New employee helping behaviors

Co-workers reactions to new employees have been termed compensatory behaviors (Geller et al. 1996). These are behaviors which attempt to compensate for the fact that the employee is new to the job, and needs familiarizing with all aspects of the job. Of course familiarization is required in both directions the new employee will need to become familiar with all aspects of the job, including their co-workers behavior and attitudes, and co-workers will need to become familiar with the new employee s behavior and attimdes. The latter is particularly important for co-worker safety. New employees can be somewhat unpredictable in their behavior due to a desire to be helpful (Burt et al. 2014). Chapter 8 focuses specifically on helping behaviors which new employees may engage in and the risks these may pose to co-workers. In addition to unexpected helping behaviors, new employees can be unpredictable in how they work, and co-workers need to be veiy mindful of this. 

Supervisors interactions with new employees, what might be terms their leadership style, will play an important role in the establishment of tmst-relationships. Evidence is mounting that a transformational leadership style, where leaders develop affective bonds with their employees will help facilitate tmst development and positively influence safety (Conchie 2013), as well as positively influence performance outcomes (Schaubroeck et al. 2011). Supervisors should of course develop a safety-specific tmst relationship with a new employee based on evidence from their behavior, not based on assumptions. While supervisors may be somewhat insulated from the adverse impact of new employee s behavior, they should consider new employees as potential sources of safety risk until proven otherwise. Co-workers are likely to be the most vulnerable in terms of the impact of unsafe behavior from new employees. Thus from the perspective of co-workers, it is advisable to be careful and ensure that any tmst which is given to a new employee is deserved. 

Understand new employee initial behavior Manage new employee behavior and alert co-workers to Information seeking behavior Desire to change role/tasks Employee silence/voicing Random acts of helping... 

Burt and Stevenson (2009) and Burt et al. (2009) examined employees perceptions of organizational processes and how these are associated with their reactions to new employees. Perceptions of recruit and selection processes are discussed in Chap. 5, and perceptions of socialization and prestart training processes are discussed in Chap. 6. Both chapters note how a perception that organizational processes helps ensure safety can be associated with a lowering of risk perceptions, a decrease in behaviors which should ensure safety, and thus an overall increase in workplace safety risk. Scales used to measure perceptions of tmst in selection process, trust in induction processes, and employees reactions to new employees (compensatory behaviors) are published in the appendix of Burt et al. (2009). 

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. 

The following sections examine two processes associated with recmitment activities (i.e., job analysis, and realistic safety preview), and a range of selection predictors (application blank, applicant interview, cogiutive, physical, psychomotor, sensory/perceptual ability testing, personality testing, and attitude measurement) which an organization can use to help predict job applicant (new employee s) safety behavior, and overall their ability to work safely. Where appropriate, recommendations on how recruitment and selection processes can be used to improve new employee safety are discussed. Finally, this chapter examines how employees perceptions of organizational processes can be made more realistic. 

Study Sample Correlation between trust in prestart training processes and Oust in new employees to work safely Correlation between trust in new employees and perceived safety risk from new employees Correlation between perceived safety risk from new employees and compensatory behaviors to help ensure new employee 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. 

Arguably the sooner that a new employee can be familiarized, the sooner their behavior will become predictable, and this will help ensure everyone s safety. Coworkers can help achieve new employee familiarization, but as noted above it is important that the process is formalized by management the new employee knows that the co-worker(s) have been formally assigned to help them adapt. Formally establishing a relationship between a co-worker and a new employee, not only helps remove helping reciprocity issues, but also can deal with other limiting factors. If the interaction between an employee and a new employee is uncontrolled, it may be influenced (limited) by several factors there will be variation in the coworkers response to new employees determined by the formal work relationship between the co-workers and the new employee, determined by the physical distance between co-workers, determined by aspects of the work (e.g., use of protective equipment) and environment (excessive noise) which either facilitate or hinder communication, and it will be determined by the time available for interactions to occur. Each of these issues is explored in some detail below. 

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