Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Proposed and in-progress research: Introduction In 2021, workplace injuries and illnesses numbered 2.6 million, and workplace fatalities from injury alone numbered 5,190, an increase of 8.9% from 2020 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). Data from 2019 indicates that these types of incidents collectively cost employers more than $1 billion per week in direct costs (Liberty Mutual Insurance, 2022). The high financial toll and prevalence of workplace injuries indicates the critical nature of safety research. A preliminary predictive model has suggested that safety observations and hazard identifications can reduce the likelihood of workplace injuries (Granowsky et al., 2023). This proposed study will perform a robust replication of that work. Methodology Three years of safety data (2020 - 2022) have been obtained, which includes safety observation counts, hazard identification counts, and incident counts, from the maintenance division in a large chemical manufacturing company in the United States. Safety observations and hazard identifications will be normalized by work hours to reflect the total number of observations per 8-hour shift. Safety incidents will be dichotomized to indicate: did an incident occur (1) or an incident did not occur (0). A rolling sum time-series logistic regression analysis will be performed to analyze weather observations and/or hazards over the previous seven days decrease the odds of an incident occurring over the next seven days. The logistic regression analyses will be performed within seven maintenance departments and aggregated upward such that results represent the average odds increase/decrease across the entire division. Results & Discussion Based on previous findings (Granowsky et al., 2023; Sant et al., 2022) it is expected the results will show that for every daily safety observation performed the odds of an incident will decrease between 15 - 25% over the next three days. Similarly, for every hazard identification performed over three days the odds of an incident occurring will decrease between 10 - 20% over the next seven days. These results would reinforce previous findings suggesting that performing safety observations and reporting hazards can mitigate incident risk, significantly benefiting employees and employers alike. An odds reduction of the aforementioned magnitudes would equate to approximately 20 less workplace incidents annually, preventing serious injuries amongst employees and saving the organization countless monies and resources. To maintain a reduction in workplace incidents, organizations need a strong safety culture, rigorous safety reporting procedures, and upper managerial support for workplace safety.
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Included in
Can replication save lives? Reproducing previous research where behavior based safety practices reduced incident likelihoods
Proposed and in-progress research: Introduction In 2021, workplace injuries and illnesses numbered 2.6 million, and workplace fatalities from injury alone numbered 5,190, an increase of 8.9% from 2020 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). Data from 2019 indicates that these types of incidents collectively cost employers more than $1 billion per week in direct costs (Liberty Mutual Insurance, 2022). The high financial toll and prevalence of workplace injuries indicates the critical nature of safety research. A preliminary predictive model has suggested that safety observations and hazard identifications can reduce the likelihood of workplace injuries (Granowsky et al., 2023). This proposed study will perform a robust replication of that work. Methodology Three years of safety data (2020 - 2022) have been obtained, which includes safety observation counts, hazard identification counts, and incident counts, from the maintenance division in a large chemical manufacturing company in the United States. Safety observations and hazard identifications will be normalized by work hours to reflect the total number of observations per 8-hour shift. Safety incidents will be dichotomized to indicate: did an incident occur (1) or an incident did not occur (0). A rolling sum time-series logistic regression analysis will be performed to analyze weather observations and/or hazards over the previous seven days decrease the odds of an incident occurring over the next seven days. The logistic regression analyses will be performed within seven maintenance departments and aggregated upward such that results represent the average odds increase/decrease across the entire division. Results & Discussion Based on previous findings (Granowsky et al., 2023; Sant et al., 2022) it is expected the results will show that for every daily safety observation performed the odds of an incident will decrease between 15 - 25% over the next three days. Similarly, for every hazard identification performed over three days the odds of an incident occurring will decrease between 10 - 20% over the next seven days. These results would reinforce previous findings suggesting that performing safety observations and reporting hazards can mitigate incident risk, significantly benefiting employees and employers alike. An odds reduction of the aforementioned magnitudes would equate to approximately 20 less workplace incidents annually, preventing serious injuries amongst employees and saving the organization countless monies and resources. To maintain a reduction in workplace incidents, organizations need a strong safety culture, rigorous safety reporting procedures, and upper managerial support for workplace safety.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology