Improving young workers’ safety voice : a three-part study exploring safety voice interventions

Abstract

Three studies (and a manipulation check) were conducted using mixed methods to examine an intervention to improve young workers’ confidence and willingness to voice safety concerns at work. Study One involved semi-structured interviews with young people (N = 21) who personally experienced or witnessed an incident or near miss at work. These interviews (in addition to the literature) then guided the development of a four-step safety voice intervention (CARD). This intervention was tested in Study 2 and compared with a popular training tool currently used to teach young people their workplace Rights in an on-line questionnaire format (N=236). Only a univariate main effect was noted between the CARD safety voice intervention and young worker’s confidence in voicing safety concerns (multivariate effects were not significant). In Study 3, CARD was compared with Safety Specific Transformational Leadership and a Job Requirement to Voice, after a manipulation check (N=137) to ensure the intervention was working as intended. Several significant three-way interactions were found in this final study (N=360). CARD was found to have a significant effect on young workers’ confidence to voice safety concerns (i.e., lowered perceived risk to Job Security, and improved Probability of Success and perceptions of Safety Climate) compared to the control group, but only when Safety Specific Transformational Leadership and the Job Requirement to Voice were absent. Findings from this study may have organizational and public policy implications.