Mentoring in Heavy Industry Mentoring in Heavy Industry
What research says about mentoring for safety and know-how in heavy industry.
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
Where the risk is
Risk differs widely across heavy industry
EU mining had 8.74 fatal accidents per 100,000 workers in 2024, against 1.65 overall.
- Mining and quarrying 8.748.74
- Energy supply 2.302.30
- Basic metals 1.981.98
- Chemicals 1.361.36
- All sectors 1.651.65
The first month on the job
New starters face the highest risk
In their first month, workers were over four times more likely to have a lost-time claim.
A safe start
Start new workers in low-hazard tasks
The authors advise early training, low-hazard starts and a close watch on exposure.
- Train early before the first shift
- Low-hazard start riskier tasks come later
- Watch exposure the mentor checks in daily
When experts leave
Lost knowledge raises the sense of risk
In a five-year study, knowledge loss raised perceived risk and slowed time to competence.
- Time to competence longer for new staff
- Work quantity and quality lower
- Sense of risk at work higher
- Capacity to manage risk lower
Tacit and explicit knowledge
Turn private know-how into shared knowledge
Knowledge grows through a steady dialogue between tacit and explicit knowledge.
- Watch the expert
- Talk it through
- Write it down
- Practice on the job
Stories from the plant
Ask experts for their stories
Mentoring and storytelling are two ways tacit know-how passes between people at work.
- What nearly went wrong here? the near misses
- What does the procedure leave out? the gaps in writing
- When would you stop the job? the judgment calls
The handover
Hand over before the expert retires
Overlap expert and successor on real tasks, then let the successor lead.
- Map critical roles who holds rare know-how
- Name a successor years ahead, not weeks
- Work side by side on live tasks
- Swap the lead the expert observes
- Sign off both agree it is done
Sources
The research behind this presentation
- Eurostat (2026) Fatal accidents at work by NACE Rev. 2 activity, dataset hsw_n2_02 Eurostat, European Statistics on Accidents at Work (ESAW), data for 2024
- Breslin, F. C. & Smith, P. (2006) Trial by fire: A multivariate examination of the relation between job tenure and work injuries Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 63(1), 27-32
- Massingham, P. (2018) Measuring the impact of knowledge loss: A longitudinal study Journal of Knowledge Management, 22(4), 721-758
- Nonaka, I. (1994) A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation Organization Science, 5(1), 14-37
- Swap, W., Leonard, D., Shields, M. & Abrams, L. (2001) Using mentoring and storytelling to transfer knowledge in the workplace Journal of Management Information Systems, 18(1), 95-114
Protect the first month
Then plan each expert’s handover long before retirement.