Behavior Based Safety

Safety Professional’s View

William R. Holliday, CSP

Objectives Today:

Identify differences between traditional vs

BBS
Know “when and when not” to implement
BBS
Explain why most traditional safety
programs don’t work!
Understand why positive reinforcement is
much more powerful than negative
reinforcement
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!
Safety Intervention Strategies
(By NSC)

Approach # of Studies # of Subjects Reduction %

Behavior Based 7 2,444 59.6%

Ergonomics 3 n/a 51.6%
Engineering Change 4 n/a 29.0%
Problem Solving 1 76 20.0%
Gov’t Action 2 2 18.3%
Mgt. Audits 4 n/a 17.0%
Stress Management 2 1,300 15.0%
Poster Campaign 2 6,100 14.0%
Personnel Selection 26 19,177 3.7%
Near-miss Reports 2 n/a 0%
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 It Is 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
A process that does not need employee involvement
Interventions: Always Consider
These 3 Components

Safety Management
System Behaviors

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
 Safety Management System Interventions
7 components

Management leadership
vision, values, commitment
safety goals & objectives
costs of safety performance
Responsibility & accountability
defined for management & employees
accountable for performance
Safety organization
safety committees
safety staff resource
safety budget
 Safety Management System Interventions
7 components (continued)

Safe work practices & procedures

general & job specific
housekeeping
contractors
emergency

Safety review & improvement

a Plan / Do / Check / Act process
accident investigation process
safety audit / inspection process
 Safety Management System Interventions
7 components (continued)

Safety training
Based on needs assessments
Designed & presented effectively
For both management & employees
Results in observable changes in behavior on the job
Safety communications
Internal & external
Appropriate for audience
Effectiveness of communication methods
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
 A business succeeds or fails through the performance of
all of its employees

“Business is Behavior” *

Success = “Good” performance

Failure = “Bad” performance

Performance = the combined results of a series of

behaviors

* Aubrey Daniels, author and behavioral psychologist

Suggested BBS Process:

Discovery - Determine Behaviors That Have

Greatest Loss Impact
Design - Identify Team Who Will Define &
Design BBS Process
System Up - Implement BBS Observation
Process & Collect Data
System Check - Ensure BBS Process Has
Been Effectively Implemented
Observations, Feedback & Data Collection

Use a design team of hourly workers, supervisors

and managers, 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
Use Prior Experience Data to Target Jobs for
Observation

Loss runs from insurance carrier or

broker
OSHA logs
First aid logs
Near miss / hit reports
Absenteeism / turnover reports
Define Critical Behaviors - What is “Safe” & What
is “At-risk”?
Focus on relevant behaviors that will have a direct
impact on losses
Many behaviors that are directly related to the losses
are unconscious behaviors that occur quickly
Select critical behaviors to focus on through actual
observation of people at work - not just through
discussion & brainstorming
Obstacles To Success:

Poorly Maintained Facilities

Top-down Management Practices
Poor Planning/Execution
Inadequate Training
Keys to Success:

Meaningful Employee Empowerment

Designing a Well Planned and
Supported BBS Process
Managing BBS Process with Integrity
 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)
 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.
Some examples of activators
 Definitions:

Behavior: Any directly measurable

thing that a person does, including
speaking, acting, and performing
physical functions.
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:
 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
Significance - positive or
negative { small

Impact -
other
personal or

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-
 R+
P
er
fo
r
m
The effects of positive
a
nc reinforcement
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
Pe P
rf
or The effects of
m punishment
an
ce

Time
Pe
rf
or E
m
an The effects of extinction
ce

Time
 If you see this type of
performance curve, you can bet
Pe management by negative
rfo reinforcement is the
rm predominant management style
an
ce

Time
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
to Let’s do it!!

not because they have to

 A Values-Based Process

“Focus on the process….not

results……they will come later!”
Avoid The Following Headline:

“Behavior Based Safety Scores Show

Significant Improvement - while
injury rate climbs!”
Why Do We Need to Change?

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll

get what you always got!”
W. Edwards Deming