 Richard Shore |
Richard Shore is managing director of Mentor FLT Training Limited, the UK's leading provider of training and associated services for all types of materials handling equipment and workplace transport.
Four years ago, my company, Mentor, undertook an extensive survey with the help of Sheffield Hallam University into what constitutes an ideal workplace transport operator. The reason for conducting the survey was because we were often being asked by customers: "What constitutes the ideal operator?" The question was usually a result of an injury in the workplace, stock or equipment damage or recruitment difficulties.
I recently had cause to revisit the survey and found it a very useful reminder of what to look out for when choosing staff for training or when recruiting new employees. The survey embraced a true nationwide sample of over 1,000 individuals and some 500 organisations and was split into two parts. The first part was a telephone survey of management that explored trends and attitudes towards recruitment and the second part assessed the practical skills and lifestyles of actual operators.
The management survey showed at the time a more enlightened view to employing older employees and female operators; it also revealed the desire for a common form of licensing/certification but a profound unwillingness to pay more for it (a feeling I daresay would be even more profound today!).
The second and much larger part of the survey focused on the skills of experienced operators during retesting and took in account such factors as the industry type in which they worked (manufacturing, distribution or retailing), their geographic location, years of experience, age, gender and the number of hours per week that each operator worked. To hopefully provide an insight into the individual, the survey also considered certain physical factors such as weight, eyesight, diet and exercise, and marital status.
There were some interesting findings.
The most skilful operators generally worked in manufacturing, operators in the south of England scored much better than their northern counterparts and age and experience were significant factors affecting individual scores. Operators in the age range 30-39 scored best and those of 60+ years were the least skilful under test conditions - paradoxically however, those with the most experience of operating workplace transport (31-plus years) easily outperformed their less experienced workmates.
When it came to lifestyle, rather surprisingly, those whose weight was defined as 'slim' were outperformed by their 'average' and 'heavy' colleagues - a temporary blow for the health fascists. However, order was restored when the survey showed that those operators who regularly played sport achieved noticeably better scores.
People's marital status also seemed to have a significant effect on their ability to drive a forklift accurately and safely. Interestingly, in the age range of 20-29 years, operators who were married or living with a partner scored worse than those who were single, but in the age range 30-39 years, this was completely reversed. This led to some interesting theories and speculation but no actual proof as to the reasons for this phenomenon.
What the survey did prove was that, overall, men were better drivers than women - but not by a large margin and, if the lower levels of experience in operating were taken into account, then it's possible this statistic may well reverse.
Very pleasingly for me at the time, however, was the finding that of the 750+ participants in the practical test, only two achieved perfect scores and they were both male, 48-49 years old, played sport, had an average of 20 years operating experience and were of average weight - in other words, my profile exactly. I think it's time we undertook the survey again. Who knows, this time the perfect age may be 52-53 or do you think that would be too much of a coincidence?