Safety training most effective when it addresses attitudes

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by William Scott Shirley on March 8, 2010 at 10:53am

It depends on the balance between skills or lack of and a poor attitude. Some good employees can have an accident because of a skill issue. The solution must match the facts of the incident.

Permalink Reply by Craig Banning on March 8, 2010 at 12:23pm

I hate to see "retrain employee" as a corrective action. It makes me look at the management of the department in question. Why was the employee not trained properly before the incident?
Perhaps the attitude that needs to be addressed is with management and why they do not proactively provide adequate training.
If an incident occurs and training was found to be adequate, then the attitude or behavior of the individual or work group would need to be looked at.
I do however agree that typically how the individual looks at safety plays a bigger role in preventing incidents.

Permalink Reply by Terence (Terry) Kidd on March 8, 2010 at 2:16pm

I'm sorry but this discussion about attitude is so obvious it is hardly worth discussing. Of course, changing attitudes is essential for a effective safety culture.

It is not just about incidents. Attitude flows into everything .... risk assessments, inspections, how tasks are performed (and I don't just mean work tasks ... it could be the safety coordinator checking the incident history for trends).

Instilling a good "attitude" into a workforce isn't just about safety. Management set the lead by their overall policies, work requirements and resources they provide, followed by a healthy dollop of effective leadership at all levels. Hey presto, one day you will wake up and realize that you have a positive, productive and happy workforce with attitude. In that environment safety will flow nicely, along with most other things.

This is hardly rocket science.