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Safety

BEHAVIOR-BASED SAFETY
Copyright © All rights reserved.
By Randy Oglesby 

Behavior-based safety uses positive peer feedback to gain improvements in the performance of identified critical safe behaviors, and two-way peer guidance feedback on identified critical at-risk behaviors.  The feedback is generally both verbal and charted or summary information. 

Behavior-based observation data is being used at many sites to

1.      Prioritize safety improvements in facilities and equipment,

2.      Reveal training needs,

3.      Increase awareness, and

4.      Enhance motivation. 

Behavior-based safety has both antecedent (a preceding occurrence, cause, or event) and consequence (something that logically or naturally follows an action or condition) mechanisms. 

Antecedents that tend to trigger safe behavior are

• Knowledge of the peer observation procedure, and
• The activity of being observed.

Consequence mechanisms for reinforcing safe behavior include:

• Verbal,
• Visual, and
• Summary feedback.

Organizational Impacts 

Safety message.  Observation and feedback provide a powerful set of messages to the workforce about the commitment of management to safety at the site.  It sends the message that the interest in safety is “real time” at the shop-floor level where the exposure exists, not in some theory or at management headquarters. 

Feedback effectiveness.  Feedback is specific to the individual or work group.  It concerns the everyday actions and familiar experiences.  Feedback should be soon, certain, and positive.  In situations where existing conditions cause at-risk behavior, the workers are able to relate these barriers to safe work behavior to their peer observers with whom they may feel more comfortable.  These barriers can then be addressed in corrective problem-solving and action-planning sessions.  The observers are calibrated to produce objective data and reports.

Injury reporting.  The observation procedure should maintain strict confidentiality about who is being observed.  This affords the organization to be objective and accurate.  Distortions such as peer pressure, fear, and performance anxiety to reach a specified safety goal are removed from the data-gathering process.  Injury reporting may actually increase in some cases as the observation procedures gain strength and trust builds.  The overall effect of behavior-based feedback is a dramatic reduction in injury rates. 

Pride of performance.  Most sites report a growing sense of pride in safety excellence after about three to six months of behavior-based feedback.  This attitude will continue to grow as each worker feels the effect of changes in the work practices and the stirring of a new safety culture. 

Steps toward a behavior-based safety program 

1.      Identify safety-related behaviors that are critical to excellent performance. 

Identification of the core cluster of critical behaviors is carried out by a steering committee that:

• Has management input,
• Is composed primarily of wage-roll personnel, and
• Identifies the cluster of at-risk behaviors that serve as the final common pathway in the most serious and/or numerous incidents.

2.      Gather data. 

Data is gathered on the work group’s performance of the identified behaviors. Most of the critical at-risk behaviors are a result of shortcuts or temporary conveniences in the  following categories:

• Body mechanics,
• Waste or trash handling, and
• Personal protective equipment.

3.      Continue two-way feedback. 

Observers should speak with observed personnel immediately after observation.  Let co-workers know

• Which critical behaviors they are performing safely, and
• Which ones they are performing in a way that puts them and others at risk for injury.

4.      Remove barriers to continuous improvement. 

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