Safety: Behavior Based Safety
Hazard Assessment & Risk Control, Supervising for Safety, Behavior Based Safety

Problem:
It is true that safety is an attitude, but it is also made up of many different actions. Utilizing the principles of behavioral shaping and control that has proven successful in many different areas of human development provides an avenue for changing unsafe actions into safe behavior.

Solution:
This two-day course teaches participants the basics of behavior change and how to design and implement a successful behavior based safety initiative in their organization.

Content Overview:
The following Key Elements of a Behavior-Based Safety System are evaluated during this 2-day course:

Step #1: Determine the need for behavior based safety and develop a plan

To examine your operations/safety culture the following should be addressed:
Are we "really" concerned about safety?
Who drives safety, Operations or the Safety Department?
Why do we focus on safety? (Customers, economics, "the right thing to do"?)
Do we focus more on attitude or behavior change?
Do we tend to focus more on safe or unsafe behavior?
Do we focus more on upstream or downstream indicators?
Do we hold people accountable for safety?
Are we reactive or proactive about safety?
Get a commitment from the top of the organization in both words and action.
Develop a customized behavior based safety improvement plan to fit your organization.

Step #2: Evaluate current safety performance

Purpose is to identify the high probability incident areas for further behavioral analysis
Review all safety data for the past 3-5 years.
Ask who, what, where, when, how, why with respect to accidents, incidents, near misses, "light duty", etc.

Step #3: Identify unsafe acts and behaviors

Utilizing root cause, ABC analysis, etc., identify and evaluate the unsafe actions which are leading to the high probability incident areas in your organization identified in Step #2
Select a limited number of behaviors for initial focus (5-7).
Establish a baseline for the behaviors identified for change.

Step #4: Provide training in behavioral observation and feedback

Training in a number of areas is required:
Safe leadership skills training
Behavior principles and the behavior based safety culture
Behavior observation and recording
Giving and receiving feedback
Communication skills
Training in using data and feedback to make organizational and cultural changes for safety

Step #5: Implement measurement and accountability systems

Develop & implement an organization specific observation and feedback system.
Both a formal and an informal observation & feedback system must be developed.
Initially the formal system will be implemented, but with time the informal observation by
coworkers will take over on a day to day basis.
Develop and implement accountability system.
Consequences applied to safe and unsafe behavior rather than just downstream indicators
Commitment to application of consequences in sufficient time to see results
Focus on action and change rather than "lip service" and limited expectations, e.g., "accidents just happen".

Step #6: Continuous improvement of the Behavior Based Safety System

Establish & implement a mechanism for employee involvement in continuous improvement.