Making Companies Safe - what works? (CCA ... - Unite the Union

Chapter Seven
Campaigning, and educational
Activities
Campaigns
Two HSE-commissioned reviews of the numerous UK evaluations of awareness-raising
campaigns came to slightly conflicting conclusions about their value. Wright et al. state
that these evaluations have indicated that ‘such work is effective in raising awareness,
and awareness is an important factor in improving health and safety precautions’ 1 . However,
Hillage et al. concluded that while there is evidence that HSE can ‘reach’ a significant
proportion of employers, there is:
“very little evidence that being ‘reached’ by the campaign actually translates into
action, let alone positive and demonstrable benefits in occupational health.” 2
Thus, even though campaigns may be associated with higher levels of awareness and
knowledge as argued by Wright et al, the evidence that this then impacts on organisational
attitudes and behaviour is not strong. This is for two reasons. First, some evaluations simply
showed little evidence of campaigns having led to action, although this is partly because
of the methodological problems involved in showing this. 3 Second, even where there is an
association between awareness of a campaign and propensity to take action on
occupational health and safety (OHS) this does not mean that the one caused the other. As
Hillage et al. argue in relation to Wright et al.’s evaluation of the ‘Good Health is Good
Business’ campaign:
“Aware organisations were more predisposed towards having an interest in health
and safety issues in general, so the changes need not necessarily be attributed to
the campaign.” 4
A further example of the weak link between awareness of a campaign and subsequent
action can also be found in an evaluation of the HSC’s voluntary guidance on directors
responsibilities for health and safety which we have discussed earlier (see chapter two).
Magnitude and Quality of the Changes
Even if changes or differences in attitude and behaviour between aware and unaware
organisations could be attributed with any certainty to the impacts of a particular campaign,
there are still questions as to the size and quality of the changes observed.
A consideration of the evaluation of the ‘Good Health is Good Business’ (GHGB) campaign
illustrates these points. 5 The evaluation reports that, in relation to the impact of the campaign
on employer attitudes, there were statistically significant differences between organisations
that were aware of the GHGB campaign and unaware organisations as regards some (but not
all) attitudes towards occupational health.
However, in absolute terms the size of these differences is extremely small. For instance, the
researchers found a statistically significant difference in the extent of change in concern
for employees’ health between those organisation that were “aware” and those that
were “unaware”. On a scale of 1 to 5 (where 5 is “concern has greatly increased”) “aware”
organisations score 3.9 and “unaware” organisations score 3.6. The researchers also
reported a statistically significant difference in the perceived balance of costs and benefits of
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