Influence of workplace factors on employee safety awareness in the nuclear industry

In any organization, safety performance will in some way be related to employee safety awareness and enhancement of awareness should lead to improvement in safety performance. If awareness is to be enhanced, factors influencing awareness need to be understood and influential factors developed and used to this effect. This paper describes a study which sought to establish, in the context of a nuclear electricity generating company, if relationships do exist between possible influences and safety awareness and, if so, to what extent. The study revealed that five factors - training/experience, safety initiatives, communication, organization and personnel - were judged to be influential and that some of these were key influences. The evidence may be used to influence safety awareness enhancement in this organizational setting. There may be a wider application of these results, certainly within the company and possibly in other similar organizations.