Behavior-based safety programs

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

Howes, Jim. Behavior-Based Safety Programs . UAW Health and Safety Department, http //www.ble272.org/ Behaviorbasedsafety.pdf. 

Hazards of Behavior-Based Safety Programs . UFCW http //www.ufcw.org/your industry/retail/safety health news and facts/behavior based.cfm. 

BST provides training in behavioral-based safety programs. 

One of the tenets of behavior-based safety programs is that of intervention. If someone observes an unsafe condition, it is his or her responsibility to step up and point out the problem. (On the day that this was written your author had one of his colleagues intervene. There had just been an office move and she pointed out that the chaotic state of his furniture would make escape troublesome in the event of an emergency.)... 

There seems to be a growing urgency to act on this problem, but many organizations are not sure what to do. Perhaps the time has come to ask the question, What is beyond behavior-based safety Below are a few ideas for moving traditional behavior-based safety programs into the 21st century. 

There are a large number of studies showing that when a program is instituted to reduce the frequency of unsafe behaviors, a reduction in incident rate coincides with a reduction in unsafe behaviors. Krause, Seymore, and Sloat (1999) report a meta-analysis of 73 firms that implemented behavior-based safety programs for up to five years. Reductions in accident rates from pre-implementation baselines averaged 29 percent after one year and up to 69 percent by the fifth year. Thus, there is criterion-based validity when incidents are the criterion. We are not aware of any studies that have used process safety incidents or fatalities as a criterion. 

Although the author is not a proponent of behavioral-based modification programs, at least not until such time as the basic elements of the program have been established, many safety and loss prevention professionals have been able to communicate their concepts effectively to employees using many ingenious methods. 

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. 

Jim Howe is the Assistant Director in the Health and Safety Department at the headquarters of the United Auto Workers Union. Jim is often a speaker on behavioral safety, and he takes a strong position that behavior-based safety can be hazardous to your health and safety program. His views are set forth in A Union Critique of Behavior Based Safety, a paper issued by the UAW Health and Safety Department. 

Today s safety professional has moved beyond the standard measurement of safety performance in terms of the number of accidents or injuries and recordable injury and illness rates. More sophisticated techniques that involve safety performance measurement systems, ongoing tracking of results, and continual improvement processes have replaced the early measurements. While today s safety metrics still include accident and illness performance, they also encompass behavior-based safety, safety program implementation performance, and insurance costs and losses. 

Behavior-based safety is commonly called behavioral safety. Behavioral safety is not an alternative to traditional safety programs it is one component of a comprehensive effort. 

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. 

This favorable trend has occurred because management and employees now give safety a much higher priority than they did say 20 years ago, and companies have invested heavily in a wide variety of programs such as the use of personal protective equipment, Job Safety Analyses (JSAs), and first-aid training. In particular, companies have emphasized the importance of behavior-based safety. 

The positive motivation of each and every employee to work and think safely and in a healthful manner on a daily basis has always been a priority for safety and health professionals. Throughout the decades, safety and health professionals have utilized a number of ideas and incentives through which to achieve this motivational level within their workforce. Due to the relative success of such efforts, commercially available incentive programs are now readily available in a variety of products and price ranges. However, safety and health professionals shonld be aware that incentive programs should not be utilized as a substitute for base-level compliance and behavior-based safety and health programs, and should be utilized for their intended purpose only. Many motivational and incentive-type programs are the ideas of safety and health professionals and are unique to the workforce within their operations. 

Howe, J., Warning, Behavior Based Safety Can Be Hazardous To Your Health And Safety Program , Union of Automotive Worker, International Union, September 1993... 

When it was introduced, behavior-based safety (BBS) was seen as a magic panacea for everything that ailed safety programs. It was the Swiss Army Knife of safety programs. It could take care of everything, says Ron Bowles, director of operations for Portland, Ore.-based Strategic Safety Associates. Now people realize that it is just one tool and more are needed. ... 

Some experts argue that expectations for BBS were unrealistic from the start, while others believe the process has been corrupted at some companies, transformed into an auditing program that assumes a blame the employee attitude about safety failures. Behavior-based safety makes the assumption you know what behaviors you should be doing, says Robert Pater, managing director of Strategic Safety Associates. It assumes you know what to do and need to be reminded to do it. ... 

My intro to behavior-based safety was being asked by my employer at the time to go to an Indiana food distribution company to analyze the safety program, remembers Hansen. At 9 a.m., I walked in the door and the general manager said, Stop right there. I just bought a gun and the next SOB who mentions behavioral safety.. 

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