Validation of a gamified measure of safety behavior: The SBT

• Published in: Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World pp. 263 - 270
• Main Authors: Burt, C.B.D., Crowe, L., Thomas, K.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: CRC Press 2018
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Safety Participation; Computer Game Experience; Clips; Computer Game Playing; Safety Consciousness; Human Reliability Analysis; Accident Involvement; Safety Behavior; Cyber Physical Systems; HEC; Scale Coefficient Alpha; Positive Safety Culture; Computer Game Players; Minimal Cut Sets; AQ; Partial Correlations; Critical Infrastructure Resilience; Reliability Blocks Diagrams; Gamma Process; Computer Game; Behavioral Safety; Safety Compliance; Computer Game Playing Experience; Employee Recruitment
• ISBN: 0815386826; 9780815386827
• DOI: 10.1201/9781351174664-34

Safety behavior is defined by constructs such as safety compliance, safety participation, and risk-taking. A safety complaint employee follows safety rules and policies, and if they engage in safety participation, goes beyond their job to ensure everyone's safety. In contrast, risk taking and safety violation behaviors can cause accidents and system failures. The significance of safety behavior argues for its measurement in job applicants, and the use of the resulting data to select applicants in and out of high risk situations, and/or allocate to training programs. The development of the Safety Behavior Test (SBT) which is a gamified assessment tool operationalized within an animated work simulation environment is described. Participant's SBT score was correlated with data on their actual safety behavior provided by an independent source. Results indicate the SBT has good criterion-related validity, but this is influenced by computer-game playing experience. The advantages of using gamification to measure safety behavior are discussed. Safety behavior is defined by constructs such as safety compliance, safety participation, and risk-taking. A safety complaint employee follows safety rules and policies, and if they engage in safety participation, goes beyond their job to ensure everyone's safety. The development of the Safety Behavior Test (SBT) which is a gamified assessment tool operationalized within an animated work simulation environment is described. Participant's SBT score was correlated with data on their actual safety behavior provided by an independent source. Results indicate the SBT has good criterion-related validity, but this is influenced by computer-game playing experience. The SBT was designed to be used during the employee recruitment process. The validation process involved correlating the SBT scores with data on safety behavior obtained from independent raters. Behavioral safety not only requires an individual to engage in safe behaviors, but also to avoid a spectrum of unsafe or risky behaviors, including routine rule-breaking.