Identifying practices in the safety observation process in Finnish organisations

Abstract

Safety observations constitute a crucial tool for enhancing safety management and culture, thereby supporting the implementation of safety strategies. Safety observations include unsafe conditions and actions, while near-miss incidents are typically defined as unplanned adverse events that could have resulted, but did not, in injury or damage to people, property, equipment, materials or the environment. Although there are no established guidelines for the safety observation process, various practices for collecting and utilising safety observations in the workplace have emerged. While collecting safety observations has become more common across different sectors, the practices vary among organisations. These practices’ effectiveness has not been evaluated, and some implementation issues may not have been addressed. This article tackles identifying practices in Finnish companies’ safety observation process. The data for this paper were collected from an online survey (n = 21) and interviews (n = 40). The survey targeted safety experts and occupational safety managers in different Finnish organisations. The semi-structured interviews were conducted in five case organisations. In total, 64 people were interviewed. The focus was on questions related to the kinds of practices employed in the safety observation process. In this study, the practices were highlighted in, reporting system, handling of observation and communication about observation.

Keywords: Near-miss incident, Occupational safety, reporting, handling, communication

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006796