as it lists the citations with the weaknesses. They tabulate some challenges or weaknesses for:… Continue reading Evidence-based weaknesses of common hazard recognition interventions – JHA/JSA, safety training and safety checklists

“Drive safely”, “watch your speed”, and display boards with the number of crashes seem prudent on the surface. But importantly, can they have a revenge effect and increase harm? A 2022 study suggests ‘Yes’. Hall and Madsen studied crash rates during campaigns in Texas where road fatality counts are displayed on dynamic message boards, e.g.… Continue reading Can behavioral interventions be too salient? Evidence from traffic safety messages

This paper explored the relationship between “safety culture” (SC) and safety and financial performance in 829 European firms from 29 European countries. Data was drawn from the Thomson Reuters Refinitiv ESG scores, with safety culture being a composite of: 1) employee health and safety policies, supply chain health and safety, health and safety teams, employee… Continue reading Safety culture, safety performance and financial performance. A longitudinal study

Ergonomics recently published a special volume focusing on Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. As a huge fan of anything related to Lisanne Bainbridge’s Ironies of Automation, this volume’s article “Ironies of artificial intelligence” from Endsley was a fascinating modern take on Bainbridge’s work. Endsley proposes five ironies of AI: Some extracts are attached as images… Continue reading The Ironies of artificial intelligence

This study explored the conceptualisation and language of ‘unsafety’ based on a large dataset of nearly 4000 Safety Observation reports (SOR) from a large infrastructure construction project. E.g. How do people identify and define safety, unsafety, unsafe acts and conditions based on content analysis of the reports. While we often talk about ‘safety’, our practices… Continue reading The antecedents and development of unsafety

What are the types of bureaucracy encountered in offshore oil & gas and how does it affect operational work, HSE, and time on the floor? A study to be summarised explored this question. Data came from surveying 187 offshore managers in a Norwegian oil company. Key findings: ·        Expectedly, managers didn’t spend enough time on the… Continue reading Safety management, bureaucracy, and incident systems drowning in seas of information

What are the relationships between safety culture measures, total injury rates and financial performance? A new study to be posted shortly explored these links in 829 European firms from 29 European countries. Overall they found: ·        Safety culture improves safety performance since it significantly reduces the number of accidents at work. ·        The better the safety performance,… Continue reading Safety culture, safety performance and financial performance

This is a really interesting study that assessed the shelf life of safety climate (SC) assessments and how far into the past and future can it predict incidents (and incidents predict SC). As SC is a snapshot at that particular moment, it’s unknown how long that assessment provides meaningful info about the organisation. Surveys were… Continue reading The shelf life of a safety climate assessment – how long until the relationship with safety critical incidents expires