Ep. 79 How do new employees learn about safety?

While there may be many reasons for this - this particular research paper looks at how younger workers are inducted into the workplace and how they learn about the safety practices and requirements that are expected. The findings are pretty fascinating - especially for people responsible for hiring new employees. TopicsIntroduction to the research paperTypes of questions researchers asked research subjectsLiterature reviewHow people learnLearning safe practicesIndustries researchedMetalworkElderly careRetailGeneral inferencesCommunity of practiceGradient towards unsafety Practical TakeawaysThere’s a direct link between employment practices and safetyTemporary workers are less likely to follow safety precautionsAwareness of safety and how it relates to labor-hireReflective practiceLook at what happens during a new employee’s first weekAre your formal and informal induction and onboarding processes aligned to your safety risk profile of the different roles within your organization  Quotes:“Learning isn’t about uploading knowledge, it’s about creating a sequence of experiences, and each person in the experience, they reflect on that experience, they learn from that, it leads them on to new experiences.” - Drew Rae“When we induct workers, it’s not just about knowledge transfer, it’s not just about uploading the knowledge they need, it’s about how do we get them to start taking part in discussions and decisions and arguments and thinking about the way work happens.” - Drew Rae“The one thing that we maybe can maintain is the formal standards that we communicate in the induction in the hope that creating some of that tension, creates discussion.” - David Provan“Onboarding a person into the workplace is an investment in the person, so people are maybe likely to invest more if there’s more return.”  - David Provan Resources:Griffith University Safety Science Innovation LabThe Safety of Work PodcastFeedback@safetyofwork.comResearch Paper Discussed