Companies operating within safety conscious industries have saved roughly €65 million in workplace injury and accident costs by using technology, according to a report.
In 2017, European businesses lost more than €476 billion in damages caused by workplace accidents and injuries, which amounted to a staggering 3.3 per cent of the European Union GDP.
However firms in sectors such as construction, oil and gas have incorporated personality testing into their recruitment strategy.
Research compiled by Hogan Assessments – a global provider of workplace personality assessments and consulting – estimated that companies using these safety specific personality tests were able to save approximately €65m, 1,728 days of production.
This is based on data collected from 40,000 safety reports distributed by Hogan Assessments in Europe between 2015 and 2018, where each candidate was scored on their safety conscious behaviour.
Personality assessments can be used to score applicants on specific personality traits that are best suited to the industry within which they are applying.
Applicants that are deemed to be compliant, resilient, cheerful, vigilant, cautious, and trainable are considered safety conscious, and would therefore make for a strong candidate within these sectors.
Candidates who are deemed to be defiant, panicky, irritable, distractible, reckless, and arrogant would not be safety conscious, and would therefore pose a threat to the safety and wellbeing of their fellow staff members as well as themselves.
“Industries involving a higher level of manual labour, such as construction, oil and gas, are at most risk when it comes to workplace accident and injury,” commented Zsolt Feher, managing director Europe at Hogan Assessments.
“Companies that operate within safety conscious industries need to put additional measures into place to ensure that they recruit the right staff and create a safe environment for their workers.’
“In the age of HR tech, HR professionals should consider diversifying their repertoire of HR tools to include personality assessment and consulting.
“Using personality assessments can reduce the risk of onboarding staff that look good on paper, but in reality, are not a good match for your company’s working culture.
“Much like a lot of emerging HR tech tools, the technology that underpins a workplace personality test is used to measure ‘hidden’ personality traits and qualities that may not necessarily be visible in a job interview.”