Workers felt senior managers at times fail to listen and can be inconsistent Report recommends a review of safety rep training courses Time spent by senior managers talking to workers on site is critical to effective engagement, according to new research in the quarry industry. The research carried out by psychologists at the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), was commissioned by the HSE to examine current worker engagement practices in the sector and identify barriers and areas for improvement. Though the study focuses on the quarry industry, the report’s authors suggest the HSE could use the findings to inform future good practice guidance for worker engagement across all sectors. The four quarries studied by the researchers were working hard to engage workers in health and safety, and were clearly demonstrating senior management commitment. But getting managers to spend more time engaging with workers was a challenge. While workers broadly supported the view that senior managers were committed to health and safety, they said challenging the top management and raising concerns was not easy. This was more of a problem in the larger quarries than in the smaller, which the researchers argue may also be a function of how much time managers spend among the workforce on site. The report suggests managers need to improve how they think through their actions and reactions, and how they justify their decisions to employees. Workers showed some concern that senior managers still put a price on safety, at times fail to listen and are sometimes inconsistent in their words and deeds. Health and safety messages need to be relevant to the audience and proportionate in quantity. Some workers, for example, noted a tendency to give too much health and safety information all in one go. The study found the effectiveness of reward schemes varied, particularly the use of team-level rewards, where an individual’s performance could prevent the whole team from obtaining the reward, causing resentment and disaffection. Safety representatives play an important role in most quarries, though some study participants queried the relevance of the role in future as more workers feel empowered to raise issues themselves. In the larger quarries, the researchers identified concerns about a lack of communication over the content of union based training courses and an unwillingness to allow non-union members into union led health and safety meetings. Uptake of the four day TUC course for safety representatives and the one day Mineral Products Qualification Council (MPQC) course, also targeted at safety representatives, was poor in all the quarries. Participants’ concerns about the TUC course related to its length and mode of delivery, while they felt the MPQC course was too expensive. The researchers recommend a review of both training courses.
