Education Explains Why
There are many definitions for education. Within the context of occupational safety and health, education describes who, what, where, when, and most importantly, why safety procedures and practices are necessary.
The educational process increases employee knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) which shapes their attitudes about safety.
As we discussed in Module 2, to ensure safety education is effective, it's necessary to emphasize that consequences, be they positive or negative, depend on employee performance — specifically, how well employees apply knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). Basically, we do what we do in the workplace because of what we think about the consequences.
Natural consequences describe the type of injury/illness that will "naturally" result if we do/don't follow procedures. For instance:
- An employee breaks an arm falling off a defective ladder
- An employee installs a scaffold guardrail that later prevents a fall
- An employee decides to use ear plugs daily preventing hearing loss
- An employer suffers from low production due to a high rate of equipment failure
- A supervisor must work long hours to make up for high employee turnover
System consequences describe the responses from other workers or external organizations to performance. For instance:
- A worker is subject to a discipline for failing to comply with safety rules
- An employee is recognized by a supervisor for working safely or exceeding expectations
- An employer is cited $10,000 by OSHA for violating safety rules
- An employer is assessed higher workers' compensation premiums for having a poor safety record.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
7-4. What is one of the most important ways to make sure safety education is effective?
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