New Employee Expected Behavior

The new employee expected behavior scale has 10 items, and both versions are shown in Table 9.7. The items for the new employee version were adapted (by rewording into first person singular future tense) from Chmiel s (2005) work on job safety behavior and Walker and Hutton s (2006) research. Burt et al. (2012) reported Cronbach s alphas for the new employee version of 0.85, and a value of 0.90 for the job incumbent version. 

I will be familiar with safety documentation New employees are familiar with safety documentation 

I will maintain a clean, safe, work environment New employees maintain a clean, safe, wrak environment 

I will inform incoming shifts or work teams of current hazards and risks New employees inform incoming shifts or work teams of current hazards and risks 

I will follow safety rules New employees follow safety rules 

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Table 9.7 The new employee expected behavior scale items...

Table 3.2 is an attempt to show the general nature of safety expectations across the four categories of new employee and also shows the associated level of safety expectation-driven risk exposure. The expectation-driven risk exposure level is based on the predictions of risk homeostasis theory, where less realistic expectations about safety aspects in a workplace may lead an individual to engage in behaviors which turn out to be risky, or not to engage in behaviors, such as monitoring and being careful, which will help ensure safety. 

As noted, socialization processes are likely to be perceived in a similar way to prestart training. That is, if an organization has a socialization process where new employees are introduced to safety policy and procedures, it might be reasonable to assume that this will have a positive impact on the new employee s safety-related behavior on the job. A study by Mullen (2004) supported this proposition, finding that early socialization processes could have a positive influence on safety behavior. Of course, socialization processes may have no effect at all. A new employee, who is asked during socialization to learn the organization s safety policy and procedures, understand the organization s emphasis on safety (its safety culture in the form of norms, beliefs, roles, attitudes, and practices), and learn how to complete appropriate forms (such as hazard sheets, near miss reports), may simply not achieve these expected outcomes. To help increase the chances that socialization will have a positive impact on new employees safety, best practice should be adopted. 

There are many scales that have been developed to measure safety-related variables. The majority of these focus on aspects of safety climate. It is not the intention of this chapter to examine these measures. Rather, the specific focus is on the factors which are direcdy related to new employee safety. Thus, the measures discussed in this chapter are restricted to those which measure attitudes and expectations which new employees bring to the workplace worker attitudes and behaviors which are particularly important for new employee adaption and behaviors, such as helping, which are associated with being a new employee. It is the opinion of this author that measurement provides evidence which can be presented to new employees, coworkers, and management in order to help explain the safety issues associated with new employees. Furthermore, the collection of data provides a degree of precision in terms of the issues faced by a specific organization, for a specific job, and related to the type of new employees being recruited. 

The expected supervision scale has 6 items, and both versions are shown in Table 9.6. Scale items were developed based on the discussion of supervisor behavior required to ensure new employee safety in Chap. 4, Sect. 4.2.8. At the time of writing, no data on the psychometric properties of this scale had been collected. As noted in Chap. 3, supervision of new employees should be a specific task assigned to supervisors. Furthermore, new employees are likely to expect that supervisors will be there to ensure their safety. As noted in many places in this book, the perception that a system has a component which is there to protect a person from risk can lead to more risk being taken. Thus, it is very important that new employees have a realistic perception of the degree of supervision that they will receive. It is also important to note that employees (job incumbents) are asked to complete this scale—not supervisors. Employees should be able to respond to the items in terms of the experiences they have had with supervision, whereas supervisors may respond in terms of what higher management expect of them, rather than their actual supervision of new employees. 

Burt and Hislop (2013) developed the 6 items shown in the left hand column of Table 9.11 to measure employees perception of the safety behavior of past new recruits and reported a Cronbach s alpha for the 6 items of 0.79. The items in the right hand column of Table 9.11 are the prospective equivalent. These items measure worker expectations of new employees. Generally, expectations are based on past experience therefore, an employee s responses to the two scales shown in Table 9.11 will probably be highly correlated. Of course, there are always exceptions, and while all previously encountered new employees may have been perfect safety citizens, the next new employee may be a real danger. Using the scales shown in Table 9.11, employees can be instmcted (shown) how their expectations are driven by their previous experience, and also instructed in the dangers of making the assumption that aU new employees are alike. 

It spelled out for everyone the expected behaviors in the new culture. It contained words, such as learning organization, empowered employees,... 

Be sure to discuss your values and critical practices when you introduce your behavioral safety process to employees. Kickoff meetings are ideal times to communicate your expectations about how employees are to participate in your new safety process. Discussing your values at these meetings will communicate your expectations from the start as to who will participate and why. When discussing open and honest communication, for example, you can talk about the importance of (1) having an open and honest discussion about what is observed and (2) recording accurate information on the observation forms. 

Supervisors must explain work rules and behavioral expectations to all new or transferred employees. Supervisors must never tolerate individuals who encourage others to disregard work rules or established procedures. When disciplining an individual, do so in private but always document the facts. Senior leaders, managers, and supervisors must set an example for others. They must discourage poor behaviors by reinforcing the importance of acceptable behaviors. 

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