Nudging People towards better Health & Safety

Nudging People towards better Health & Safety

Cathy Norton recently learnt about the Nudge Theory which is a modern concept for understanding how people think, make decisions and behave. This, in turn, can be used to help people (i) improve their thinking and decisions; (ii) managing change; and finally (iii) identifying and modifying existing unhelpful influences on people. It is particularly with respect to points (ii) and (iii) that this can be relevant in a health and safety context. If you want to learn more about Nudge Theory, then she suggests you go to the “Businessballs” website where this a huge amount on this subject, but what she wants to do is to think about it in a health and safety context. The use of Nudge theory is based on indirect encouragement and enablement. It avoids direct instruction or enforcement. Here are some simple everyday life examples that show the difference between traditional enforced change and ‘Nudge’ techniques:

The ability to make decisions quickly and efficiently is key to successful working. However incorrect or unsafe. Some decisions have life-changing consequences, such as accepting a new job, moving house etc., but many decisions we make are so routine that they are, in fact, made without thinking. This is particularly true in familiar environments such as work, where people make more or less unconscious decisions affecting their health and safety all the time.

So why do people behave in an unsafe way? The vast majority of our behaviour is automatic, in other words it is not conscious, thus allowing us to process multiple tasks simultaneously with little effort. A good example of this is how many times have you driven your normal journey to and from work with no real recollection of the journey, as you were driving more or less automatic pilot.

Apparently another important influence on our behaviour and actions is conformity. Some experts believe that conforming to group behaviour in one way or another has been a necessary survival instinct, and that the tendency to conform may, to a certain extent, becomes instinctual. The problem here is that when lots of people conform to a false but perceived acceptable unsafe behaviour, this can, in fact, produces real unsafe norms. These behaviours can be intensely powerful and can lead to:

• taking shortcuts in working procedures as it has become accepted practice
• not wearing personal protective equipment
• overriding safety devices
• overloading a piece of lifting equipment
• ignoring signage and other instructions

Nudge theory seeks to minimise resistance and confrontation, which commonly arise from more forceful directly and autocratic methods of changing people and their behaviour, such that it can even cause some wilful resistance. Put simply, it is about coaxing or gently encouraging someone to do something differently. Nudge techniques can be considered a means to alter peoples’ decision-making towards positive outcomes. Care must be taken as negative nudges, although not usually intentional, can adversely affect behaviour too.

Below is a simple table of varying characterisations of, and differences between, traditional directed change and Nudge-oriented interventions, in terms of key words and tactical notions that are typical when one thinks of health and safety.

‘Nudge’ at a Glance

We have all probably been nudged without even knowing it. Most people will have seen a sign on the motorway saying “tiredness kills, take a break”. This simple nudge encourages people to think in a safe way and then act on it by pulling over for a break. Another example “take your litter home, other people do” encourages us to conform, as we are being told that the norm is to take the litter home so therefore we are more likely to take heed.

The use of nudges is a softer approach, encouraging people to make the right decision in their own best interest. It is about getting people to want to behave safely because it is the norm, and helps them make the right choices by being nudged.

There are many techniques to nudge your employees to behave differently, perhaps in a more healthy way, and often the simplest ideas can make the biggest differences. If you are aware that people are not really mixing well, as there is little social interaction, then by locating tea and coffee making facilities in an area where there are also chairs and tables, will encourage people to take breaks away from work stations and talk with colleagues on a social level. If you locate personal protective equipment close to the work equipment that requires the PPE, then it encourages people to remember to wear and use it. Positioning a relevant written safe system of work alongside the item of machinery that it relates to, will remind people of how to work the machinery and will act as a usual refresher for those employees who may not use the equipment very often.

Think also about how you communicate messages. If you only really focus on the negative aspects of health and safety (think about all of those “elf” & safety stories the press love to cover) rather than the positives, it will affect the way people feel about it. It By using upbeat communication will increase the attractiveness of positive behaviour. For example, rather than reprimanding people for mistakes or omissions, try to commend those employees for any safe acts that they do instead. Rather than telling someone off for not wearing their PPE, rephrase it in a positive manner, such as “I notice you are not wearing your PPE, do you need to borrow some?”

Don’t forget that the way that feedback is given will also help. If employees are excluded from a decision-making process that affects them, they are more likely to reject it; however, if they are involved they will take ownership of the process and are more likely to conform to control measures “they” suggested. This is why I have always been a great advocate that risk assessments and safe systems of work should only ever be undertaken by the people that actually do the jobs. Simple nudge feedback could include, when discussing risk assessments, asking the team to suggest how they think the risk could best be controlled. A really good health and safety culture is when employees are encouraged to prompt or correct any safe behaviour in others in a way that is not telling them off, by using phrases such as “what else do you think could…?”, “have you forgotten anything?” or “what do you think about doing this?” Also when providing feedback on health and safety compliance, try to focus on the positive aspects while not losing sight of areas that still need work, by saying “I’ve noticed a significant improvement in accident numbers in area X and I am looking forward to seeing progress in area Y as well”.

Do not underestimate the dangers of conformity and following the herd mentality. The best way to crack this is if you can nudge the behaviour of one or two influential people in a group, this in turn, will begin to nudge others. This can then create a positive ripple effect. Key influencers may be Managers or Supervisors, Safety Reps, but better still would be a long serving team member, or even a disruptive team member who always has an opinion on everything. Consider offering the key influencers important health and safety monitoring responsibilities, such as conducting risk assessments, writing safe systems of work, auditing safety, being on the health and safety committee.

Finally, the best nudgers of all are the senior leaders within an organisation. However, remember that employees are less likely to want to respond positively to nudges from leaders if they do not really respect that person. Another problem is if the nudger is a “don’t do as I do, do as I say” person and actually sets a bad example, particularly if they are influential, then this will simply cause on-going negative ripple. It is, therefore, vital that those in a position of leadership keep positively nudging the importance of health and safety within the organisation by their continual actions, words and deeds.

Hopefully this article will gently nudge you into writing yourself a list of what you can do to nudge others into believing that the road towards a good health and safety standard at work is, in fact, made up of a lot of little steps with quite a bit of beneficial and regular nudging from time to time.

Our Consultants would be pleased to advise you on any element of the issues arising from this newsletter.