Safety assessments should be conducted at least every 3 months, study says

College Station, TX – Annual safety climate assessments are not enough for organizations that want the best possible results, according to a study from Texas A&M University.

Instead, researchers recommend that organizations conduct safety climate assessments at least once every three months – preferably once a month – to determine the best ways to prevent workplace incidents.

Researchers analyzed data from 42 chemical manufacturing sites in a dozen countries as part of the study, which spanned four years. They found that safety climate assessments were more likely to forecast workplace incidents within one month and decreasingly likely to predict events during the second and third months.

The assessment has “basically no predictive power” from four months out, lead researcher Mindy Bergman claimed in a Feb. 24 press release. She said safety climate assessments allow employers to ask workers about topics such as the quality of safety equipment, the actions and messages of supervisors, and whether co-workers promote safety on the site.

The study was published online Jan. 21 in the Journal of Business and Psychology.