posted on 2021-01-18, 09:09authored byEleanor Harvey, James Pinder, Roger Haslam, Andrew Dainty, Alistair Gibb
Health and safety inductions are ubiquitous in construction but tend to be poorly designed and suffer low levels of worker engagement. In this paper we report on the evaluation of an innovative, full day, actor-based health and safety induction called EPIC, currently being used on London’s Thames Tideway Tunnel megaproject. As of March 2019, more than 14,000 individuals had attended EPIC. This evaluation examines the impact of EPIC from the perspective of participants and other stakeholders, and considers the utility of actor-based immersive health and safety inductions for use more widely, in both construction and other sectors. Using a mixed-method, longitudinal approach to data collection, EPIC is evaluated against Kirkpatrick’s (1959) ‘four levels’ framework of reactions, learning, behaviour change and results. This paper discusses factors which support and hinder actor-based inductions, and the challenges involved in assessing the impact of inductions on subsequent behaviour and health and safety outcomes.
Funding
Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH)
Bazalgette Tunnel Ltd
History
Published in
Applied Ergonomics: Human factors in technology and society
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Applied Ergonomics: Human factors in technology and society and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2019.102955.