Association between safety leading indicators and safety climate levels.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of leading indicators for occupational health and safety, particularly safety inspections and non-compliances, with safety climate levels.

METHODS: Nordic Occupational Safety Climate Assessment Questionnaire was employed to evaluate safety climate in cross-sectional design. The geographically diverse population of the inspection body made it possible to conduct the survey across 10 provinces in Iran. 89 completed questionnaires were obtained with a response rate of 47%. Except for management safety justice, the internal consistency of other six dimensions was found to be acceptable (α≥0.7).

RESULTS: Mean scores of dimensions ranged from 3.50 in trust in the efficacy of safety systems (SD=0.38) to 2.98 in workers' safety priority and risk non-acceptance (SD=0.47). Tukey HSD tests indicated a statistically significant difference of mean scores among groups undergoing different number of safety inspections and those receiving different number of non-compliances (p<0.05), with no significant differences based on safety training man-hours and sessions (p>0.05). Spearman's rank-order correlation showed no relationship between work experience and number of non-compliances (correlation coefficient=-0.04, p>0.05) and between safety training man-hours and number of non-compliances (correlation coefficient=-0.15, p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that safety climate levels are influenced by number of safety inspections and the resultant non-compliances.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Findings suggest that safety non-compliances detected as a result of conducting safety inspections could be used to monitor the safety climate state. Establishing plans to conduct scheduled safety inspections and recording findings in the form of safety non-compliance and monitoring their trend could be used to monitor levels of safety climate.