Methodologies for changing and maintaining employee behaviour in regards to health and safety procedures and policies within the library environment

Abstract

Since the advent of the Health and Safety in Employment Act, 1992, library managers have been legally obligated to proactively identify and manage workplace hazards. However, research suggests that that even with established health and safety policies, employees continue to work in unsafe ways because they are used to working in that way. This report attempts to identify common methods that library managers can use to change unsafe employee behaviour and attitudes. These methods were gathered firstly by interviewing four New Zealand library managers. Methods suggested in the interviews were compared with methods suggested by the health and safety, and library professional literature. The most common methods found were: training, regular staff reminders, new staff induction, job redesign and behaviour reinforcement.