Development of a multilevel health and safety climate survey tool within a mining setting

This study aimed to design, implement and evaluate the reliability and validity of a multifactorial and multilevel health and safety climate survey (HSCS) tool with utility in the Australian mining setting.

An 84-item questionnaire was developed and pilot tested on a sample of 302 Australian miners across two open cut sites.

A 67-item, 10 factor solution was obtained via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) representing prioritization and attitudes to health and safety across multiple domains and organizational levels. Each factor demonstrated a high level of internal reliability, and a series of ANOVAs determined a high level of consistency in responses across the workforce, and generally irrespective of age, experience or job category. Participants tended to hold favorable views of occupational health and safety (OH&S) climate at the management, supervisor, workgroup and individual level.

The survey tool demonstrated reliability and validity for use within an open cut Australian mining setting and supports a multilevel, industry specific approach to OH&S climate. Findings suggested a need for mining companies to maintain high OH&S standards to minimize risks to employee health and safety. Future research is required to determine the ability of this measure to predict OH&S outcomes and its utility within other mine settings.

As this tool integrates health and safety, it may have benefits for assessment, monitoring and evaluation in the industry, and improving the understanding of how health and safety climate interact at multiple levels to influence OH&S outcomes.