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Exploring Worker Experience as a Predictor of Routine and Non-routine Safety Performance Outcomes in the Mining Industry

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Abstract

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the role that individual factors play in health and safety (H&S) outcomes in the mining industry.

Two surveys, one measuring self-reported routine safety performance and one measuring individual perceived competence in the non-routine knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) critical to emergency response, were administered to two samples of mineworkers in separate research studies over a 2-year period (N = 2,020 and 696, respectively). Eight demographic items were common to both surveys and their associations with each performance outcome were tested in response to a series of exploratory research questions.

Significant relationships were found between both safety outcome variables and individual factors, including the length of experience in current job, current mine, and mining industry, as well as participant workgroup and work schedule. Notably, the length of experience in the mining industry was the only variable significantly associated with both routine and non-routine safety performance.

This analysis suggests that individual factors such as length of job, industry, and mine experience are predictive of routine and/or non-routine safety performance outcomes in significant and sometimes unexpected ways.

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Data Availability

Due to the federal governmental procedures, participant organizations were granted certificates of confidentiality which preclude the public sharing of the datasets.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division, 626 Cochrans Mill Rd, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Cassandra L. Hoebbel

  2. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, 626 Cochrans Mill Rd, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Emily J. Haas

  3. New York, USA

    Margaret E. Ryan

Authors
  1. Cassandra L. Hoebbel
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  2. Emily J. Haas
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  3. Margaret E. Ryan
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Cassandra L. Hoebbel, Emily J. Haas, and Margaret E. Ryan. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Cassandra L. Hoebbel and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cassandra L. Hoebbel.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval

This research was approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and Human Subjects Review Board (HSRB) under NIOSH protocol numbers 14-OMSHR-08XM and 16-OMSHR-01XM .

Consent to Participate

All human subjects provided informed consent to participate in the research activities described within this manuscript as documented in the approved protocols listed above.

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All authors have consented for this work to be published.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Disclaimer.

The findings and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mention of company names or products does not constitute endorsement by NIOSH.

This is a US government work and its text is not subject to copyright protection in the United States; however, its text may be subject to foreign copyright protection 2021.

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Hoebbel, C.L., Haas, E.J. & Ryan, M.E. Exploring Worker Experience as a Predictor of Routine and Non-routine Safety Performance Outcomes in the Mining Industry. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration 39, 485–494 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-021-00536-2

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