The Health & Safety Executive outlined a new behavioural safety approach named: “INSPECT”, which brings together several prompts that if used effectively in the workplace could help reduce incidents.
This is a set of useful ideas that should be used in addition to the other human factors tools currently in place. Looking further into why people do what they do, this approach employs the notion of ‘nudges’ that can be applied in re-enforcing behaviours in a systematic way.
Dr Beverley Bishop Principal Research Officer, Economic and Social Analysis Unit and Dr Jennifer Lunt, Principal Health Psychologist at Health & Safety Laboratory also led an interactive session with groups applying the INSPECT elements to common work activities in the chemical industry. Perhaps you can use the checklist (right) as provided by HSE.
A personal experience of worker behavioural performance was shared by Robert Welham, GMB union convenor at Crown Paints Ltd. His career has spanned many years in manufacturing industry and with several specific examples, Bob provided a unique insight into how standards of health and safety have greatly improved over the decades.
Bob also outlined how recently working within Chemical Industries Association’s Responsible Care activities, the trades unions are more on board with cultural and behavioural improvements, all with a view to raising standards.
