Behavioral Safety

Focusing on
Behaviors Can Reduce Injuries

As per ILO
Statistics
96% of the injuries
Fatality
result from Unsafe
Serious Injury
acts of people
Minor Injury

Near Miss
Only 4% of the
At-Risk Behavior Injuries occur due
to unsafe
conditions
3
It is not enough for an organization to have good systems,
because performance is determined by how organisations
actually ‘live’ or ‘act out’
their systems.
 Human Behavior is a function of :

 Activators (what needs to be done)

 Competencies (how it needs to be done)
 Consequences (what happens if it is done)
 Human behavior is both:

  Observable

 Measurable

therefore

Behavior can be managed !

 Attitudes

are inside a person’s head -therefore they are not

observable or measurable

however
Attitudes can be changed by changing
behaviors
 ABC Model
Activators
(trigger behavior)

Behavior
(human performance)

Consequences
(either reinforce or punish behavior)
 The ABC Model
Explains Why We Do What We Do

Activators

Motivate
Behavior
Direct

Consequences
10
 Definitions:
Activators: A person, place, thing or event
that happens before a behavior takes place
that encourages you to perform that behavior.

Activators only set the stage for behavior or

performance - they don’t control it.
E.g. Safety Meetings, Goal setting, Rules and Regulations,
Pledge signing, Policies and Procedures, Incentives/Disincentives,
Instructions, Signs, Training, Modeling, Saying please
Some examples of activators
 Definitions:

Behavior: Any directly measurable

thing that a person does, including
speaking, acting, and performing
physical functions.

E.g. -Putting on PPE, Locking out

power, Using equipment guards, Giving
a safety talk, Cleaning up spills,
Coaching others about their behaviors
Some examples of behavior:
 Definitions:
Consequences: Events that follow
behaviors.
Consequences increase or decrease the
probability that the behaviors will occur
again in the future.
If you don’t send in that
Oh please let it be Bob! payment we’ll take you to
court
 Some example of Consequences:
Self-approval, Reprimand, Peer approval,
Penalty, Feedback, Injury, Prize or
trinket, Inconvenience,
Thank-you, Time savings,
Comfort
 Consequences - How would you view
them?

Sunbathing

Aggressive Drivers
 Only 4 Types of Consequences:

•Positive Reinforcement (R+)

("Do this & you'll be rewarded")

•Negative Reinforcement (R-)

("Do this or else you'll be penalized")

Behavior

•Punishment (P)
("If you do this, you'll be penalized")

•Extinction (E)
("Ignore it and it'll go away")
 Consequences Influence
Behaviors Based Upon Individual
Perceptions of:

Magnitude - large or

{
small
 Significance - positive or
negative Impact - personal or
other

 Timing - immediate or future

 Consistency - certain or uncertain

Both Positive (R+) & Negative (R-) Reinforcement
Can Increase Behavior

R+ : any consequence that follows a behavior and increases

the probability that the behavior will occur more often in the
future - You get something you want

R- : a consequence that strengthens any behavior that

reduces or terminates the consequence - You escape or
avoid something you don’t want
 Good safety

R+ suggestion Joe! Keep

bringing ‘em up!

One more report like

this and you’re outa
here!!

R-
P
R+
e
r
f
o
r
The effects of positive reinforcement
m
a
n
c
e

Time
Both Punishment & Extinction
Decrease Behavior

P: a procedure in which a punisher (consequence that

decreases the frequency of the behavior it follows) is
presented - You may get something you don’t want

E: withholding or non-delivery of positive reinforcement

for previously reinforced behavior - You don’t get what
you want
 You bonehead!! You can kiss that
bonus for this year good-bye.... and

P take a few days off without pay!!!

Let him cry honey. If we get

up every night when he cries
he’ll never learn to go to
sleep peacefully.

E
P P
e
r
f The effects of punishment
o
r
m
a
n
c
e

Time
P
e
r
E
f
The effects of extinction
o
r
m
a
n
c
e

Time
 If you see this type of
performance curve, you can bet
P management by negative
er
fo reinforcement is the
r
m predominant management style
a
n
ce

Time
 The ABC Model
Explains Why People Speed
Emergency Open Sports
Speed Police
Activators limit signs
Sunny Late
road
No
car
car
Guides
Guides or
or directs
directs day Cops Others are
the
the behavior
behavior Drivers
Education Speeding

Behavior Speeding

Fun!
Wreck
Consequences Ticket Waste Save
Motivates Gas Time
Personal
future occurrences Injury Property Wear & Tear
of the behavior
behavior
Damage

28
What Employees Want:

• A Safe Workplace
• A Positive Workplace
• To Take Care of One Another
• To Stop the Hurt!
 What Management Wants:

• An Accident Free Workplace

• Empowered Employees
• Pro-active Rather Than Re-active Work
Process
• To Minimize Direct and Indirect Costs and
Threat of Liability From Accidents
Why is one sign often ignored, the other
one often followed?
If you want to know what people find
to be reinforcing....
observe what they do when they have
the freedom to choose.
The Behavior Based Safety Challenge:

To create conditions that encourage

people to collaborate because they want
Let’s do
to it!!

not because they have to

Behavior Based Safety Model
BBS includes identification of unsafe
conditions
• BBS will not protect
you from getting
sick because of
working in a bad
working
environment
• One should
identify Unsafe
conditions which
can be dealt with
by engineering
changes and BBS.