SELECTING SAFER EMPLOYEES

Selecting safe employees has always been a commitment of PSP in working with its customers. While safety accidents can occur with employees at all job levels, it is more likely to occur for hourly production and maintenance employees who are involved in operating technical equipment, handling hazardous materials, or moving materials from one location to another. Employee error, lack of attentiveness, or failure to follow workplace procedures can often result in near misses or in some cases safety accidents.

Our customers have told us that utilizing PSP's hourly assessment system not only improves the quality of work performance and reduces turnover, it also reduces worker's compensation costs as well as safety problems.

PSP has regularly performed research on hourly production employees and a recent PSP Metrics research study in a manufacturing facility showed that our Assessment System does indeed predict safer employee behavior.

To read more about the study, please click here.

WHAT PREDICTS SAFER BEHAVIOR?

Our findings.

Our findings showed that higher scores in mechanical aptitude and logical reasoning were important predictors of safe behavior. We also found that safer employees exhibited stronger planning skills, with a tendency to take more time to think situations through before they took action.

Positive attitudes and a willingness to follow procedures were also shown to be significantly associated with safer employees. Screening out candidates who tend to be impulsive or hostile is also important. When under stress, these employees tend not to think effectively and take greater risks in an effort to reduce their frustration.

The behavioral side of safety is very important and PSP's measurements help significantly in identifying employees who have safety risks in their behavior pattern. Additionally, we find that if an employee understands how their behavior is correlated with safety risks, there is a greater chance that they will practice safer behaviors on the job.

SAFETY QUESTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEW

Free questions to help identify safer candidates.

While testing can be extremely helpful in identifying safer candidates, it is also important to practice due diligence in the interview and that is why PSP has historically provided interview training to our customers using a behavioral interview system that allows you to dig deeper into past behaviors. As we know, all of us have good intentions and if you ask an employee "Do you work safely?" very few would tell you that they do not. In interviewing for safe behavior, it is best to approach the subject by obtaining behavioral examples on how the employee has previously handled job situations that have safety implications.

PSP has developed a number of behaviorally based questions for identifying the traits that can predict an employee's likely safety behavioral pattern. Because PSP is committed to helping our customers achieve a safer and more productive workplace, we are providing these questions to help you identify safer candidates.

Please email us at info@pspmetrics.com to request your list of free questions.