NEBOSH

KNOW – WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY

PRINCIPLES (INTERNATIONAL)

UNIT DI1:
For: NEBOSH Level 6 International Diploma for Occupational Health and Safety
Management Professionals

Assessment
ANSWER TEMPLATE – PAPER 1 OF 2

Available for 20 working days

Learner name Nevin Raj Al Tamil Selvan

NEBOSH learner 00569478
number
Learning Partner name 1157-Safenviro

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your first name, your NEBOSH learner number, and your Learning
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Answer sheet DI1-P1-0005-ENG-V1 Sept23 © NEBOSH 2023 page 1 of 12

Part 1: Scenario-based questions
Task 1: Commenting on the SM’s health and safety competence

Question 1

From my deep observation, Elite Construction Ltd.’s site manager health and safety
competency level at an all-time low and the drawbacks had been deliberated below.

Based on my understanding, ECL's site manager lacks in knowledge about the objective
of employee training. In this scenario, the misconception of watching and learning is not
the best option because human mistake can readily occur when an individual is not
properly trained in a certain task. Imagine this to be the case if the workers being observed
commits a significant offense of neglect in safety and health issues, the new learners would
surely follow similar footsteps, resulting in numerous accidents in future projects. For that
reason, such concept shall be avoided at all costs cause every individual has different level
of perceiving risks. The site manager indicated that most workers were educated in this
manner, signifying that no safe work guidelines or safe operating procedures had been
established or discussed among the workers. This concludes that the site manager himself
lacks awareness, education, certification and training in safety and health management.
Instead, the site manager must perform greater responsibility in providing the essential
information and various types of training on the specific job and safety matters that should
be in practice before, during and after a job is performed (Neasham, 2021).

According to the scenario, the site manager refuses to take responsibility for his
negligence, instead blaming the misconduct of the worker. Regardless of how, the safety
management hierarchy begins at the top and works its way down to the lowest levels of
the organization, rather than starting with the workers themselves, because workers are
not well-equipped with knowledge about safety and health. On that account, it is not
reasonable to expect workers to be well-versed in health and safety without delivering the
necessary training and creating awareness, as this is the site manager's entire obligation,
which he had failed to fulfil. In the following scenario, the site manager neglected to set up
edge protection to prevent falls from height on their last job when undertaking roofing work.
Despite knowing that such a hazardous condition could result in significant harm or even
death, the site manager took no action to correct the unsafe conditions or comply with any
safety procedures to eliminate the risk (Neasham, 2021).

On top of that, site manager failed to carry out risk assessments and extensive audits and
annual assessments on their organization's safety and health management systems,
resulting in a failure to provide the needed information during the renewal of the expired
Contractor Safety Accreditation Scheme certification and workplace risk being unidentified.
Also, previous incidents, near misses, and accidents ought to be investigated thoroughly
to assess the site manager's health and safety competency. There were records of
previous safety breaches and accident occurrences in the given scenario, revealing that
the site manager seriously lacks competence in addressing health and safety concerns.
Besides, it is clearly proven the importance of safety and health regulations was not taken
into consideration as no efforts and action towards adherence to those regulations had
been stated in the scenario given (Neasham, 2021).

From my standpoint, attitude plays a major part in building one’s competency. In this case,
the site manager’s attitude affects his safety and health competency level. To support this
statement with evidence, even after committing serious negligence and knowing that their
carelessness had resulted in a worker's death, the site manager refused to have this
accident reported to the enforcement authority. In the scenario, the site manager indicated
that there will not be another accident caused by a worker, implying that the site manager
did not disclose the previous accident with the present client and that it ought to be kept
secret to avoid losing the project and the company's reputation. In my perspective, the site
manager did not even call an ambulance and had the kindness to stay with the injured

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 worker. This plainly demonstrates that the site manager is unconcerned about the workers'
well-being and safety, even after an enforcement notice was issued and a similar disaster
occurred in their last project.

On a final note, the safety and health competency of the site manager is not up to the
mark from my own point of view as the planning, implementation and evaluation of safety
and health had been taken for granted which resulted in loss of human life.

References:

1) Neasham, Z. (2021). NEBOSH International Diploma for Occupational Health and

Safety Management Professionals. Unit ID1, Part 2, Know - Workplace Health and Safety
Principles (INT). London: Rrc International.

Task 2: Commenting on Packagenics’ approach to contractor selection

Question 2

In construction projects, using the appropriate method and setting of requirements is crucial
when developing a contractual relationship between selected contractors and clients to
execute a desirable job.

Drawing from the scenario, two separate approaches were made by Packagenic's Facilities
Manager and Chief Executive Officer that needed to be examined further. In my opinion,
even the approach that made by both Facilities Manager and CEO is not up to the required
standard. When these two approaches were compared, Facility Manager's method of
selecting contractors was far superior to the CEO's approach. Proper background research
shall be conducted at the start itself before considering and confirming the selection of Elite
Construction Ltd (ECL). Only if this was made at an earlier stage, Packagenic could have
easily identified that ECL does not meet any criteria needed or standard requirements and
are not the suitable candidate to be considered for this project. In my opinion, it is apparent
that the CEO did not conduct a thorough background check at initial stage on ECL. Blindly
trusting and making decisions based solely on oral contracts without appropriate evidence
is not the best strategy to hire contractors for building projects. Although, receiving
discounts may be advantageous to the client because it reduces costs. However, such
criteria should not be considered as a deciding factor because there are many other more
significant matters to consider (Neasham, 2021).

Significantly, membership in the contractor safety accreditation system increases customer

trust and impression by demonstrating that risk management is of the highest standard and
safety matters are adhered to in accordance with the health and safety policy. Based on
my observation, a copy of the contractor accreditation certification was not provided for the
client's assessment at the outset, nor was it requested by the client for reviewing the
renewal and expiration details of the certification and evaluating how far have the health
and safety standards are being complied by the organisation. Furthermore, Packagenics
failed to conduct further research on their past records of any breaches and initiatives taken
in mitigating them to evaluate on the contractors safety performance as such poor
performance may lead those breaches to occur again in the subsequent projects. In
addition. Moreover, Packagenic failed to conduct formal meetings in discussing further
about the content of the contractual agreement and site visits on ECL brainstorm on their
capabilities and what they could offer in terms of safety and health performance. Through
site visits, safety measures being applied in own organisation are capable of being seen.
As a result, setting higher safety criteria requirement while carrying out independent
research towards selected contractor on the safety expertise level and previous safety
performance records at an early stage would have made simpler to decide the approval
result as the safety performance level, paperwork and efficacy of risk assessment could
easily be acknowledged (Neasham, 2021).

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 As a final observation, it has been found that the number of oral statements given does not
tally with the evidence or documents by ECL. Packagenic shall be held liable for the serious
negligence that had been committed during the process of selecting ECL as the best
preferred contractor to uptake this project without proper documentation and legit
evidence.
References:

1) Neasham, Z. (2021). NEBOSH International Diploma for Occupational Health and

Safety Management Professionals. Unit ID1, Part 2, Know - Workplace Health and Safety
Principles (INT). London: Rrc International.

Task 3: Commenting on how the effectiveness of Packagenics’

implementation of actions required at the level of undertaking and
determining what the enforcement authority considered when
deciding on enforcement action

Question 3 (a) (i)

The ineffectiveness of Packagenic's implementations of activities required at the

undertaking level under Article 16, and Article 19 individually, are explained below.

Organizations are legally bound to the standards established by specialized agencies.

Consider the provisions of the International Labour Organization's (ILO) 1981 Occupational
Safety and Health Convention. According to the assumption, ILO recommendations are
being implemented by Packagenics in their regular work operations. In actuality,
Packagenics did not follow those recommendations, indicating that they are not committed
to labour issues, particularly worker rights (Neasham, 2021).

Packagenics, as employers, are responsible for delivering the necessary instructions and
training to workers at all levels of the company, competencies, or worker categories to
reduce the exposure of risks and rate of accidents. As evidence, the Packagenic's facilities
manager's request to attend a safety and health meeting was denied. Years of experience
in a previous career may be advantageous, yet without any legitimate safety and health
qualifications and proper safety and health training, such an individual will struggle to
manage safety and health issues due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of current
up-to-date safety practices, legislation, or requirements. Because it is uncertain what
industry the facility manager previously worked in, the facility manager must be granted
permission to receive basic safety and health training, specifically Construction Health and
Safety, and must be identified as the competent person (Neasham, 2021).

Employers are entitled to create an open yet effective communication systems for health
and safety so that both the employees and employees could brainstorm together on the
solutions on unsafe acts, unsafe conditions, and other safety issues effectively. Such
happening from the scenario shows that Packagenics failed to foster two-way
communication to freely report near misses, incidents, and accidents. To ensure safe work
practices are followed, all construction projects must be regularly monitored in terms of the
application of safety and health authority measures to everyday work operations. Because
his responsibilities have been broadened to include monitoring safety and health issues,
the facilities manager is responsible for performing supervision in this case. According to
the scenario, the apprentice had to find both the site manager and report the incident, then
return to their site after receiving a shocking response, proving that Packagenic's did not
provide close supervision because the facilities manager was not on site when the incident
occurred (Neasham, 2021).

Employers are liable for considering all available efforts to minimize such causes to avoid
physical and mental weariness, which may impact job progress and create mistakes by

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 employees, resulting in fatal incidents. Because of the hot weather and long hours,
construction workers are prone to fatigue, both mental and physical. Packagenics did not
take any steps to control such issue, as evidenced by the fact that personnel had such
symptoms because of their labour yet continued to work, which lead to errors by workers.
Inadequate rest breaks and excessive working hours will have major effects on workers'
physical and mental health. Adequate rest periods can minimize weariness, reduce sick
leave, and absenteeism, and are somewhat an employee's right, as overworking without
regular rest periods is primarily referred to as enslavement. Based on the scenario, it is
apparent that the workers have been ordered to perform work on the roof joists even after
the working hour has come to an end. This obviously demonstrates that Packagenics is
unaware of workers' rights and failed to advise site manager on the issue due to the fact
they are merely concerned with meeting deadlines (Neasham, 2021).

Employers must have a set of safe work practices or procedures in place and make certain
employees follow them for any job performed involved with construction projects. Not to
mention the proper availability of suitable machinery and appropriate equipment without
any risky alterations and inability to perform efficiently so that failures is unlikely to result
in unforeseen mishaps. In the provided scenario, Packagenic's made no arrangements for
these and relied solely on the contractor to have their own arrangements, which were found
to be inadequate in terms of safety elements, such as inappropriate scaffold terms of size,
lack of personal protective equipment, and an absence of safe work procedures and
methods. Packagenics neglected to offer such provisions or to ensure that the above-
mentioned arrangements were made available on-site. Working at height became a vital
phase of the construction process and the risk of falling from a great height can be avoided.
Personal protective equipment, such as a fall arrest device, can help to avoid falls from
great heights by preventing employees from contacting the ground if an unintentional fall
occurs. As a result, firms must provide free personal protection equipment to their
employees. However, in this case, the employer, Packagenics, neglected to supply the
required PPE, such as a fall arrest system and safety helmets, causing the worker to fall
from a height and suffered head injuries (Neasham, 2021).

Employers are required to protect their employees against injury, illness, or harm. Risk
management is an approach of ensuring employees safe and healthy. In such scenario,
Packagenics neglected to complete a safety risk assessment in the workplace, for
example, Hazard identification, risk assessment, risk control, or determining control
(HIRARC) or (HIRADC). Without a such evaluation, the risks will stay unidentified the
likelihood and severity of the risk will remain undetermined, and measures intended to
mitigate the risk will remain unimplemented, resulting in increased exposure to the risks
and the rise in unplanned events such as accidents (Neasham, 2021).

Employers are held accountable for establishing safety and health management in their
organizations. Based on the scenario, Packagenic seem to be lacking in legal enforcing
holding accountability as well as detain workers accountable for their non-compliance
towards safety related rules and regulations. To avoid negligence in safety and health
matters by any individual in a workforce, employees shall enforce stringent disciplinary
actions towards the violation of safety rules and safety legislation, misconduct, and subpar
safety performance to create a safe work environment with zero accidents (Neasham,
2021).

Taking everything into account, the implementation and continual improvement in abiding
all action discussed above successfully to uplift the advancement of the organisation
towards safety and health.

References:

1) Neasham, Z. (2021). NEBOSH International Diploma for Occupational Health and

Safety Management Professionals. Unit ID1, Part 2, Know - Workplace Health and Safety
Principles (INT). London: Rrc International.

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Question 3 (a) (ii)

As previously addressed, Packagenics failed to follow the recommendations set forth by

the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention and also serious negligence in all
safety aspects, which resulted in a deadly accident, prompting the enforcement authority to
pursue legal action against both duty holders.

If Packagenics had been effective in implementing all of the necessary recommendations

as described above, such an accident would not have occurred, and they would not have
been found negligent.

With this in mind, it is fair to assert that Packagenics' effectiveness in implementing the
actions required at the level of undertaking is poor and at the lowest point of its
effectiveness.

Question 3 (b)

Under the 'Enforcement Policy Statement', three (3) principles would have been
considered by the local health and safety enforcement authority which include:
proportionality, targeting and consistent of approach.

Proportionality:

Enforcement action shall be made in proportion to the breach in order the punishments suit
the criminal offence. After a fair and thorough investigation, the local safety and health
enforcement authority would have found that both duty holders failed in applying control
measures to control nor eliminate the risk involved in their construction work activities. But
let’s take a closer look on the consequences of the breach. Every project has a timeline
set according to the client’s needs. The duty holders failed to foresee the degree of risk
involved and did not perform any initiative to rectify the situation even after the unsafe
condition had been reported by the apprentice as it will delay the work progress according
to their perception. Such act shows that the duty holder thinks that by applying safety
measures to the reported issue will restrain them to fulfil the desired job in the given
timeframe. As evidenced from the scenario, the duty holder stated that the workers are old
enough to prevent themselves from falling, somehow, they need to move on with the job
to meet deadlines. As we all know, the cost of implying safety and health in workplace to
reduce risk could be higher. In the given case scenario, no amount of budget was invested
in safety and health. To prove this from the scenario, the duty holder claims that the past
workers neither the newcomers did not undergo any skill training nor safety health training
as “watch and learn” concept was being in practice. Also, duty holder did not provide fall
arrest system nor the awareness on the importance and training on the correct way to
utilize it. Another risk-taking act made to reduce cost involvement proven by the evidential
statement made by the duty holder that the work must be ongoing even the scaffold is not
the appropriate for the desired job as that is the only scaffold, they own which had been
the major causal factor of the fall. Overall, enforcement action had been taken by the safety
and health authority as the risks are important to be worth consideration of cost
involvement. Plus, to make duty holders accountable to understand the seriousness
underlies of the risk to workers health, and how important is to allocate a budget to control
them cause investing in it at earlier stage cost way more lesser comparing to the cost of
injury, compensation, fines, medical fees, and other costs that is involved if the law is
breached (Neasham, 2021).

Targeting:

Packagenics and ECL would have been targeted by the enforcement authority due to the
lack of involvement and breach by both the duty holder. As their nature of business are
construction based and construction sites tend to be known as the riskiest areas. Worse,
if it is strategically positioned close to a large metropolis. In the following situation, it is

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 explicitly stated that Packagenic's office is a two-story office building located just outside
of a large city with a high rate of public movement. As a result, the safety and health of the
public, trespassers, customers, visitors, and office employees will be jeopardized if building
projects are carried out. If repairing and resurfacing work is done, that area will be accident
prone area. Thus, effective road safety management and traffic management are required
to ensure the safety of road users, the public, trespassers, and workers to gain public trust.
In this situation, it is both ECL's and primarily Packagenic's responsibilities to assure the
highest level of safety being practiced at workplace, but they failed to involve in any of
these matters, resulting in being the primary target for enforcement action and prosecution
by the Enforcement Authority due to the evaluation of such high-risk construction site
having poor competence management and low risk reduction behaviour (Neasham, 2021).

Consistency of approach:

Contrary to popular consistency of approach principle, duty holders usually will not plead
guilty take the accountability when charged under criminal offence instead will expect not
to prosecute against them and seeking a consistent favourable response all time
regardless the seriousness of the breach. But the enforcement authority is not entitled to
deal all cases in the same way. Enforcement authority will ensure that that their
enforcement actions are being consistently proportionate and being parallel as in the
approach towards similar accidents. The depend on the uncertainty in a breach as they
hold the ultimate to make decisions depending on severity of the non-compliance. In this
case, a deep investigation must have been made on the existential of enforcement action
history and found that the previous enforcement notice issued for non-compliance was not
taken seriously and no effective response had been carried out to prevent similar incident
occurring in the future yet still repeating similar negligence on safety health matters in the
following project. In the current accident occurrence has involved death which considered
to be a very serious case. Enforcing authorities would foresee the actual consequences
which will result in a greater number of deaths if severe action was not to be taken on the
duty holders who had breached the law. In the current case, both Packagenic’s and ECL
were prosecuted as both equally held responsible for the criminal charges and to ensure
even handedness at all times (Neasham, 2021).

Upon consideration of all principles discussed above, it can be concluded that fair
enforcement actions had been taken on both the duty holders had been aligned based on
their policy and proportionate to the consequences of risk that had been created.

References:

1) Neasham, Z. (2021). NEBOSH International Diploma for Occupational Health and

Safety Management Professionals. Unit ID1, Part 2, Know - Workplace Health and Safety
Principles (INT). London: Rrc International.

Task 4: Commenting on the 5 Whys technique, likely active failures and

determining the likely consequences of concluding human error as
the root cause

Question 4 (a)

In the following case scenario, root cause analysis was performed utilizing the '5 Whys'
technique. Based on the circumstance, the result of questioning why 5 times concluded
that it was the site manager's irresponsibility that was the deep root cause of the fall from
height accident.

The bright side of this technique is that it is known to be cost effective and time saving in
identifying the immediate root cause and the elements that contributed to such accident to
occur. The non-bright side is a fundamental linear strategy that always leads to a single

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 root cause. In some circumstances, there will be more than one root cause, and this
strategy will fail to address all probable root causes (Neasham, 2021).

By weighing the positive and negative aspects of the 5 whys strategy implementation
outlined above, it is possible to come to the realization that such a linear and
simple approach can only be used in certain circumstances, for instance on a production
line. According to my opinion, this basic linear method of conducting '5 Whys' shall not be
applicable to accidents that result in death, as this is a serious occurrence that necessitates
an extensive accident investigation process.

References:

1) Neasham, Z. (2021). NEBOSH International Diploma for Occupational Health and

Safety Management Professionals. Unit ID1, Part 2, Know - Workplace Health and Safety
Principles (INT). London: Rrc International.

Question 4 (b)

Based on the knowledge acquired from previous work experience, I strongly assert that
risky behaviours, violation, and human errors are considered as examples of active failures
which known to be immediate cause of an accident. According to my reckoning, a
combination of several likely active failures that can be drawn from the case scenario which
led to the fall from height accident include failure to utilize the appropriate personal
protective equipment, risky violations, mental and physical health, proper training and
safety information, and lack in supervision.
.
The primary active failure is that the injured worker neglected to wear a personal fall arrest
system or other protective equipment such as safety helmet. This obviously demonstrates
that the worker is unaware of the use, advantages, or existence of the fall protection
equipment in the case if it is not provided by the organization. Such act will result as a
direct cause to the accident.

On top of that, the injured worker's risky violation in establishing a risky temporary work
platform between roof joists over personal reasons. Bringing and discussing personal
concerns at work may have an impact on productivity or result in human mistake.

Apart from this, the injured worker felt fatigued because of the hot weather and mental
fatigue. Fatigue can lead to major human errors when working at a height. Finally, rushing
to complete the assigned task may be deemed an active failure too, as the critically injured
worker were eager to get home and as a result had violated all key safety standards and
safe work practices.

Additionally, proper training and safety information was not provided neither communicated
to the workers. Based on the scenarios, we can conclude that the only form of training
practiced is via watching from others. Highly proven that workers were not trained on how
to safely work at height, which had increased the risk of falling as workers tend to commit
human errors and the negligence related to safety matter without any training or needed
information.

Also, highly lack of supervision was to be taken into consideration of being the contributable
cause of the accident. As illustrated in the scenario, those managers of both duty holder
did not supervise the ongoing work neither monitoring of the adherence to the safe work
procedures, which had led the workers to commit risky shortcuts in their work process.

To wind things up, all workplace accidents will have a series of failures and will not always
be the consequence of a single cause. Thus, a thorough investigation must be conducted
to identify all direct and underlying failures to determine an effective action plan for each
failure, so that similar occurrences in the future could be averted.

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Question 4 (c)

Deeper analysis of the repercussions of establishing that error by humans was the core
cause of the loss of life is addressed below. The repercussions include, blame shifting, and
inability to tackle latent and active failures, failure to learn from wrongdoing.

Blame shifting is the practice of accusing others of making mistakes for which they are
responsible. As demonstrated in the instance, the site manager deflected blame from
Packagenic's by stating that it was the workers' fault. No personnel shall be penalized or
blamed unless there is sufficient evidence and a thorough evaluation regarding
organizational wrongdoing and any other underlying circumstances related to the accident.
If something like this happens, workers may be reluctant to disclose future near misses,
incidents, and accidents because their thought process will be disrupted by the dread of
being blamed for every single mishap (Neasham, 2021).

Inability to address both latent and active failure. The accident is directly related to active
failures. Both of these critical failures must be identified in order to prevent a similar
occurrence from occurring again. In the scenario, it is clear that underlying factors such as
a lack of supervision and safety instructions, a lack of interpersonal skills and safety
training, and an absence of personal protection equipment are all present. Thus, if human
mistake is merely seen as a cause of an accident, underlying issues remain buried
(Neasham, 2021).

Failure to learn from mistakes in the context of a larger picture is the outcome of focusing
on one main cause. Several factors must be examined while developing effective action
plans and implementing suitable control methods, rather than relying primarily on human
factors. The factors involved can be organizational culture, style of leadership and
processes (Neasham, 2021).

Taking all of this into account, analysing both human and underlying factors and elevates
the organization's performance and workers' well-being to a greater extent. Packagenics
corporate culture and safety performance could possibly be improved by addressing
underlying issues such as systemic flaws, however this was overlooked owing to a
concentration only on human involvement, not knowing similar accidents may occur in the
future as a result of such ignorance.

References:

1) Neasham, Z. (2021). NEBOSH International Diploma for Occupational Health and

Safety Management Professionals. Unit ID1, Part 2, Know - Workplace Health and Safety
Principles (INT). London: Rrc International.

Task 5: Determining what may have affected worker B’s hazard perception
and discussing what ECL could do to reduce risk-taking behaviour

Question 5 (a)

A variety of factors could have influenced worker B's capability to assess the risk arise from
a hazard. As far as I have figured out, below are the underlying factors that may have
brought impairments towards the hazard perception.

Self-motivation and personal attitude are two important factors that can influence one's
perception level. In this scenario, their motivation was dwindling owing to a physical
workplace stressor, specifically excessive hot temperatures, which can lead to human
errors due to impaired perception. In accordance with the law, alcohol use is strictly
prohibited while working. As far as I figured out, workers B’s consumed wine during his
lunch break, which could be a contributing reason to his tiredness, as well as his capacity

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 to engage in critical thinking while on the job. This demonstrates that the worker B
possessed attitude issues, which resulted in a low level of concentration because of
committing a significant offense by consuming alcohol during working hours.

Another factor is fatigue which resulted in believing the risk to be insignificant and
contributed to worker B's inability to grasp the potential likelihood and severity of the
hazards involved is known as sensory distortion. Worker B stated that he was tired, which
was previously recognized as fatigue, and that this could impair his perception of
information and corrective or preventive action implementation.

Additionally, overconfidence level may have influenced worker B’s view concerning health
and safety issues. In light of the situation, similar conduct had been demonstrated in
previous jobs, and thus they did not perceive an issue with it, creating an overconfidence
in them that nothing would happen even if they did commit safety violations. This will
immensely affect an individual hazard perception towards a job that had been done
repeatedly.

On top of that, it was discovered that it was at the end of the working day along with a very
short deadline, which resulted in finding shortcuts by establishing an unsafe platform as
they were eager to get home early for personal reasons and previous regular occurrence.
In my view, worker B is less vulnerable to the consequences of working without the use of
a buddy system, failure to self- equipped with fall arrest system, and not modifying the
unsuitable workstation platform for the desired job to be carried out in safe manner.

Unquestionably, worker B received no training because it was apparent from the scenario
that the only form of training received was through the "watch and learn" method. Worker’s
B level of perceptiveness are to be at the lowest level in identifying possible dangers
associated with working on the roof joists or how to minimize them without sufficient training
on how to identify risk associated with working at height and how to operate safely at
height. Lack of supervision had led worker B to commit risky behaviours. Thus, continuous
surveillance, assessment, and intervention on workers' adherence to safety protocols can
guarantee that they always work in a safe manner.

Last of all, poor level of open communication between worker B and site manager is also
a factor to be taken into consideration. The site manager's negligence on safety has given
the workers the impression that they shall not share anything that goes wrong on the
worksite since they already know there will be no action taken if it is disclosed to them. As
a result, worker B agreeing to his co-worker decision making not knowing whether it is safe
to work in such hazardous conditions.

Considering all this, perception of risk shall be proportionate to the risk that workers may
get exposed to. In that case, efforts from both the workers and employees necessary to
enhance the mindfulness in perceiving hazards as well as mitigating them instantly.

Question 5 (b)

Considering the impact that has been created by unsafe behaviours, several action plan
could be done by Elite Construction Ltd (ECL) to reduce the risk-taking behaviour among
the workforces include behavioural safety programs, safety competent person.

Behavioural safety programs are significant in creating positive impacts towards

behavioural change since they are substantially connected with worker behaviours.
According to my past internship experience, risk-taking behaviours are successfully
reduced in the workplace by implementing Behaviour Based Safety (BBS). In my opinion,
Behaviour Based Safety enhances employee involvement in safety and known to be one
of the most effective corrective actions plans that ECL may implement to remould the
perceptive of workers as it changes the worker’s vision to see things differently. Delving
deeper into how this strategy could affect change in the workplace, it is by merely noticing

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 unsafe behaviours and correcting them promptly, showing them the correct and safe way
to carry out the work. Conversely, it also implies to safe behaviours as well where people
who adhere to safety policies and apply safety in their daily work will receive praises,
rewards and be held up as a positive example to others. An instance can be illustrated
from the preceding scenario, where worker B failed to wear a fall arrest system while
working at height. If only Behaviour Based Safety had been implemented and practiced
among ELC, worker B's unsafe action of not wearing personal protective equipment would
have been noticed, stopped, corrected, and reported there and then.

Another smarter to way to handle this, is that ECL could take the initiative in recruiting a
safety and health competent person. As you can observe from the scenario, ECL’s Site
Manager could not be relied on safety and health issues, as matter of fact incredibly lacking
in safety knowledge, awareness, and competencies in this field. For an instance, Site
Safety Supervisor (SSS) or Safety Health Officer (SHO), which is just as critical as the
action plan discussed above. By doing so, it is possible to reduce risk-taking behaviours
among workers by educating workers on safety and health issues, as well as closely
monitoring workers for safety negligence. Under close supervision, all work process will be
carried out in a safe manner adhering to safe work procedures resulting in prevention of
work-related injuries and accidents (Neasham, 2021).

ECL should cultivate communication channels for instance, open communication in the
workplace in order to increase worker trust and confidence. When employees believe they
are involved in decision making and that their opinion is valued, they are more likely to
report near misses, accidents, incidents, or other safety concerns without fear of being
criticized.

ECL should undertake safety inspections such as site walks, site observation, hazard
hunting, and internal safety audits in order to identify hazards that may endanger workers
and the general public. Strictly identifying hazards and conveying safety audit findings to
the entire workforce and management guarantees that legal compliances are followed at
all times.

ECL ought to develop an approach of rewards and recognition aimed at motivating

employees to carry out safe acts and work in safe conditions. Rewarding oneself positively
is more beneficial than penalties, based to my past internship learning experience.
Creating a safety goal for workers, providing recognition for their best efforts in safety and
health matters, and rewarding those who achieve such goals. By doing so, workplace
accidents and mishaps can be effectively reduced, increased mindfulness and a safety
culture is formed naturally (Neasham, 2021).

With effective safety training and high supervision, ECL can reduce risky behaviour in the
workplace. Adequate safety training helps workers understand all of the risks associated
with their line of work. Constant supervision provides individuals with the resources and
ideas they require to protect themselves from these risks. Workers who have undergone
adequate training will demonstrate a grasp of safety measures in their job and will
endeavour to preserve safety standards. For example, if workers are unfamiliar with how
to use a fall arrest system while operating at height, training will demonstrate the proper
technique for safeguarding oneself, perhaps preventing a fall from height accident.

In the final analysis, changing one’s behaviour is time consuming and continual
improvement process which greatly requires the right action plan like have been discussed
above to be implied properly to uplift workplace safety culture and prevent unintended
accidents or incidents caused by risk-taking behaviour over the course of time.

References:

Answer sheet DI1-P1-0005-ENG-V1 Sept23 © NEBOSH 2023 page 11 of 12

 1) Neasham, Z. (2021). NEBOSH International Diploma for Occupational Health and
Safety Management Professionals. Unit ID1, Part 2, Know - Workplace Health and Safety
Principles (INT). London: Rrc International.

Please upload your answers to Paper 1 to the activity ‘Examination paper 1’ in

Moodle.

Follow the instructions on submitting your answers in the NEBOSH Diploma Digital
Assessment: Technical Learner Guide. All Diploma Digital Assessment guidance
documents can be found on the NEBOSH website: https://www.nebosh.org.uk/digital-
assessments/diploma-assessments/resources-to-help-you-prepare/.

Answer sheet DI1-P1-0005-ENG-V1 Sept23 © NEBOSH 2023 page 12 of 12