Research shows which industry's employees are the safest at work

A new study by organisational psychology firm SACS Consulting shows that workers in the utilities were the most motivated to ensure safety at work, most likely to comply with OHS rules and most likely to participate in improving safety at work. 

The SACS study, ‘Dangerous Personalities Making Work Unsafe’, shows that:

• The safest employees work in the utilities, local government and FMCG industries; manufacturing, construction and other trades were moderately safety-conscious by comparison;
• There is a clear difference in types of workers’ approach to safety.  At the fundamental level of personality, some employees truly value safety and others do not;
• Overall, men tend to take safety more seriously at work than women.

Graph comparing safety consciousness of employees by industry.

“With recent data from Safe Work Australia showing manufacturing workers make more than 16,000 serious workers compensation claims a year, and that transport and storage has the second-highest incidence of serious claims of all industries, employers are no doubt concerned about improving the safety of their workplaces,” says Andrew Marty, the managing director of SACS and principal researcher in the study.

“The study shows that we can identify which people are likely to flout or support OHS and safety rules in the workplace,” says Marty. “This could be helpful in reducing unnecessary safety risks in the workplace for those employers worried about reducing the costs of workers compensation and time lost to injury.”