Challenges to Implementing Successful Behavior-Based Safety Programs

The simple methodology of BBS was founded on the principle that you can improve workplace safety by understanding what motivates employees to make unsafe choices on the job.

While BBS programs can be difficult to implement and measure, a successful program will ultimately improve workplace safety.  With the addition of data from predictive analysis, uncovering factors that influence risky decision making can be used to better educate employees on behaviors that affect their safety performance. 

However, when implementing BBS programs, there are common challenges safety executives often encounter:

Don’t shift Your Safety Effort Entirely onto the Employee. 

A successful safety culture requires participation across all managerial levels from executives to front-line workers.  Don’t forget employers must still do their part to minimize risk by educating employees about the potential hazards associated with their role, with regular hazard assessments and training before sending them out on the job.

Employee Engagement is Critical

Recent surveys show that 91% of safety professionals feel the most important element of an effective workplace safety program is direct employee participation.  From that perspective, BBS and engagement go hand in hand.  BBS offers instant recognition for workers for

positive safe behaviors and they feel like valued contributors to the company.

Workers empowered to become safety advocates foster two way communications between management and employee that is an integral part of employee engagement.

BBS Allows You to Move from Negative to Positive Safety Culture

In the past, safety managers often relied on punishment rather than using positive reinforcement to shape employee behavior.  In a BBS program management can introduce a corrective action process for spotting hazards in which that safe behavior is rewarded.

 This in turn helps to build a celebratory safety culture where you can expect an environment where positive safe behaviors are increased, hazards are minimized incidents are reduced.

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

Four Safety Truths that Reduce Workplace Incidents

A white paper written by Predictive Solutions, a leader in predictive safety software, reviewed recent results from their pioneering research in the development of their powerful safety prediction models and came up with the following four truths that can reduce workplace incidents.

On the surface these truths may seem somewhat rudimentary and obvious to the safety professionals who daily confront workplace safety.  But looking at them in depth may give pause for future consideration of inspections and safety observations that are a backbone of a successful safety culture.  The four truths are:

1.     More Inspections Predict a Safer Worksite

2.     More Inspections Specifically Outside the Safety Function Predict a Safer Worksite

3.     Too Many “100% Safe” Predicts and Unsafe Workplace

4.     Too Many Unsafe Observations Predicts an Unsafe Workplace

After a detailed analysis of all their data, some clear patterns emerged.  Here are some action steps that you can take:

• Make sure that your program includes rewards for high levels of inspections….the more the inspections the fewer the number of incidents. 
• Include as many people as you can in your inspections, specifically more from non-safety disciplines than from safety positions 
• Train for and reward the reporting of unsafe behaviors
• It’s obvious that too many unsafe behaviors will result in an unsafe workplace, so you need to assure that you commit the time and resources to fixing those unsafe behaviors.

Reward-Don’t Incentivize!

It is proven business tenet that  when you take the time to recognize and reward safe behaviors you will turn those behaviors into habits that will consistently result in lowering your incidents of accident and injury. Much has been said about the pros and cons of safety incentives, but rewards will help make your safety inspections and observations far more successful. 

The white paper above concludes that when the four safety truths were incorporated into the inspection and observations within your safety program, that worksites showed two to three times less incidents.  For a copy of the complete white paper, please click here.

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

The Psychology of Saying Thank You

Safety reward programs should always be designed to reward outstanding safe behaviors and recognize exemplary safety performance.  And one of the best ways to do that is… Just Say Thanks!

Outstanding performers are probably prevalent throughout your organization, but you might not be aware of all of them.  Not everyone is wired to take special notice of a terrific safety performance; but leaders need to develop an "eye" for those behaviors that can stop injuries and accidents and help contribute to a culture of safety appreciation.. 

Why is Thank You Important?

According to behaviorists, saying 'thank you' is not only good manners, it is also beneficial to the overall well-being of your employees.  It can strengthen their social net worth, produce positive emotional feelings, and help them cope during more stressful times.

Psychologists have studied the effect that "thank you" has on individual performance. 

In a report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, experimenters found that people appreciated being needed, they perform more effectively when they are encouraged, and "felt more socially valued when they'd been thanked."

And even more noteworthy, research shows that more employees leave their jobs not because of an unfair manager, heavy workload, or stale donuts in the breakroom.  They leave because of a lack of appreciation and praise.

When you give employees positive recognition, you reinforce the actions and behaviors you most want them to repeat.  Those behaviors turn into positive safety habits that lead to reducing workplace accidents. 

Sincerity Counts

We've all experienced that moment when someone says to us," You've made my day!"  When those types of positive affirmations are prevalent within an organization, you'll likely find a stronger work ethic and a sincere commitment to the success of the company among employees.

We often hear that "it's the little things that count."  They do, and saying thanks should be at the top of your to-do list.  

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

Predictive Analytics and Workplace Safety

Can You Predict Workplace Injuries with Any Degree of Accuracy?

Research conducted by teams at Predictive Solutions, a leader in occupational safety software, and Carnegie Mellon University  has shown that workplace injuries can be predicted by computers with accuracy rates as high as 97%!

Outside the field of safety, there have been many studies that show, with conclusive evidence, that computers are better than humans at predicting events. According to Predictive Solutions, “This has been proven with regard to parole decisions, medical diagnoses and business supply chain optimization among other things.”

At a time when artificial intelligence and robotics is discussed as meaningful ways to improve productivity, if predictive analytics has a proven accuracy record with regard to safety, shouldn’t it be a part of safety performance?

Of course there are many questions that need to be asked when considering using predictive analytics as part of your overall safety culture.  Just few might be “What companies and industries have used it? Why are companies struggling to deploy predictive analytics programs on their own? How is predictive analytics applied in safety programs? How much would it cost?”

As data is the primary component of the analysis, some facts that may cause you to pause

in your decision to use predictive analytics might be:  “According to IBM, 2.5 Quintilian bytes of data are created daily and 90% of the data in the world was created in the last two years.”  The collection of safety data has similarly skyrocketed.  “In July 2015 alone, one company recorded more than 200,000 safety observations. At this rate, they will collect over 2.4 million in a single year!”

Obviously taking on a project of this magnitude is not for the faint of heart; just gathering the type of input data required would be a challenge.  But if the end result is being able to predict incidents and stop them before they happen, prevent serious injuries and death to you employees; it might be worth a look.

And maybe the first question to ask when considering predictive analytics might be “where and when will your next injury occur?”

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