Training Interventions for Improving Worker Safety and Health

1
Training Interventions for Improving Worker
Safety and Health

• Michael J. Burke
• Freeman School of Business
• Tulane University
• Congressional Briefing
• Workplace Public Safety The Role of Behavioral
  Research
• October 5, 2006

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Objectives

• Define safety performance.
• Provide examples of current practice in safety
  and health training.
• Summarize current theory on learning and safety
  and health skill development.
• Present study findings concerning the relative
  effectiveness of different methods of safety and
  health training.
• Discuss the implications of current safety
  training practices and research findings for
  various stakeholders of workplace and public
  safety.

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What is Safety Performance?

• The actions that workers engage in to promote the
  health and safety of workers, clients, the
  public, and the environment.
• The actions can be clustered into one of four
  general dimensions that apply to individual as
  well as team work (Burke, Sarpy, Tesluk,
  Smith-Crowe, 2002)
• Using personnel protection equipment
• Communicating health and safety information
• Engaging in work practices to reduce risk, and
• Exercising employee rights and responsibilities

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Why is Safety Performance Important?

• Handling organizational disasters and preventing
  workplace accidents and injuries, costly problems
  focused on subsequent to passage of Occupational
  Safety and Health Act of 1971.
• Cleaning up nuclear waste, preventing and
  responding to terrorist acts, and dealing with
  the aftermath of natural disasters.

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Workforce PreparationThe Need for Safety and
Health Training

• Among the many challenges and questions
• How do we prepare workers to perform safely?
• My focus is on worker preparation through safety
  and health training interventions.
• Applying behavioral science principles at
  Handfords Volpentest HAMMER (Hazardous Materials
  Management and Emergency Response) Training
  Center.
• Emphasis on hands-on training for almost all
  training programs at HAMMER.

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Current Practice Hands-On Training at HAMMER
and Elsewhere

• A sequential procedure for skill development
• Lecture -- standard presentation of material
• Behavioral Role Modeling -- observation,
  practice, and feedback
• Simulation (drills) -- multiple scenarios
  followed by feedback from co-workers or trainers
• Follow-up training -- on-the-job and refresher
  training
• Dialogue, the missing component

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The Movement toward Computer-Based and Distance
Training

• Recent discussions and practice, especially in
  regard to emergency preparedness and response
  training, are moving toward distance-distance-dis
  tance!
• The work of CDC Academic Centers. For example,
  South Central Center for Public Health
  Preparedness.
• A Critical Question How effective is more
  engaging training such as hands-on relative to
  other less engaging forms of training such as
  lecture, videos, computer-based and distance
  education programs?

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Does More Engaging TrainingEnhance Safety
Outcomes?
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Current Theory and Researchon Learning and Skill
Development

• Stage theories (e.g., Kanfer and Ackerman, 1989)
  skill development occurs in stages.
• Social learning theory (Bandura 2001) and
  integrated approaches to experiential learning
  (e.g., Burke, Holman, Birdi, 2006) skill
  development is a social process.
• In general, these theories emphasize the
  development of knowledge and skills by doing
  (action) and the importance of feedback.
• In contrast to feedback, dialogue has
  recently received attention in safety and health
  skill development literature (Burke, Scheuer,
  Meredith, in press), but virtually no attention
  in practice.

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What is Dialogue?

• Dialogue Discussions with others (including
  virtual others) concerning actions considered or
  taken, and further defined by thought provoking
  activities such as questioning, interpreting,
  explaining, and evaluating problems at hand.
• Dialogue concerning actions considered or taken
  is viewed as important because it enhances the
  quality of worker reflection (i.e., thinking in
  terms of actions).

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The Importance of Action-Focused Reflection
(Thinking)

• Forces trainees to infer causal and conditional
  relations between events and activities.
• Leads to the development of strategies for
  handling unforeseen future events.
• Initiates and promotes self-regulatory activities
  such as confidence for dealing with unforeseen
  events.

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General Expectation

• As training becomes more engaging, dialogue with
  others (including virtual persons) is posited to
  engender more action-focused reflection, and
  consequently, greater knowledge acquisition,
  improved performance, and reduced accidents,
  illnesses, and injuries.

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The Relative Effectiveness of Worker Safety and
Health Training Methods

• Addressing the question How effective is more
  engaging training such as hands-on training
  relative to other less engaging forms of
  training such as lecture or distance education
  programs? (Burke, Sarpy, Smith-Crowe,
  Chan-Serafin, Islam, and Salvador, 2006).
• A large-scale statistical integration of all
  safety and health training studies conducted
  between 1971 and 2003 95 studies in total
  involving 20,991 trainees from over 15 countries
  and 11 occupational families.

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Methods of Safety Training

• Least Engaging Methods
• Lecture
• Films/Videos
• Moderately Engaging Methods
• Programmed Instruction Methods (including most
  distance learning activities)
• Feedback Interventions
• Most Engaging Methods
• Behavioral Modeling
• Hands-on Training
• As typically delivered with respect to levels of
  dialogue and opportunities to role model desired
  behaviors.

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Study Expectations and Results

• As one moves along the continuum from passive,
  information-based training methods to engaging,
  dialogue-centered methods, training is expected
  to have a greater effect on
• knowledge acquisition most engaging methods
  are up to three times more effective than other,
  lesser engaging methods
• safety performance most engaging training
  methods produce the greatest improvements in
  safety performance
• the reduction of accidents, illnesses, and
  injuries most engaging training methods are
  considerably more effective than lesser
  engaging methods.

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Study Conclusions

• Results are consistent with learning theory
  propositions concerning the effects of behavioral
  modeling, dialogue, and action-focused reflection
  on knowledge and skill acquisition.
• Expectations were confirmed across jobs.
• Findings advance our understanding of the
  relative effectiveness of different methods of
  safety training for reducing accidents and
  injuries.
• A lesson relearned?

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Implications of Current Training Practices and
Research Findings

• For scientists and granting agencies, a need
  exists to better understand
• how structured dialogue contributes to safety and
  health knowledge acquisition (Burke et al., in
  press)
• why and how worker motivation can be enhanced
  through safety and health training (Wallace
  Chen, 2006)
• why and how organizational factors such as safety
  climate affect the transfer of safety and health
  training to the job (Smith-Crowe, Burke,
  Landis, 2003)

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Implications of Current Training Practices and
Research Findings

• For practitioners, a call for
• awareness of rationales for why highly engaging
  training is more effective than other methods of
  training and
• to utilize this information when designing safety
  and health training interventions.

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Implications of Current Training Practices and
Research Findings

• For public policy makers and advocates, a call
  for
• funding the needed research to advance the
  science and practice of worker safety and health
  training
• informing the debate on how to best prepare the
  public health workforce (in particular, in the
  domain of emergency preparedness and response),
  and
• encouraging research-based practice in the
  conduct and evaluation of safety and health
  training in private and public organizations.