Human behaviour is complex at the best of times. It is compounded in a high-risk environment where health and safety outcomes, threats and the lives of hundreds of workers often hinge on individuals’ decisions.
Over the last few decades there has been a tendency to focus closely on the behaviour of individual workers. Behaviour-based safety and other similar interventions have sought to change the way in which people make decisions around operational tasks through behaviouristic methodologies.
The Minerals Council has taken a more holistic approach in the methodologies it promotes and the paradigm shift it envisages driving around the role of human behaviour in health and safety. We recognise that there is almost always a behavioural component, both positive and negative, in all work that is done. Behaviour is also inherent to all employees from the CEO right down to the worker at the coalface. But despite the aforementioned, it is critically important to understand that specific employee behaviours are mostly driven by stimuli and other factors in the external, organisational and immediate work environments. Organisations constantly need to enable people to make the right decisions by setting them up to succeed. In doing so, leaders need to understand, unpack and dissect all behavioural drivers and implement countermeasures and controls to create a friendlier enabling environment. We promote a systemic approach in analysing and addressing organisational enablers and barriers to achieve desired health and safety outcomes.
The list of materials on the website provides useful references to understand different viewpoints on people in the workplace. The list is not exhaustive or selective in nature and is merely a good selection of mostly peer reviewed articles on the subject matter.
In 2018, new behaviour and human factors projects were initiated while work continued in some of the strategic areas identified in 2017. Focus was on leadership assessment and development, change management and the promotion of a socio-technical systems approach to health and safety.
The Minerals Council developed an assessment tool for leadership based on the critical skills for future work as researched by the World Economic Forum. The assessment tool for individual development purposes was designed through a robust engagement and focus group process with a number of Minerals Council members. The assessment tool will be subjected to user experience and technical piloting in 2019 before dissemination in industry.
The management of change is a constant theme in any industry but is even more prominent in mining as a high-risk and dynamic sector. The Minerals Council has therefore assisted its members in dealing with change focused on health and safety through several interventions, including the execution of the MOSH adoption methodology in a systematic way and assessments and dialogue on change management in the sector.
Health and safety incidents are not the product of simple failures but the result of multiple complex failures in external, internal and personal domains. It is essential that the mining industry understands the complexity of risk by unpacking all social and technical drivers and aspects leading to unwanted events. The Minerals Council has therefore emphasised the use of sociotechnical approaches to complex problems throughout industry, while including experts from academia and other institutions to bolster the capacity of the Behaviour Interest Group, formed a few years ago to champion behaviour and change management initiatives.
The Minerals Council initiated new projects whilst continuing work in some of the strategic areas identified in 2017. The broad focal points centred around leadership assessment and development, Change Management and the promotion of a socio-technical systems approach to Health & Safety.
On leadership the Minerals Council developed an assessment tool for leadership based on the critical skills for future work as researched by the World Economic Forum. The assessment tool for individual development purposes was designed through a robust engagement and focus group process with a number of Minerals Council members. The assessment tool will be subjected to user experience and technical piloting in 2019 before dissemination in industry. The management of change Is a constant theme in any industry but is even much more prominent in mining as a high-risk and dynamic sector.
The Minerals Council has therefore assisted its members in dealing with change focused on Health and Safety through several interventions including the execution of the MOSH adoption methodology in a systematic way as well as other related material, assessments and dialogue on change management in the sector. Health & Safety incident are not the product of simple failures but the result of multiple complex failures in the external, internal and personal domains. It is therefore essential that industries such as mining, oil and gas, aviation and power utilities understand the complexity of risk through unpacking all the social and technical drivers and aspects leading to unwanted events. The Minerals Council has therefore also emphasised the use of socio-technical approaches to complex problems throughout industry, whilst including experts from academia and other institutions to bolster the industry committee’s capacity.