The Shaken Foundations of Safety

This open-access brief offers routes to the solution of the threats to the safety performance of high-risk industries caused by skills challenges. It addresses the consequences of job transformation linked to technological developments, digitalization, unfavourable demographics and the lack of attractiveness of some high-risk industrial sectors, today and in the near future. The first part of the brief highlights the questions: What about the collective dimension of skills, skills acquired outside the professional sphere, or the longitudinal perspective of skills development? Why do we sometimes encounter a “learning wall,” a situation in which the training and mentoring needs of newcomers exceed the capacity for skills transfer from experienced employees? What are the impacts of digital transformation on the dynamics of work groups? The contributors investigate aspects of these topics that are rarely studied or even considered. The rest of the brief explores various solutions that can be considered to meet the skills challenge in a constantly evolving world. The second part offers avenues related to training, while the third focuses on organization and management. Rather than providing standard answers, the brief provides a strategic, organizational and contextualized perspective on maintaining and developing skills for the future of high-risk industries in a changing world. Researchers and practitioners in safety management and human resources issues will find this brief an important source of original thinking on problems that are becoming more and more current in safety-critical industries as they are in many others.