2.

Setting up the BBS Process

BBS processes should be tailored to the work and

management environment where they function. Initial
work in setting up a BBS process should include
management, workers and the union at your facility. A
major player is the “champion” who has the responsibility
for initially driving the process forward and guiding initial
training and the initial selection of the steering committee.

Establishing a Steering Committee (SC)

• The steering committee is selected from a group of
qualified employees, preferably volunteers,
representing each distinct group, team, etc. of the
organization.
The SC must compose of:

Management Champion/Sponsor
Facilitator
Data Administrator
Data Manager
Recording Secretary
Communicator
 The Function of the SC
Basic responsibilities of the SC are:
Develop the at-risk behaviors inventory
Participate in the training and coaching of observers to
provide for mentoring the observer process
Design the Observation Process
Analyze the observation data
Build Action Plans to respond to the leading indicators
seen in the data
Ensure communication with observers is maintained
Ensure BBS is promoted and communicated to all
organizational levels.
 3. Identifying At-Risk Behaviors
A very important step is the development of a list of at risk
behaviors. This inventory is supported by list of definitions and
examples of critical behaviors based on information extracted from
injury reports, interviews and observation of ongoing task native to a
site’s work environment. This inventory of behaviors, customized for
your facility, is the basic tool of observation. The observation data will
ultimately be used to develop plans for risk reduction. Customizing
the inventory is also critical in promoting acceptance and ownership
of the process by the employees.
 BEHAVIOR BASED SAFETY PROCESS
STEP 1.0: Identify the behaviors critical to obtaining required safety
performance
In this step, the behaviors that the workers need to perform to achieve
the desired safety performance are identified. Behaviors expected of
workers, supervisors and management should be identified. There can be
a number of sources of possible required behaviors: learning experience
reports, incident investigations, individuals who actually perform the work,
first aid/ injury records and details, incident and inspection trends.
Behaviors should be described as specifically as possible. Behavior
descriptions should meet the following criteria:

• Measurable
• Active
• Reliable
• Controllable
• Observable
• Specific
 STEP 2.0: Communicate the behaviors and how they are
performed correctly to all employees
In this step the required behaviors and how to them safely is
communicated clearly to all workers. It is important to the success of a
BBS process that all participants receive a clear, easily understood,
communication. Weekly/ monthly safety meetings provide a good forum
for this to happen.

STEP 3.0: Observe the work force and record safe/ unsafe
behaviors. Intervene with workers to give positive reinforcement
when safe behaviors are observed. Provide coaching/ correction
when at risk behaviors are observed

In this step workers who have received the proper training in how to:
perform observations, interact with the workers observed to provide
feedback/ correction/ coaching, and go out into the workplace to observe
the workers. Individuals providing this training should have a good
understanding of the ABC Behavior Model and the BBS Process.
 Factors to be considered when performing an observation:
•consider observing work where the higher risk hazards, or the
experience of the workers may be a factor;
•avoid interfering with the work activities;
•do observations in two person teams;
•complete the observation report away from the work area;
•examine the work area for access/ egress, housekeeping.

STEP 4.0: Collect and record observation data

In this step the results of the observations are collected from the
observation forms and recorded in a data collection/ analysis system.
This can be manual or electronic. An electronic system is the better
option because it can also provide an ability to analyze the observation
results.
STEP 5.0: Summarize and analyze observation data

In this step the observation results recorded in step 4.0 are summarized
and analyzed. Observation data should be summarized into a format that will
be simple to interpret and enable extraction of behavior performance data.
During the analysis it is important to review the observation data for quality
and consistency. Problems with either can lead to invalid data. The frequency
at which the data is summarized and analyzed is at the choice of the work
group. Some suggested summaries are:

•Overall % Acceptable for all behaviors

•% Acceptable for each separate behavior
•Observation comments
•Trend Chart- % Acceptable for each behavior plotted over time
•Observation and Intervention activity data- # observations performed for
each behavior
•Charts showing correlation between behaviors and incidents.
 STEP 6.0: Communicate observation data and analysis results to
all employees
In this step the results of the observation, the summarized data, the
data analysis and any changes to Antecedents, Consequences or
Conditions are communicated to the employees. It is essential that this
communication happen. It ensures that the workers are kept informed of
the results of the observations and changes that may be happening.
This should encourage their continued participation.

STEP 7.0: Provide recognition or celebrate when safe behavior

improvements occur
In this step the appropriate recognition of the workers or celebrations
happen when the desired, or improvements in behavior performance
occurs. Often this is not done and the workers may get the impression
that no one cares that the behaviors are being done safely. This step is
very important to provide the positive reinforcement to the workers for
performing the behavior safely.
 STEP 8.0: Change behaviors to be observed or change activators
or change consequences as appropriate

In this step any changes to Antecedents to, or Consequences of, the

behavior resulting from the ABC analysis are also made in this step. The
changes should be properly recorded in all relevant BBS documentation.

To help with problem solving the following can be considered:

•Improvement opportunities can be identified through observation,
intervention and root cause trends
•Positive intervention techniques present the best opportunity for
improvement
•Use knowledge and experience of others to assist
•Management system failures can typically account for 85% of an
acceptable behavior
Improvement strategies can include:
•Consider impact on existing safety program
•Obtain necessary support and resources
•May require changes to behavior based training
•Monitor implementation and evaluate impact on behaviors
 STEP 9.0: Communicate any changes to workforce
In this step any changes made in step 8.0 are communicated to the
work force. If the changes are going to be made it is essential that all the
work force know what they are so they can change their behaviors
accordingly.
 “MAKING THE CRITICAL BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS
PROCESS WORK”

Use the following steps to identify the at-risk behavior and why it is
occurring.
Step 1: Identify the at-risk behavior.
At-Risk Behavior: An employee not wearing safety glasses
when they are required to be worn

Too General Better Description

1.Not Wearing PPE 1.Not wearing safety glasses when
required

2.Bad position 2.Bending at the waste when picking up

sacks

3.Not following safety 3.Not using fall protection when required

glasses
Step 2: List the stimulus. Remember the stimulus occurs before the behavior.

At-Risk Behavior: An employee not wearing safety glasses

when they are required to be worn

Stimulus

1. In a hurry takes too much time to

find safety glasses
2. Not always available
3. Damaged glasses
4. Knowledge that rules are not always
enforced
Step 3: List the reward. Remember, rewards occur after the
behavior.
Note: The length of the reward list does not have to match the
length of the stimulus list.Keep the stimulus and the rewards
as separate and independent lists.

At-Risk Behavior: An employee not wearing safety glasses when they

are required to be worn
Stimulus Rewards

1. In a hurry takes too much time to find safety 1. Injury

glasses 2. Get in trouble
2. Not always available 3. Nothing happens
3. Damaged glasses 4. Get through quicker
4. Knowledge that rules are not always without safety glasses
enforced 5. More comfortable
without safety glasses
Step 4: Evaluate the reward qualities. As noted earlier, the rewards
on the list will have different qualities. Rewards with Positive, Now and
Certain (+NC) qualities support the recurrence of the at-risk behavior.

At-Risk Behavior: An employee not wearing safety glasses when they

are required to be worn
Quality of rewards
Stimulus Reward +/- N/L C/U
1. In a hurry takes too 1. Injury - L U
much time to find
2. Get in trouble - L U
safety glasses
3. Nothing happens
2. Not always available + N C
3. Damaged glasses 4. Get through
+ L C
4. Knowledge that rules quicker without
are not always safety glasses + N C
enforced 5. More comfortable
without safety
glasses
 Step 5: Develop an action plan to eliminate the reward
qualities driving the undesired behavior. These will be the +NC
qualities.

At-Risk Behavior: An employee not wearing safety glasses when they are
required to be worn
Quality of rewards
Stimulus Reward +/- N/L C/U
1. In a hurry takes too 1. Injury - L U
much time to find safety
2. Get in trouble - L U
glasses
3. Nothing happens
2. Not always available + N C
3. Damaged glasses 4. Get through quicker
+ L C
4. Knowledge that rules without safety glasses
are not always enforced 5. More + N C
comfortable
without safety glasses
 If you develop a Critical Behavior Analysis process, you will be
able to:

Identify the at-risk behaviors

Eliminate the stimuli directing at-risk behaviors
Provide appropriate rewards that encourage desired behaviors

An effective Critical Behavior Analysis process will help

encourage self- reinforcing safe behaviors, which will reduce the
potential for accidents.
 “BEHAVIOR BASED SAFETY IMPLEMENTATION STEPS”

Step 100.0: Present concepts of BBS to company

management and obtain their commitment. Set up a BBS
Steering Team.

A strong Steering Team is essential to the success of BBS. The

membership will depend on the size and organization. To emphasize
the importance and value of BBS to an organization it is
recommended that the team be led by a sensor management team
member.

The Steering Team provides the drive for, and steers, BBS
implementation. The team will also review the observation and
intervention data and contribute to the development of any required
improvement strategies. At work sites that have a joint Health and
Safety Committee the steering team can be aligned with the team.
Members drawn from management, supervision and workers, should
have as many (as possible) of the following characteristics:
 •Natural leader
•Respected by others
•Interest in Behavior management
•Committed to safety improvement
•Strong interpersonal skills
•Good coaching skills
•Able to commit required time
•Good communication skills
•Able to provide resources to the process
Each company will have to customize the basic material to fit their own
organization as the success of BBS is dependent on the quality of a company’s
Environment, health and safety management system, leadership, commitment
and culture. Companies need to make BBS “fit in” so it is complementary to
their safety initiatives and not an add on.

Step 110.0: Steering Team receives orientation in BBS including

review of the BBS process and the Antecedent/Behavior/Consequence
Behavior Model and Analysis.
Once the Steering Team members have been selected they need to
receive training in Behavior Based Safety. The training should include the
following elements not specific to behaviors-problem solving, root causation,
trend analysis. This will help them with their review of the observation and
intervention of data and development of any required improvement strategies.
Step 120.0:Select employees to be observers.
Observers perform an important role in the successful implementation of
BBS. Observers should be chosen from employees with as many as
possible following characteristics:
•Respected by peers
•Interest in safety improvement
•Interest in BBS
•Good people skills
•able to provide positive reinforcement for safe behaviors
•able to provide coaching/correction for unsafe behaviors
•able to interact with co-workers

Step 130.0: Train observers.

The observers play a key role in the BBS process.
The process relies on them to provide the behavior performance
observations that are used to identify which behaviors are being done
safely and which are not. Some important training elements are:
•ensure they know when the critical behaviors are being performed
acceptably and when they are not. It can be damaging to the
observation process if an observer suggests to a worker they are doing
the behavior wrongly when they are not.
•Observation and intervention techniques
•Observation recording techniques
•Observation sequence: interrupt the workers or not, etc.

Issues for observers

One of the toughest things to overcome when implementing a BBS
process is to improve observers interpersonal and intervention skills. It
can be extremely difficult for a worker to observe a fellow worker and
then intervene (positively or negatively). Observer training needs to have
a strong component that helps observers to improve their intervention
skills and their confidence in performing observations.
 Another issue is when the observer is a person who holds a position
or authority i.e. foreman, supervisor, manager, etc. They have a difficult
time as the natural tendency is for them to revert to their authority
position to correct an observed “at risk” behavior or situation. BBS will
not be successful if it is perceived as just another program to get
compliance.

Step 140.0: Set up an observation data recording tool.

Steering teams can help the implementation by establishing some
form of electronic tool to record and analyze the observation data. A tool
that is user friendly and allows the observers to easily enter their data is
most desirable. A spread sheet workbook with pre-formatted
reports/charts or a database with pre-formatted reports/charts are
suggested alternatives.