Hands-on simulations and other interactive training techniques play a critical role when conveying safety knowledge and demonstrating safe work behaviors in hazardous work environments, according to a new study.
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The researchers’ findings were reported in a research paper that appeared in the February issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology. The paper discusses how engaging and simulating training triggers a psychological response referred to as the “dread factor.” The authors explain that this response enhances the ability to learn, especially when workers are being prepared to deal with ominous hazards.
“Our research is the most comprehensive to date to examine the question of how important training engagement is for informing workers about hazards and how to avoid them, and motivating workers to practice safe work behaviors,” said lead author Michael J. Burke of Tulane University.
“From a practical viewpoint, this study shows that engaging training does make a difference for workers in highly hazardous conditions,” said Kristin Smith-Crowe, a senior author on the study and a research professor at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business. “And recent disasters, like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia, remind us that the stakes can be very high.”
The authors report that their findings reverse previously held assumptions about work safety training and qualify the conclusions of a team of researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and Canada’s Institute for Work & Health, which reported that there was insufficient evidence for recommending the adoption of more interactive training techniques.
The authors’ investigation statistically integrated the results from 113 safety training studies with a total sample of nearly 24,700 workers from 16 countries. The safety training studies included those conducted since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970.