Introduction
Companies invest in hearing protection and yet it is not always worn (consistently) in the workplace. The company does not really know why the hearing protection is not being used and therefore what needs to be changed to achieve an improvement. To map those needs in the company, work is done according to the Intervention Mapping Protocol (IMP): 'Needs assessment', (Bartholomew Eldrigde et al., 2016). Innovatively, attention is paid to influencing factors from the environment and context from behavioural explanatory models such as the behavioural wheel (VIGL, 2020).
The exploratory PWO study resulted in an assessment tool for employee, shift manager and prevention advisor as the first step of the IMP.
During the follow-up research, the following research questions were posed:
- Which determinants of hearing protection non-use from the exploratory PWO study should be part of the digital assessment instrument in companies?
- Are the different parts of the assessment tool clear and easy to use?
- In what way can this research be taken forward to complete the next steps of the IMP (follow-up funding)?
Method
The assessment tool is created digitally from the findings from the qualitative research of the exploratory study. This instrument will be evaluated by employees for clarity and ease of use through a loud thinking protocol. In addition, a try-out in a company is organised to check the extent to which the instrument is clear and easy to use, and to get a first look at its validity and reliability. For this purpose, a number of questions on the questionnaire will be added to the assessment instrument. An application to the TETRA programme will also be developed.
Results
The roll-out was done with 50 workers where the extent of the problem was once again confirmed: only 8% of workers wear their hearing protectors (almost) all the time. 72% of workers find the questions clear, however, the majority of workers (78%) also find the list too long. In addition, application for the TETRA programme was approved, allowing the project to continue with 2 FTEs for another 2 years.
Discussion
During the digitisation of the questionnaires, it turned out that there is no need for 2 different assessment instruments as far as the employee and the shift manager are concerned; these will be combined into one instrument. The foreman's results will be analysed separately: both as a function of their own behaviour and as an environmental factor for the employee's behaviour. The findings from the qualitative survey are taken into account in the follow-up study.
Conclusion
On the basis of the pilot study, the assessment instrument was optimised. Thanks to the TETRA programme as follow-up funding, interventions can be developed and further optimised in various living labs together with some 40 Flemish multisectoral SMEs, GOs and trade organisations. These results and good practices will result in an implementation guide to pass on this knowledge and expertise.
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