Realistic safety preview

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. 

All recruitment and selection activities should begin with a job analysis. Job analysis allows the task requirements of a job to be precisely determined. Furthermore, job analysis allows the safety risks associated with a job to be determined, and also the identification of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to work, both safely, and at a satisfactory performance level. It is well established that the occupation or job a person is performing substantially influences accident vulnerability (Ford and Wiggins 2012). In other words, it is vital for safety, for the specific hazards and risks associated with a job to be identified, and conducting a job analysis is an approach which can be used to collect this information. Without the essential information which job analysis provides, it is impossible to provide job applicants with a realistic safety preview for the job (see Chap. 3, Sect. 3.7.2.1), and difiicult to know what competencies a new employee needs to bring to the job, and therefore what should be measured in a selection program. 

Using a recmitment process that includes a realistic safety preview is likely to gready increase the chances that an organization will employ a new employee that is able to work in a safe manner. At the very least, the process should help remove applicants who decide themselves that they do not have the competencies required... 

F. 5.2 Decisions associated with realistic safety preview use at the time of new employee recmitment... 

Labor pool Gentnxil safety iirfomiation Job advertisement Realistic safety preview self-selection in or out of application process... 

One of the key objectives associated with providing risk and hazard information is to help set realistic safety expectations. That is, the provision of safety and hazard information can form a realistic safety preview. Chapter 3 describes four different types of job applicant and described how the four types vary in terms of safety expectations and previous job experience. Job applicants classified as school leaver or career transition applicants will have the least amount of relevant job experience and are likely to have the most unrealistic safety expectations. Clearly, safety expectation setting procedures will be of most benefit to those job applicants. However, it would be unwise to forgo the use of a realistic safety preview, based on the assumption that the job applicant, because of their previous experience, would not benefit from the process. Tables 3.1 and 3.2, in Chap. 3, show that there are safety risks associated with aU job applicants, including career-focused applicants, and these can be reduced by providing a realistic safety preview. Thus, it is... 

There is considerable variation in how an applicant pool can be generated. For example, a job vacancy can be placed on an online job site, in a newspaper, or posted on a notice board. Irrespective of how a job is advertised, the common element is that a written description of more or less detail is generally produced. A job vacancy advertisement should cover the job title, what the key tasks and roles are, what competencies are required to perform the job, how further information (e.g., job description and person specification) can be acquired, and how to apply for the position. To include a realistic safety preview, safety factors should be noted in the job advertisement. To omit any mention of safety is to miss an opportunity to ensure new employee safety. Furthermore, it is simply wrong for an organization to assume that individuals in the labor pool will already know about a job s safety risks. It is not necessary to provide extensive and detailed statements about safety in a job advertisement. Rather statements, such as There are safety risks associated with undertaking aspects of this job. This job is performed in a hazardous environment. Safety aspects associated with this job require employees to work with extreme causation. Safety compliance is a key performance indicator for this job. In order to maintain safety the successful candidate will have the following competencies. .., are examples of what could be included in order to bring the safety factors associated with the job to the attention of interested individuals. 

Communicating safety information in recruitment material is essentially providing the first step in the realistic safety preview process. As with a realistic job preview, some individuals will select themselves out of the process based on the information provided during recruitment. Other individuals will begin to develop clarity around the actual safety risks associated with the job, and this clarity will... 

Realistic Safety Preview Job Description and Person Specification... 

The reasons for the use of realistic safety preview processes during recmitment, selection, and induction The safety risks if new employees have unreahstic safety expectations... 

F. 3.1 Example of tree harvester (forester) safety-specific realistic job preview information for use in a job description... 

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