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SPECIAL REPORT a focus on behavioural safety at risk behaviour The use of mobile plant and equipment throughout industry sadly continues to pose a major threat to the health, safety and welfare of workers. Each year many unnecessary fatalities and injuries occur that could be prevented. Even if an incident does not result in fatality or injury, it may damage equipment, materials or completed work, thereby causing unnecessary financial loss and damage to a company’s reputation. human factors that influence behaviour There are various characteristics or ‘performance influencing factors’ that can affect an operator’s behaviour and subsequent health and safety performance and these can be divided into three human factor groups relating to the task, the individual and the organisation. One easy way to view these interacting and interrelated factors figure 1 The interaction of human factors upon behavioural safety performance 16 April 2011 Poor work planning Lack of safety systems Inadequate response to previous incidents Inadequate health and safety management Poor health and safety culture One-way communication by management It has been said that the majority of incidents are triggered by unsafe or ‘at-risk’ behaviour, whether this be due to ignorance of the correct procedures that should be undertaken (most likely through inadequate training), or a lapse / error occurring despite the worker being trained and highly competent – both of which can be viewed as unintentional actions – or whether due to deliberate, but rarely malicious, is as an incident causal supply chain. It is wrong to place the emphasis solely upon operators to manage the risk of operating plant and machinery on site or blame them alone when things go wrong – their actions are all too often the symptom of something far more ingrained INDIVIDUAL Low skill and competence levels Tiredness and / or stress Boredom or demotivation Medical problems ORGANISATION / MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOURAL HEALTH & SAFETY PERFORMANCE JOB / WORKPLACE actions such as taking short-cuts or not complying with procedures with the misguided aim of ‘getting the job done’. Reducing the occurrence of incidents caused by unsafe behaviour will potentially need different actions to be taken depending on which of these reasons is the root cause. It is also beneficial to take a closer look at the factors which can affect behavioural performance. within the culture of industry or the organisation that they are working for. By addressing the human factors that can affect operator behaviour, the likelihood of incidents occurring can be reduced. Figure 1, whilst not exhaustive, provides some examples of these performance influencing factors. Illogical equipment design Disturbances / interruptions Missing or unclear instructions Poorly maintained equipment High workload Noisy / unpleasant working conditions
1 case studies To illustrate how the human factors discussed can impact upon behavioural safety, six short case studies are shown here. They provide brief snapshots of typical mistakes, omissions and errors that occur across the incident causal supply chain and could have resulted in serious fatality or injury. The human factors involved could belong to the job, individual or organisation and in some instances a combination is in operation. Defect reporting, Birmingham, 2011 The Job - A crane operator diligently reported defects prior to an assessment. He explained that although the defects were reported daily he doubted that action would be taken – an indication of apathy towards machinery maintenance on this particular job. The Individual - The operator was a long standing employee within a scrap metal company. He had an excellent work ethic and was keen to make everything as safe as possible. The Organisation - Although the company had a multi-million (£) annual turnover, main equipment items in use were in need of major inspection and repair. The company’s Health and Safety Officer was totally out of touch with the practical application of the equipment and seemed reticent about making the decision to improve the safety of machinery on site. There was suggestion that senior management would not welcome the additional spending on machinery maintenance. 2 3 Unloading tracked dumper, Manchester, 2011 The Job - A tracked crawler dumper was delivered to site. The image shows the operator stood in an extremely dangerous position, a position from which he started the dumper and then pushed the tiller bars to unload. The unloading activities were not being managed on site. The Individual - The plant transporter driver held no certification other than a generic site dumper certificate of competence from a national body and clearly did not recognise, or chose to ignore, the inherent danger of this activity. The Organisation - Site management were blissfully unaware of the driver’s incompetence and the dangerous occurrence that had occurred. No action was taken to address this observed incident. ROPS utilisation, Cannock, 2009 The Job - A relatively straightforward work task involved moving topsoil for general landscaping purposes, operating on a firm temporary road surface. The Individual - The operator did not hold any formal training certificate and failed to recognise the danger of not securing the roll-over protective structures (ROPS) frame into the correct position or of wearing a seat belt. He considered such activities to take time that he didn’t have and questioned why he should bother as he had never had an accident and had operated plant for years! The Organisation - A high profile major contractor remained ambivalent about this sub contractor’s bad operational practice. On this particular job site, a tight project deadline was the key priority. SPECIAL REPORT April 2011 17
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