An objective measure of safety behavioural change

Situation

Western Australia’s largest power and energy distributor has utilised the ISAT (the Individual Safety Attributes Test) since its development to assist with team and individual safety behavior, understanding and development.

One of the applications this organisation has used the ISAT for, was to measure safety behavioural change from the implementation of a safety training intervention. The ISAT provided a measure as to any ‘behavioural effect’ from training and the degree to which the training would lead to sustainable changes in safety performance.

Solution

People Solutions worked with the organisation to communicate to the workforce what the ISAT is, how the information was going to be used and what was required of the individuals.

The ISAT was completed by over 400 individuals pre-training and 6-months later. To minimize disruption to the workforce, People Solutions went to 6 different sites and were available while the employees completed the ISAT to answer any questions. On some sites, pen and paper versions of the ISAT were completed which was more practical and efficient for the employees.

Reports and presentations were created for each worksite and each contractor (as well as for the energy company as a whole). Results were on team performance, strengths, areas of improvement and high-level development initiatives. These were presented back to the workforce and directly to the leaders of each site/contractor.

Result

The ISAT successfully identified a number of Contractor organisations whose employees scored poorly in their responses – a result that also correlated to their high level of incidents and poor safety record. One Contractor (whose team scored very poorly), had such a high level of safety incidents that their works contract had been suspended.

This client now uses the ISAT to understand and correct individual safety behavioural issues. When safety incidents occur, the organisation will ask those individuals involved to complete the ISAT, receive individual feedback on their areas of strength and development, and then actively pursue the recommended developmental remedies before they will allow them to return to a high-risk role.