Screening Employees May Identify Unsafe Individuals

Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Some testing firms claim it is possible to identify workers who may be unsafe in advance. These companies design tests which identify applicants and workers who may be unwilling or unable to follow safety procedures and protocols in the workplace.

In industries where errors are to blame for most workplace injuries and deaths, this is especially effective. In addition to this, testing is important in fields such as mining, manufacturing, construction, and transportation. In these fields, some of the biggest issues are negligence and carelessness. Safety assessments work to evaluate the attitudes of people on several different levels. One example from an Australian employee testing firm evaluates attitudes on the subjects below.

Loss of Control

Some employees think they may be able to make a difference in their environment through discipline and rigorous efforts. There are others who think fate and other factors have more effect. These people are identified as less likely to follow proper safety protocols or work hard to ensure a safe workplace.

Stress Management

If employees do not handle stress well, they may be more likely to become distracted or flustered. This leads to an increased risk of workplace hazards. Those who have higher stress tolerance are seen as being safer than those who have low-stress tolerance.

Risk Aversion

There are some employees who have a greater urge to seek thrills than others. People who have low inhibitions and those who get bored easily are more likely to be involved in accidents on the job than people who say they are not risk-takers.

Propensity To Violence

People who think aggression is justifiable may be more likely to cause violence in the workplace themselves, and they are more likely to tolerate it from other workers. In addition to this, people who are unable to control their own tempers and emotions are more likely to be problematic employees.

Drug Aversion

Employees who use drugs or are likely to use them provide plenty of insight into drug issues. This makes them much easier to identify with written assessments, and there are a large number of worker screening tools that make it easier to identify permissive attitudes toward drug use among coworkers.

There was another testing agency researchers looked at, which analyzed data somewhat differently. The company attempted to measure people on how agreeable they were, their conscientiousness, their safety orientation, and their customer service skills. Using this parameter, the company found positive connections between improved safety outcomes and screening in several different industries. They found when they screened applicants who failed the assessment, their Workers' Compensation claims were reduced by more than 30%. The company also found that companies testing workers saw a 17% reduction in their turnover rates.

The effectiveness reported by these two testing companies complemented the work of researchers at a third company. The third company analyzed a major retailer in the United States which tested approaches in more than 25 stores and covered 4,000 workers. This company saw a 30% reduction in Workers' Compensation claims and more than a 20% reduction in general liability claims for a five-month period.

In addition to helping screen out workers who may become liabilities, these assessments can also be used to compare company facilities. For example, an employee at one location may be more likely to say safety precautions were ignored by other workers at another location, which may actually indicate a leadership issue at that specific site. Safety screening is not foolproof. Experts remind people that accidents will still happen since people and equipment are never perfect. However, screening is an extra layer of protection for the safety of a company and its other employees.

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