Behavior-based safety (BBS) is a concept that is often misunderstood in workplace safety. Most people tend to categorize BBS as “an observational process” or as “observational safety.” Another misunderstanding is BBS is about empowering workers to participate in safety observations of themselves and others. And while BBS includes elements of observations and employee empowerment, behavior-based safety is not primarily about either of these things.
Behavior-based safety is primarily about behavior change and using technology, systems, and processes for your workers to automatically and unconsciously engage in safe behavior and habits. Oftentimes workers are so accustomed to working in an unsafe manner that these actions become habitual. BBS seeks to replace this unconscious unsafe behavior with automatic, unconscious safe behavior – essentially forming new habits.
SMEs in workplace safety and BBS have identified benefits and drawbacks of the behavior-based safety approach. One benefit of a BBS program is it encourages employee participation to recognize the behaviors that need changing and to follow a checklist of safe behaviors. Another benefit is BBS uses positive reinforcement to replace unsafe habits with safe habits. Delivering positive reinforcement immediately, consistently, and appropriately is key to making safe behavior habitual.
There are several drawbacks to behavior-based safety, one being that BBS programs are notoriously difficult to maintain because they lack structure and support from top tier management. Another drawback is BBS programs can inadvertently place blame on workers if an incident occurs, which can lead to inaccurate reporting. Lastly, BBS programs often identify the wrong root causes of an incident, focusing on the unsafe behavior instead of why the safe behavior wasn’t followed.
One way to overcome these drawbacks of behavior-based safety is to provide proper training to your managers, supervisors, and employees on the core principles of BBS. Emphasize that BBS isn’t about long hours of logging observations of numerous behaviors and taking time away from work to fill out documentation. As an EHS professional, you should make sure observations last no more than five minutes, observe only 2-3 behaviors at a time, and design observations into the work process to eliminate time off job.
Behavior-based safety management software is another way to overcome the challenges presented by BBS. Mobile-enabled technology encourages your employees to report both safe and at-risk behaviors and log observations from anywhere at any time. With a cloud-based system, you can access dashboards updated with real-time data to easily create reports and gain insight into behavior trends that could trigger corrective action plans.
Of course, all the training and technology in the world cannot substitute for the human element of positive reinforcement and affirmation. When your employees automatically and consistently engage in safe behavior, this should be noticed and immediately called out. Giving praise and positive reinforcement in a consistent and appropriate manner is one of the most important ways to encourage safe habits and affect the behavior change to continually improve safety culture and performance.
