In high-risk industries such as Oil & Gas, Rail, and Energy, safe operations hinge not only on robust systems and engineering but also on the behaviours and mindsets of the people executing those systems every day. Yet, time and again, it is clear that behavioural safety—the attitudes, communication styles, and decision-making tendencies of workers—is the critical factor that determines whether safety protocols are upheld or bypassed.
Consider that in Britain alone, 1.8 million workers reported suffering from work-related ill-health in 2021/22, and there were 61,713 non-fatal injuries reported under RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations). According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), human factors such as communication breakdowns, situational awareness lapses, and non-compliance contribute to up to 80% of workplace accidents.
With workplace injuries and ill-health costing the UK economy £21.6 billion annually, and regulatory penalties for safety breaches frequently reaching into the millions in sectors like rail and energy, the stakes are high. Yet many organisations still underweight one of the most controllable variables: the behavioural profile of new hires.
Drawing on MyPeople’s industry research, client engagements, and collaboration with long-standing partners, here are five clear indicators that a safety hiring process is underperforming—and how data-driven behavioural profiling can reverse the risk trajectory.
1. Overemphasis on Certifications at the Expense of Behavioural Fit
Technical competence is necessary but insufficient. An over-reliance on certifications, licences, and prior experience ignores the reality that most safety failures stem from behavioural factors. Studies have shown that between 70% to 90% of incidents in industrial and transportation sectors can be linked back to human error and behavioural shortcomings, not technical inability.
For example, MyPeople’s research into 30 years of rail safety data uncovered two dominant factors underlying incidents: behaviour and communication. This reinforces what leading organisations such as Morson Group – a major training provider and talent solutions partner in rail, infrastructure, and energy—have confirmed in practice:
“Health and safety risk is not a competence issue; it’s a behavioural issue.”
— Matthew Leavis, Group Training Director, Morson Group
MyPeople’s Behavioural Hiring Profiles assess risk perception, rule adherence, communication style, and other safety-critical traits pre-hire. This ensures candidates not only possess required qualifications but also align behaviourally with team safety expectations.
2. Elevated Incident Rates Among Recent Hires
The first 120 days of employment are the most dangerous period for new hires, with estimates indicating over two-thirds (70%) of safety incidents occur within this window. This pattern suggests a mismatch between new hires’ behavioural tendencies and the organisation’s safety culture.
With infrastructure projects growing in complexity—such as Britain’s £96 billion HS2 project or the £40 billion committed to offshore wind expansion—integrating new hires safely and swiftly is more critical than ever.
Tools such as MyPeople’s Safety Culture Evaluation allow organisations to benchmark their existing behavioural landscape, ensuring candidate behavioural profiles complement, rather than clash with, prevailing team dynamics.
3. Hiring Decisions Are Based Solely on Interviews and Instinct
Interviews can highlight communication skills and surface-level attitudes, but research shows that interviews alone predict only about 14% of job performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). Behavioural safety cannot be reliably gauged through conversation alone.
Gary Smithson, Rail Director at Morson Group, highlights how integrating behavioural insights improves outcomes:
“MyPeople’s tools help us enhance decision making and improve hiring decisions based on an objective appraisal of the candidate’s attitude and aptitude. We select candidates who are more likely to consistently adopt good safety behaviours on site and align with the employer’s safety culture and goals.”
MyPeople’s assessments, completed in under 8 minutes, objectively evaluate risk perception, situational judgement, and rule compliance tendencies, improving hiring predictability and reducing bias.
4. Safety Viewed Primarily Through a Compliance Lens
When safety management focuses solely on ticking regulatory boxes, it undercuts the continuous behavioural reinforcement that drives real-world outcomes. For example, research from the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) finds that companies with strong safety cultures see up to 50% fewer incidents than compliance-only peers.
MyPeople’s Training and Development Insights identify precisely where behavioural gaps exist within teams – allowing targeted interventions on communication, hazard awareness, and safety leadership. This approach supports continuous improvement rather than episodic compliance audits.
5. Reactive Safety Management Rather Than Proactive Risk Prevention
Post-incident investigations frequently uncover behavioural issues that had been overlooked at the hiring or training stage. Operating reactively exposes organisations to escalating costs and operational disruption.
MyPeople’s Organisational Blueprinting tool visualises behavioural risks across leadership and frontline teams, surfacing ‘hotspot’ groups prone to risk-taking or communication breakdowns. These insights enable safety leaders to implement timely, preventive interventions.
This holistic approach is why organisations like the Morson Group have integrated MyPeople’s tools into their training, hiring, and workforce development strategies—embedding behavioural safety into every stage of workforce management.
Embedding Behavioural Safety into Workforce Strategy
Organisations that embed behavioural safety profiling into their hiring and development processes stand to create not just safer teams, but stronger, more resilient operations. By systematically understanding and shaping the behaviours that drive safety performance, businesses can reduce incident rates, accelerate team integration, and enhance regulatory compliance—all while building a culture where safety is deeply ingrained and continuously reinforced.
This is not simply an enhancement to existing processes; it is a strategic shift that positions organisations to operate more reliably, efficiently, and responsibly in increasingly complex and high-stakes environments.
As Christian Hughes, CEO of MyPeople, puts it:
“For too long, industries have focused on technical skills and compliance checklists while overlooking the behaviours that dictate how work gets done under pressure. When organisations measure and develop safety behaviours deliberately, they don’t just reduce incidents—they build safer, stronger, and more cohesive teams capable of sustaining performance in any environment.”
Is your hiring process exposing your organisation to hidden safety risks? Learn how MyPeople’s Safety Profiling Tool can help strengthen hiring practices, reduce incidents, and enhance team safety from day one. Book a demo here
References
- Health and Safety Executive (HSE), “Costs to Britain of workplace injuries and new cases of work-related ill health 2021/22”
- Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), “The Business Case for a Strong Safety Culture”
- Schmidt & Hunter (1998), “The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology”
- Interview with Christian Hughes, CEO, MyPeople Group (2025) RailBusinessDaily
- Interview with Matthew Leavis, Group Training Director, Morson Group (2025) RailBusinessDaily
- Interview with Gary Smithson, Rail Director, Morson Group (2025) RailBusinessDaily
