Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
10.2 REGRESSION EFFECTS
For those who plan special safety programs in specific parts of the
organization it is wise to take into account that safety processes seldom
are stable and show fluctuations. The Safety Index will go up and
down, usually without our understanding why.
Suppose there are 10 departments and that three of them score very
badly on the Safety Index. The first idea would be to start a special
program to upgrade the safety situation of those three departments.
Suppose that a year later, after a special program, the Safety Index of
these three departments has improved. They are no longer the safety
laggards of the company but have an average score.
Initially, we might believe that the special program has been success-
ful. Each of the three departments has improved, one more than the
others. But in theory the improvement could be fully related to normal
fluctuations. Statistically, we talk about regression to the mean, a way of
saying that a lot of processes (like the weather) fluctuate during the years
around a certain mean, and a good year will probably be followed by a
bad year, and vice versa. Regression to the mean implicates that the
Safety Index of those three departments that scored low would rise any-
way just because of these fluctuations. A higher score then would have
no direct meaning. Only if the Safety Index stayed high for many
years would the option that the Index has structurally improved gain
credence.
The basic message is this: Beware of evaluating special safety pro-
jects too fast, in order to avoid unrealistic conclusions about the effec-
tiveness of such programs.
10.3 HR AND SAFETY: REWARDING SAFETY BEHAVIOR?
A final word concerning the reward system: It is not uncommon that
organizations work with financial bonuses and that the range of the
bonus is to some extent related to safety performance. Bonuses are
related to extrinsic motivation that can be used for all behaviors people
don
t want to engage in for their own interest but will cooperate with
because someone else appreciates these behaviors. Bonuses are effective
at the instigation of safety management, especially on the level of rules,
regulations, and protocols, because bonuses can help employees stick
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