Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Behavior-Based Safety: Love it or Hate it?


In our post of 12-12-17 we discussed whether or not there was too much emphasis (or not) placed on Behavior Based Safety.  In it we showed a link to many pages of research and other studies on the subject.  There is certainly ample information in the safety industry to show that BBS can be effective in reducing incidentsSo why do we often hear from safety professionals that they really don’t want any part of BBS?

We think the easiest explanation for that is simply because BBS is too broad a term and is used to describe everything from basic employee behavior audits and feedback to a comprehensive safety management system designed to change a company’s safety culture, and frankly to anything in between.  It is lot like the term “safety incentive” which is a catchall for a myriad of award schemes, some good…some bad, that permeated the safety world for decades.  BBS and Safety Incentives are generic terms.  There’s no reason to hate them, but there are parts of them that will help you make your safety culture more successful.

Isn’t BBS in its truest form just a way to determine those behaviors that make your workplace unsafe?  And isn’t it a way to change them into positive safe behaviors to reduce incidents of injuries and accidents?  And isn’t that what safety professional are trying to do every day?

The name BBS itself implies that human behavior is in play here, and if you believe that, (not sure why you wouldn’t) there are tools that you can use to change that behavior.  In fact there are probably more papers and research conducted about behavior change than BBS.  The point is to uncover the behaviors you should be doing, and if you’re not doing them, then change them.  Of course the devil is in the details and it’s never as simple as this, but it’s also not a lot more complicated either.

There are clearly some very good things about BBS as stated by Donald Eckenfelder CSP, P.E. the principal consultant with Profit Protection Consultants and a past president of the ASSE: 
  • Focuses on the human side of safety
  • Defines safe and unsafe behaviors
  • Encourages safe behavior and discourages unsafe or destructive behaviors
  • Involves employees in safety
  • Requires management to put its money where its mouth is
  • Engenders commitment and passion about safety


Like any program though there can also be some negative things about BBS according to  Enkenfelder….
  
“Many BBS packaged programs don’t deal with the causes of safety failures; they deal with the symptoms. “Behaviors of employees are a long way from the root cause. If corporate management supports and encourages safe behavior by eliminating root causes – such as engineering, process, communication or training failures – then employees are more likely to want to adopt safe behaviors.”

However in our experience over the years, companies, managers and supervisors who actively and vocally support safe production and put money and resources behind that support are more likely to have a better BBS system, and more productive and engaged employees. 

With the overarching emphasis throughout the entire organization on employee engagement it would seem to make sense to have a BBS program of some type within your safety culture.  No one seems to disagree with the original basic concept of BBS – pointing out to employees how they contribute to a safe work environment by informing them when they are performing safe or unsafe acts – can be an essential part of a system that contributes to a healthy safety culture.

Of course knowing some basic principles and common sense approaches of how to interact with your workforce about behaviors, how to change that behavior and then how to recognize them for the positive behavior change is important.

For more information on AwardSafety products or services or other white papers please contact us at awardsafetyinfo@cox.net


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