Using Design Thinking to Improve Worker Safety at ITC's Paper Manufacturing Division
Nudging employees and managers to follow safety protocols using Behavioral Science
Context
Safety non-adherence on a plant floor is a global issue and increasingly becoming an important factor of a company’s credibility. Despite having several mechanisms that encourage individuals to follow safety rules, negative unsafe behaviours continue. Individuals behave from years of conditioning, personal perceptions and mindsets about what they consider to be safe. Our client has a vision of having ‘0’ accidents on its plant floor. This means BEHAVIOUR CHANGE that transforms Unsafe behaviour practise to Safe behaviour habits. It means Change Management driven by top management that trickles down to every employee.
OUR process
Pensaar Design used a systems thinking and design thinking process to conduct deep qualitative research across all hierarchies; assessed current safety mechanisms & policies and identified key problems areas and through a process of rapid experimentation provided a clear POC to be implemented. The tools we used were- Problem statement, Qualitative research and Ecosystem map.
OUr findings: WHY DO INDIVIDUALS BEHAVE UNSAFE?
Individuals have developed a deep overconfidence bias due to the ‘success’ of unsafe behaviours over the years without any accidents.
Pre-exsisting personal perceptions of ‘safety’ and accepted unsafe behaviours at work create different risk assessments and hence increase the potential of individual unsafe behaviours.
Accountability and repercussions of unsafe behaviours are restricted a chosen few increasing irresponsibility of an individual.
Delayed resolution of unsafe conditions creates an environment for unsafe workarounds that becomes a norm.
Also See
Technology
Retail Sector