Investigating the Effect of Safety Training on the Safety Climate of Employees Working in Kermanshah Province, Iran Oil Refining Company

Abstract

Background: To achieve a safe and healthy environment for human beings and the dynamic industry as a critical factor in sustainable development, it is necessary to deal with accidents and eliminate their underlying causes radically. Safety climate shows the attitude and general perception of an organization and its management towards safety. This study aimed to investigate the effect of safety training on the safety climate of employees working in Kermanshah Province (Iran) Oil Refining Company. Materials and Methods: The present study was quasi-experimental interventional research conducted in 2019 in Kermanshah Province, Iran Oil Refining Company, with a pre-test, post-test design. The study population included all employees working in different departments of Kermanshah Oil Refining Company. Sampling was done randomly with 240 people. The questionnaire used in the present study had the demographic information questionnaire. To assess the workers’ climate safety, the safety climate questionnaire of the British Safety Organization was used. The level of reliability was 0.84. Information coding was performed in SPSS v. 23, and the Mean±SD of demographic information and atmosphere scores were determined. To investigate the effect of interventions on the safety climate before and one month after educational and technical interventions, a pairwise comparison was used. Results: The comparison of the mean scores of the safety climate components before the intervention was equal to 2.61 and after the educational intervention reached 3.72. All components of the safety climate increased after the intervention. The highest mean increase was related to the component of “safety communications” with 1.74 units. The lowest increase was associated with the component of “employee intervention in safety” with 0.68 units. Before and after the intervention, “safety enhancement” had the highest score among the safety climate components. Before the intervention, the lowest mean score was related to the “safety violations” component, which after the intervention, the “licensing system” had the lowest mean score. Conclusion: The educational intervention improved the safety climate in Kermanshah Oil Refining Company. Therefore, safety training plays an essential role in increasing the oil and gas industry’s safety climate.