Introduction: Why You Must Identify High-Risk Safety Behaviours Before Hiring

In safety-critical industries, hiring goes far beyond assessing experience or qualifications. It requires a deep understanding of a candidate’s behavioural alignment with your organisation’s safety values.

According to OSHA, 80–90% of workplace accidents are caused by human error (OSHAOutreachCourses). To reduce incidents and protect your workforce, you must identify high-risk safety behaviours before a new employee joins your team.

This guide provides proven strategies to assess, screen, and eliminate high-risk behavioural traits during the recruitment process—ultimately fostering a culture of safety from day one.

1. Define Safety-Critical Behaviours in Your Work Environment

Every organisation faces unique safety challenges, so the first step is to identify high-risk safety behaviours specific to your context. Clearly define which positive behaviours are essential for operational success, including:

• Strict adherence to safety procedures
• Risk awareness and hazard identification
• Communication under pressure
• Accountability in emergencies

These benchmarks guide your hiring strategy and ensure you’re screening for safety-relevant attributes from the outset..

2. Implement Behavioural Safety Assessments to Detect Risk Early

Traditional CVs and interviews rarely expose behavioural red flags. That’s where behavioural safety assessments come in. Tools like MyPeople’s Safety Profiling evaluate:

• Propensity for rule compliance
• Risk tolerance and hazard response
• Impulsivity under stress

Incorporating behavioural safety assessments helps organisations identify high-risk safety behaviours before a candidate steps into a safety-critical role.

3. Use Behavioural Interview Questions That Reveal Risk Mindsets

During interviews, structured behavioural questions uncover how candidates have dealt with safety challenges in the past. Look for honest, detailed responses to questions such as:

• “Tell me about a time you identified a safety hazard. What did you do?”
• “Describe how you enforced safety protocols others were ignoring.”
• “Have you ever disagreed with a safety policy? How did you respond?”

Candidates who struggle to articulate these scenarios may not prioritise safety or could possess hidden high-risk traits.

4. Leverage Data to Predict and Prevent Unsafe Hires

Turn your existing safety data into a predictive hiring advantage. Analysing past incidents and behavioural trends helps your organisation:

• Identify traits linked to accidents
• Predict future high-risk behaviours
• Optimise safety KPIs over time

By integrating this data with hiring practices, you shift from reactive incident management to proactive risk prevention.

5. Evaluate Cultural and Team Fit for Safety-Conscious Environments

Safety culture is a collective effort. Even strong individual performers can undermine it if their behaviours clash with team norms. Tools like team-based profiling and cultural fit assessments are designed to identify high-risk safety behaviours by assessing alignment with your safety culture.

• Gauge alignment with safety values
• Measure team collaboration potential
• Screen for openness to feedback and leadership

Hiring for team fit helps eliminate high-risk safety behaviours that arise from poor cultural alignment.

6. Introduce Structured Onboarding & Probation for Safety Roles

Hiring is just step one. To validate your assessment strategy in real-world conditions, implement:

• Hands-on safety training during onboarding
• Close monitoring of safety-related behaviours
• Ongoing coaching and feedback during a probationary period

A structured onboarding process with a defined probationary period helps you observe new hires and identify high-risk safety behaviours early.

7. Screen for Common High-Risk Safety Traits

Numerous studies have identified psychological traits that correlate strongly with unsafe work behaviours:

• High Risk Tolerance: Individuals with elevated risk tolerance may underestimate hazards, leading to unsafe practices.
• Impulsiveness: Impulsive individuals might act without thoroughly evaluating consequences, increasing accident likelihood.
• Low conscientiousness: Individuals who lack attention to detail may neglect rules, responsibilities, and procedural tasks, compromising safety standards.
• Defiance or Rule Resistance: Those resistant to following established protocols can inadvertently create unsafe conditions.

Screening for these traits with pre-employment tools during the hiring process helps identify candidates who naturally align with a culture of safety, significantly reducing the likelihood of safety incidents.

Conclusion: Make Safer Hiring Decisions That Shape Your Culture

To reduce incidents and improve outcomes, organisations must identify high-risk safety behaviours early—during the hiring process. Investing in behavioural safety assessments, structured interviews, and team-fit tools allows you to consistently identify high-risk safety behaviours—and build a stronger, safer workforce.

Safety Profiling solutions like those from MyPeople Group help safety leaders embed behavioural safety into hiring workflows—driving:

• Fewer workplace incidents
• Stronger compliance
• A sustainable culture of safety

Start safer. Hire smarter.

📥 Download Your Free Pre-Hire Safety Behaviour Checklist

Looking to improve how you identify high-risk safety behaviours during recruitment?

We’ve created a practical, easy-to-use resource to support your interviews and assessments:

✅ Pre-Hire Safety Behaviour Checklist

🎯 A free, downloadable guide to help you screen for risky traits, evaluate safety culture fit, and ask the right behavioural questions before hiring.

🧠 Inside you’ll get:

• A list of the top behavioural red flags to watch for
• A candidate scorecard to evaluate risk levels during interviews
• 20+ expertly crafted behavioural interview questions
• Real-world prompts for safety incidents, culture, and leadership

📋 Use this checklist to build safer teams from the very first conversation.

👉 Download the Checklist Now (PDF)

References

Health and Safety Executive (HSE). (2013). Managing for health and safety (HSG65).
Retrieved from https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg65.htm
A foundational guide outlining how organisations can embed effective health and safety management systems, relevant when defining safety behaviours and assessing organisational safety culture.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE). (2020). Human factors: Behavioural safety.
Retrieved from https://www.hse.gov.uk/humanfactors/topics/behaviouralsafety.htm
Provides guidance on behavioural safety and how attitudes, behaviours and workplace culture influence safety performance.

British Standards Institution (BSI). (2018). BS ISO 45001:2018 Occupational health and safety management systems — Requirements with guidance for use.
Outlines the international standard (adopted in the UK) for occupational health and safety management systems, relevant to organisations implementing structured safety practices.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE). (2021). Risk assessment: A brief guide to controlling risks in the workplace (INDG163).
Retrieved from https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg163.pdf
Offers best practice for risk identification and mitigation, supporting the blog’s emphasis on assessing candidates’ risk awareness and hazard identification skills.

Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). (2015). Competency Framework.
Retrieved from https://iosh.com/media/2333/iosh-competency-framework.pdf
Outlines core competencies for health and safety practitioners, useful when discussing cultural and team fit for safety-focused roles.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). (2021). Recruiting safely: An employer’s guide to safeguarding and safer recruitment.
Retrieved from https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/guides/recruiting-safely/
Provides HR-focused guidance on incorporating safety assessments into recruitment processes, supporting structured behavioural interviews and pre-employment assessments.