Understanding employees personalities and their responses to risk and personal safety can determine if they will put themselves and others in danger in the workplace. An individual's attitudes and beliefs toward risk taking behavior can be assessed through a personality test which allows management to weed out high risk employees for further training and education. While personality cannot be changed, actions and behaviors can change through self-awareness, coaching, and training. It is important for companies to learn how to use personality testing in safety management because it can be a good tool in creating a safer culture.
Personality testing allows management to learn to what degree employees take responsibility for their own safety, if they avoid potential and risky behavior, how they manage emotional responses, if they tolerate various degrees of stress, and the likelihood they will not react with violent behavior. With this knowledge safety management can proceed with individualized training in the appropriate areas that require development and improvement.
Specifically targeted training will help employees gain insight to their own tendencies toward risk taking and give them the power to develop their strengths. We all have certain tendencies in our personalities that cause us to react a certain way. An involuntary reaction can lead to wrong choices and poor decisions. By modifying behavior patterns through coaching and training, we can learn to be aware of our responses to a situation as it happens instead of reacting without thought. Then we can make different choices and better decisions.
For example, employees who are naturally anxious can freeze up or panic when faced with an unexpected safety situation. They can also doubt their own ability to respond correctly and safely to the threat. With targeted training these employees can be taught to recognize their anxieties and learn to override them so they can respond to a safety threat confidently while remaining calm under the pressure.
When employees are given the proper training and coaching to overcome their own impulses, they will grow and be more aware of how to react in safety situations. This will prevent accidents and improve over all safety in the workplace.
