Mining Publication: Workplace Perceptions of Safety

An organization's "climate" refers to the shared perceptions of workers about the health and safety procedures, practices and behaviors that are rewarded and supported at work. Any type of climate assessment is often completed at a specific point in time, providing a snapshot of the workplace. Previous research in high-risk industries has shown that understanding workers' perceptions of the workplace, including organizational and personal factors, provides foresight into their knowledge, motivation, and health and safety (H&S) performance. Additionally, these findings show that as H&S knowledge, motivation and behavior improve, incidents decline. Historically, mine-specific research has called for the need to improve climate and morale in the workplace. Additionally, since the Upper Big Branch disaster in 2010, the mining industry has expressed a keen interest in knowing the current perceptions and intended actions of their workforce. Similarly, NIOSH shares the value of knowing which aspects of an organization's climate have the biggest impact on worker perceptions and decisions to help support a safer workplace. Because both the organization and the individual control safety-related outcomes, NIOSH has identified the need to understand H&S risks both within and outside of workers' control on the job. To address this need, researchers designed a questionnaire adapted from previous surveys in high-risk occupations, measuring the factors listed in Table 1. The 58-question survey used a six-point scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree). A six represented "strongly agree" and was the highest response an employee could provide. After the survey was tested with miners and deemed reliable, the survey was finalized and wider distribution took place. Here, we discuss a case study that used the survey with one aggregates company in the Midwest, which was particularly interested in better understanding its employees' H&S perceptions.