BEHAVIOUR BASED SAFETY & YOU!!!

NOVEMBER 2021
INTRODUCTIONS
 Session Objectives

By the end of the presentation, participants should be able to;

 Appreciate the whole Behavior Based Safety concept and be able to apply it in their day to day

work.
 Understand how safety behavior is shaped

 Analyze employee behavior

 Pinpoint, observe, and measure specific behaviors

 Provide effective feedback

 Use positive reinforcement successfully

to improve safety performance

 What You Need to Know

 ABC analysis
 Types of consequences
 How to strengthen consequences
 Pinpointing, observation, and measurement
 Feedback and goal setting
 Types of positive reinforcement
 Reinforcement mistakes
 Definitions
Behavior-
 Is the way in which one acts or conducts oneself.
 Is the range of actions made by individuals in conjunction with themselves or their environment.
 Any directly measurable thing that a person does, including speaking, acting, and performing
physical functions.
Behavior Based Safety (BBS)-
 Is the “application of science of behavior change to real world safety problems.” BBS focuses on
what people do, analyses why they do it, and then applies a research – supported intervention
strategy to improve what people do.
 A modified approach to safety engineering wherein employees play a more active role in contributing
to occupational health and safety.
Behavior based safety – what is it?
• An excellent tool for collecting data on the quality
of a company’s safety management system.
• A scientific way to understand why people behave
the way they do when it comes to safety.
• Properly applied, an effective next step towards
creating a truly pro-active safety culture where
loss prevention is a core value.
• Conceptually easy to understand but often hard to
implement and sustain.
 Behavior based safety – what is it not?
• Only about observation and feedback.

• Concerned only about the behaviors of line

employees.

• A substitution for traditional risk management

techniques.

• About cheating & manipulating people & aversive

control.

• A focus on incident rates without a focus on

behavior.
Why Employees Engage in At-Risk Behaviors

 Jobs get done faster

 Perception that risk is low
 “Nothing is going to happen to me” attitude
 At-risk behavior is reinforced
 Lack of awareness that behavior is risky
Why Safety Programs Do Not Work

 Safety is a priority, not a value!

 Safety is not managed in the same manner
as production, quality, and cost issues!
 Safety is not driven through continuous
improvement!
“Fallacies or Realities” in Safety Fables?

 Conditions cause accidents!

 Enforcing rules improves safety!
 Safety professionals can keep workers safe!
 Low accident rates indicate safety programs are
working well!
 Investigating to find the root cause of accidents will
improve safety!
 Awareness training improves safety!
 Rewards improve safety!
Core Elements in Successful Safety Programs

 A culture that says “safety” is important around

here!
 A tight accountability system!
Current Interventions

Always Consider These 3 Components

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Engineering Controls
Traditional hierarchy of safety

Interventions Included:
• Attempts to eliminate the hazard.
• Having employees work around the
hazard.
• Guarding or warning employees
about the hazard.
• Training employees to deal safely
with the hazard.
 If safety interventions are effective…
You will see:
• % of safe behaviors increasing and the % at-risk
behaviors decreasing.
• Reporting of near misses / hits increasing.
• Both the number of observations and level of
participation increasing.
• Frequency & severity of injuries decreasing.
• Increasing acceptance of responsibility and
accountability for personal behavior.
 “Business is Behavior”
A business succeeds or fails through the
performance of all of its employees.
Success = “Good” performance
Failure = “Bad” performance
Performance = the combined results of a series
of behaviors

*Aubrey Daniels, author and behavioral

psychologist
BBS Components
Exercise 1

 Brief explain 10 examples of poor

safety behaviours?
 Draw up mitigation controls to the
examples mentioned above?
 BBS Components explanation

 Observations as one of the most important components of the process, provide

direct, measurable information on employees’ safe work practices.

 Employees are observed performing their routine task. The observer documents

both safe and unsafe behaviors.

 The employee is then provided positive feedback on the safe behaviors and

non-threatening feedback on the unsafe behaviors. They are also provided with
suggestions on correcting the unsafe behaviors.
 Observations, feedback & data collection

• Use a design team of workers, to design the process

- forms, training, data collection and ID roles &
responsibilities.
• Clearly define critical behaviors that will be observed
- what is “safe” vs. “at-risk”?
• Give feedback on safe & at-risk behavior observed.
• Determine who will act on data collected through
observations.
 BBS Components explanation c’ntd

 The data is then analyzed to determine the employee’s (or

department’s) improvement in safe behaviors. It can be looked at as an
overall percentage.
 The improvement between observations could be graphed and
displayed for employees to view. When the graphs shows improvement,
it provides positive reinforcing feedback to employees.

Example: If there were 20 items on the checklist and the worker

performed 17 of them safely, then he would get a score of 85% safe.
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

 Antecedents – Trigger Behavior

 Behavior – Human Performance
 Consequences – Either Reinforce or
Punish Behavior
 ABC Model of Behavioural Analysis
CONSEQUENCES
ANTECEDENTS BEHAVIOUR
Motivates future occurrence
of behaviour-
Actions- • Self-approval
Guides or directs behaviour- • Supervisor approval
 Signages  Driving below the speed
limit • Thank you
 Policies
 Putting on or not putting • Rewarded
 Procedures
PPE/C • Co-worker approval
 Working instructions
 Locking out power • No injury
 Training
 Using equipment guards • Fined (-ve)
 Working environment
 Giving a safety talk • Suspensions (-ve)
 People
 Cleaning up spills
Things which cause people  Coaching others about
safe working practices What happens after the
to act the way they do
behaviour (+ve or –ve)

What Motivates Behavior???????????

 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.
Examples of Activators
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 payment we’ll take
you to court
Oh please let it be Bob!
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"
 Punishment (P)
 "If you do this, you'll be penalized"
 Extinction (E)
 "Ignore it and it'll go away"
 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 and 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 to …not
because they have to!
 A values-based process

“Focus on the process…not results…they

will come later!”
 Why Do We Need to Change?

“If you do what you’ve always done,

you’ll get what you always got!”
- W. Edwards Deming
 Benefits of BBS

Having a robust and well managed BBS, a company can benefit from the following:
 Improved job satisfaction
 Improved employee health and well-being
 Reduced costs (medical/absenteeism)
 Reduced or eliminated cost of compensation claims
 Better employee retention rates
 Improved safety awareness
 Improved safety practices
 Reduced accident/incident rates
 Improved reporting
 Success of BBS hinges on………………
 Management and Shop floor workers buy in – everyone should be involved in
the formulation of the BBS programme.
 Data collection and Analysis - SHE Audits & Inspections (areas in need of
improvements and high risks jobs/tasks noted)
 Creating BBS Checklist- record unsafe and safe behaviours during BBS
observations
 Conducting Behavioural Observations- (Select team, decide on the frequency
based on how risky the work is, record positive and at risky behaviour)
 Recording and Reviewing Behaviours- (give feedback- +ve behaviour and at
risky behaviour). For at risky behaviour suggest safer way of doing things
 Leveraging the collected data- (Data review- develop an action plan to address
the at risky behaviour)
BBS IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES……

 Long-term employees or employees who are overconfident and complacent

may require additional instruction and incentives to help change their
behavior.
 BBS is an evolving process and it is important to keep in mind that results
may not be immediate, changing behavior and culture can take time.
 Communicate progress to help ensure all levels within the company remain
committed to the BBS culture.
 TAKE HOME POINT…………

REALIZE THE VALUE OF DOING THINGS

THE SAFE WAY, THE FIRST TIME, ALL THE
TIME
TAKE HOME POINT…………
 CONCLUSION
 Behavior Based Safety is not a quick fix or cure, it is however, a positive
addition to an overall safety management program. It does however, come with
its own challenges.
 BBS programs have been successful in reducing accident rates across many
industries over time. It is an innovative solution for producing results that other
safety programs may struggle to deliver. Organizations can be confident that
permanent safety improvements can be achieved through cultural change