Behavior based safety

Behavior-based safety (BBS) is an approach to safety that focuses on workers behavior as the cause of most work-related injuries and illnesses. Promoters of BBS programs maintain that 80 percent to 96 percent of woikplace incidents are caused by workers unsafe behavior. 

In fact, many safety professionals and researchers have viewed these figures as resulting in fault finding rather than fact finding, as well as causing workers to underreport accident/incident events to prevent themselves from becoming the target of scrutiny, enforcement, discipline, or reprisal. 

The major complaint with this concept is that it overlooks the importance of, or contribution to, preventing accidents that unsafe conditions attribute to the numbers of accidents/incidents occurring. When addressing accident/incident prevention, it has never been my personal opinion or contention that addressing only unsafe acts was the cure-all in the accident prevention puzzle. 

BBS today cannot be viewed as the panacea or end-all solution for the prevention of accidents and incidents, but rather only as one tool in the arsenal of tools, and does not 

BBS is not a quick fix to safety and health issues. Every BBS approach must be designed to fit the needs and culture of the organization or business. It is based on the notion that safety and health are a shared responsibility and not just a personal matter. It is a way the employers provide the tools to optimize safety performance in the employees unique work environment by developing methods to measure successes regarding safety performance in accampUshments, rather than using the traditional failure rates. 

A worker demonstrating sate behavior as a part of his job function. 

Behavior-based safety (BBS) is not a new concept since its preceptors have been around since the early work of H.W. Heinrich, who in the 1930s and 1940s suggested that unsafe acts by workers were the primary cause of accidents/incidents that resulted in occupationally related injuries and illnesses. Over the years, the figure attributed to these unsafe acts has ranged from 75% to 95%. 

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT A PRACTICAL APPROACH 

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Marcombe, J. T., Krause, T. R., Finley, R. M. (1993). Behavior Based Safety at Monsanto s Pensacola plant. The Chemical Engineer, April 29. 

Many companies have implemented a system to have peers observe and try to correct the behavior of peers by coaching or other means. This is part of a behavior based safety management system. This system should operate in the nonincident portion of the error pyramid. Include examples in a listing, such as Table 5-1, to illustrate the differences. 

DePasquale, J. P., Geller, E. S. (1999). Critical success factors for behavior-based safety A smdy of twenty industry wide appUcations. Journal of Safety Research, 30(4), 237-249. 

John Austin 2006. An introduction to behavior-based safety. Stone, Sand Gravel Review (2) 38-39. 

This paper aimed to find the regularity of the direct cause of gas explosion, through the study of analysis of the generic unsafe act in the coalmine major gas explosion accidents based on the behavior based safety model, the following conclusions can be drawn ... 

Fu Gui, et al. 2013. Discussions on theoretical understanding and effects of behavior based safety, China Safety Science Journal, 23(3) 150-154. 

The direct cause of the accident is unsafe acts. Therefore, preventing unsafe acts of employees and making them to complete the task by safe acts is particularly important. Mentioning unsafe behavior study and solutions BBS (Behavior-Based Safety) is mainly used abroad (LI Nai-wen JI Da-jiang 2011). The application of BBS method requires a longer time to build a safety culture... 

LI Nai-wen, JI Da-jiang. Application Study on Behavior-based Safety in Coal Mine Behavior Management. China Safety Science Journal 2011 (12) 115 121. 

Out of all kinds of methods of preventing accident, BBS (Behavior Based Safety) plays a significant role in the control and improvement of personal behavior, but the time it works lasts too long. BBS cannot satisfy the need of Chinese safety production, as far as the characteristic of instantaneity of accident occurrence and Chinese accident-prone situation are concerned. In fact, BBS is seldom used in Chinese coal mine in order to prevent accident and improve safety. 

Occupational and behavior-based safety programs that help improve the actions and behaviors of individuals. 

In recent years, many companies have invested in behavior-based safety (BBS) programs. BBS is a process that helps employees identify and choose a safe behavior over an unsafe one. It also encourages employees to work with their colleagues on improving their mutual understanding of effective and ineffective behaviors as they apply to safety. 

This chapter discusses the nature of culture as it applies to the safety and general risk management of process facilities. Also discussed here are related issues such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Employee Participation, Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) and Inherent Safety. 

Use of standard operating procedures and job safety analyses Behavior-based safety plan... 

Chandler, B. and Huntebrinker, T. Behavior-Based Safety Multisite Success with Systematic BBS. Professional Safety, June 2003. 

Lindpe, P. and Engen, O.A. (2007) Behavior based safety and the Nordic model , in T. Aven and J.E. Vinnem (eds.) Risk, Reliability and Social Safety. Taylor Francis London, pp. 1705—1712. 

Dr. Steven Simon explored the differences in the two schools of thought in a speech he gave at a behavioral safety conference held by the American Society of Safety Engineers in February 1998. Simon indicated that there are two approaches in the behavior-based safety field. One takes a macro approach—the view that operation improvement is accomplished through a culture change. The other takes a micro approach and assumes that such improvement can occur by changing the behavior of hourly workers. 

Simon expressed the view that the culture drives behavior and that a culture change is required for success in behavior-based safety. Simon s speech became a paper that was published by the American Society of Safety Engineers in the Proceedings—A Behavioral Safety Symposium, 1998. These are excerpts from Simon s paper titled The Culture Change Model of Behavioral Safety. ... 

Dan Petersen s definition of worker-focused behavior-based safety as shown in the Proceedings of the ASSE 1998 Seminar will be used here. 

Perhaps the definitions we hear most about today are those that define behavior-based safety as a process of involving workers in defining the ways they are most likely to get hurt, thus getting their involvement and thus some buy-in, asking the workers to observe other workers to determine progress in the reduction of unsafe behaviors etc. [p. 2],... 

Bottom line pressures, management turnover and good old human nature just about guarantee a steady stream of safety issues to deal with. So the hunt never ends for the next new thing to cure, or at least arrest, those chronic challenges. Behavior-based safety has been the medicine of choice in recent years. But interest shows signs of waning, and the field s experts now prescribe a cocktail mix of behavioral, systems and motivational remedies. 

It is typical for the various fields within the practice of safety to be in transition with respect to knowledge needs and the counsel given. And not surprisingly, that element within the practice called behavior-based safety is in the process of evolution. 

But at several behavior-based safety sessions held this past June during ASSE S annual conference, a head connt of attendees revealed a different story. Topics and speakers that packed rooms five years ago were met with plenty of empty seats. 

In the May 27, 2002 issue of ISHN s E-News, Mr. Johnson asks, What s next and says the question came up lately because signs point to the decline of behavior-based safety, which has been hailed as the latest, greatest elixir for easing safety headaches. ... 

In Part 2 we review the substance of the concerns that some have expressed about behavior-based safety. 

In Part 3 we review recent developments that may have an impact of the future of behavior-based safety. 

Many of the prominent consultants in the field of behavior-based safety were presenters at the 1998 ASSE conference on Behavioral Safety. Their speeches, representing a wide diversity of views, are contained in the Proceedings A Behavioral Safety Symposium published by ASSE in 1998. That publication is recommended reading It sets forth veiy well the... 

According to Dr. E. Scott Geller, who is often a writer and speaker on behavioral safety, a problem of consequence has arisen because some of those who offer themselves as behavioral consultants don t, in his view, really practice behavior-based safety. Geller, who is a practitioner in worker-focused behavior-based safety, wrote an article titled Confusion, Controversy, and Clarification, which appeared in the Januaiy 1999 issue of Occupational Health Safety. These excerpts from that article pertain to the ASSE conference on behavioral safety held in Febmary 1998. 

Note that Geller said several presenters do not practice BBS in their consulting. Who practices behavior-based safety and who doesn t ... 

Aubrey C. Daniels, a well-known and long-term practitioner in the field of performance management, has also expressed concerns about what is being offered as behavioral safety. His paper The Imperative for an Integrated Approach to Behavior-Based Safety Initiatives appears in the Proceedings, ASSE 1999 Professional Development Conference. These are excerpts from it ... 

I have some rather serious concerns that many of the products and services being marketed under the name of behavior-based safety are not truly behavior-based, as in behavior analysis. My concern is that a lot of what... 

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