Feedback behavior-based

Success of any behavior-based safety process relies on trust among the employee (observers), management, and the employees being observed. Observers are trained to ask the employee for permission to make an observation where feedback is immediate. When this occurs, this is a win-win situation for everyone. One key to remember is when providing employees feedback you need to consider how you would like to be approached. The way you say the words and how you act toward the employee are keys to successful two-way communication. Observers need specific training in how to observe and provide feedback in a positive, constructive manner. 

Safety improvement teams and action planning are required elements of the behavior-based process to continually address at-risk behaviors. Team members should periodically review the percentage of safe versus the percentage of at-risk behaviors and other factors to understand where action planning is needed. In many cases, some of the at-risk behaviors can be shaped into safe behaviors through a process of regular observation and feedback. 

Description In a safety world dominated by the behavior-based safety model, it should be no surprise that coaching or feedback is a one of the five keys to a successful team. Today, there is a lot of pressure on safety staff and management alike to be great coaches. Forget about the pressure to be great and simply strive to be a GOOD coach. GOOD means ... 

It s easy to fall into a mindless job routine, becoming incapable of handling unexpected events in a safe and timely manner. And some mindless behavior can put a person in immediate risk for personal injury. We need to understand that this can happen to anyone and that a concerted effort to increase mindfulness on the job is warranted. Behavior-based observation and feedback provides the mechanism for making this happen. 

Behavior-based safety focuses on the use of rewards, positive feedback, and interpersonal recognition to motivate and snpport safe behavior. This enconrages people to get involved in a safety improvement process becanse they want to, not becanse they feel threatened and think they have to. Thus, through behavior-based safety people act themselves into a positive attitude. 

The behavior-based approach targets human behavior and relies on interpersonal observation and feedback for intervention. The success of comprehensive ergonomics depends on employees observing relationships between behaviors and work situations. 

More than three decades of research have shown convincingly that this on-site approach is cost effective, primarily because behavior-change techniques are straightforward and relatively easy to administer and because intervention progress can be readily monitored by the ongoing observation of target behaviors. By obtaining objective feedback on the impact of intervention techniques, a behavior-based process can be continually refined or altered. 

Heinrich s well-known Law of Safety implicates at-risk behavior as a root cause of most near hits and injuries (Heinrich et al., 1980). Over the past 20 years, various behavior-based research studies have verified this aspect of Heinrich s Law by systematically evaluating the impact of interventions designed to lower employees at-risk behaviors. Feedback from behavioral observations was a common ingredient in most of the successful intervention processes, whether the feedback was delivered verbally, graphically by tables and charts, or through corrective action. See, for example, the comprehensive review by Petersen, 1989, or individual research articles by Chhokar and Wallin, 1984 Geller et al., 1980 Komaki et al., 1980 and Sulzer-Azaroff and De Santamaria, 1980. 

Du Pont STOP. One popular behavior-based safety intervention is Du Font s STOP (for Safety Training and Observation Program). Employees are given STOP cards to record the occurrence of at least one at-risk behavior or work condition each workday, along with their corrective action. At the end of the day the STOP cards are collected, compiled, and recorded in a data log. Sometimes the data are transferred to a display chart or graph for feedback. 

Because at-risk behaviors contribute to most if not all injuries, a Total Safety Culture requires a decrease in at-risk behaviors. Organizations have attempted to do this by targeting at-risk acts, exclusive of safe acts, and using corrective feedback, reprimands, or disciplinary action to motivate behavior change. This approach is useful, but less proactive and less apt to be widely accepted than a behavior-based approach that emphasizes... 

Williams, J. H. and Geller, E. S., Behavior-based intervention for occupational safety critical impact of social comparison feedback, /. Saf. Res., 31(30), 135, 2000. 

The CBC examples described previously illustrate two basic ways of implementing the Define and Observe stages of DO IT. The driving CBC I developed with my daughter illustrates the observation and feedback process recommended by a number of successful behavior-based safety consultants (Krause, 1995 Krause et al., 1996 McSween, 1995). I refer to this approach as one-to-one safety coaching because it involves an observer using a CBC to provide instructive behavioral feedback to another person (Geller, 1995,1998). 

Where on a CBC does an observer record these unanticipated conditions, events, and behaviors so crucial to a constructive, behavior-based conversation Every CBC should have a place for comments (see, for example. Figures 8.10 and 8.12). Here is where the observer records any observations that might be useful in a one-to-one feedback session or a group discussion. The quality of a completed CBC usually increases with the number of useful comments. 

In these cases, solutions to reducing a behavioral discrepancy are obvious and relatively inexpensive. Behavior-based instruction or demonstration can overcome invisible expectations, and behavior-based feedback can enable continuous improvement. Furthermore, a work team could decide what resources are needed to make a safe behavior more convenient, comfortable, or efficient. 

Do employees receive behavior-based feedback related to their safety ... 

Practice with appropriate behavior-based feedback is critical for solving both types of skill discrepancies. However, if the skill is already used frequently but has deteriorated (as in the driving example), it is often necessary to add an extra feedback intervention to overpower the natural consequences that have caused the behavior to drift from the ideal. 

From this discussion it is clear a skill discrepancy can be handled in one of two ways. Change the job or change the behavior. The first approach is exemplified by simplifying the task, while the latter approach is reflected in practice and behavior-based feedback or behavioral coaching, but what if a person s interests, skills, or prior experiences are incompatible with the job ... 

Understanding, belief, or awareness is not sufficient, however, to implement a particular behavior-based safety process. People need to learn the specific behaviors or activities required for successful implementation. This requires training and should include behavior-based observation and feedback. In other words, participants need to practice the behaviors called for by the intervention process and then receive constructive behavior-focused feedback from objective and vigilant observers. 

We have already covered a variety of situational factors that influence the occurrence of safe or at-risk behavior. This included a sequence of questions to ask in order to decide whether instructional intervention is needed, whether another approach to corrective action would be more cost-effective—from redesigning a task to clarifying expectations and providing behavior-based feedback. Here we examine some basic principles about behavior and behavior-change techniques that should influence your choice of an improvement intervention. We begin with a distinction among other-directed, self-directed, and automatic behavior (Watson and Tharp, 1997). 

The lack of behavior-based feedback to help people improve. 

Some errors occur because the rule or proper safe behavior was not known and it is possible for an experienced worker to forget or inadvertently overlook a rule. As discussed in Chapter 9, training and behavior-based observation and feedback can reduce these types of errors, but punishment certainly will not help. 

On the other hand, when the incentive/reward program is behavior-based and perceived as equitable and fair, it is advantageous to display progress toward reaching individual, team, or company goals (Guideline 7). When people see their efforts transferred to a feedback chart, their motivation and sense of personal control is increased, or at least maintained. 

The mystery observees were not to tell anyone they had the reward coupon. However, when the mystery observees received coaching in a behavior-based observation and feedback process, they gave the reward coupon to their coach. More specifically, each week... 

You can see how this simple inexpensive incentive/reward program was both pleasant and constructive. It got people talking about the behavior-based coaching process in positive terms and it rewarded the most difficult aspect of a behavioral coaching process— interpersonal feedback. It is relatively easy to complete a critical behavioral checklist (CBC) compared with relaying the CBC results to an observee in a positive and constructive interpersonal conversation. The potential reward for completing this last and most important aspect of behavioral coaching added an element of fxm to the whole process. It made it easier to transition from behavioral observation to interpersonal feedback. 

The behavior-based feedback and coaching process described here is analogous to the behavior-based safety process detailed by Krause et al. (1996) and McSween (1995) and... 

An ExxonMobil Chemical facility in Texas has demonstrated exemplary success with a coaching process based on the principles and procedures described in this chapter. By the end of two years, they had almost 100 percent participation and have reaped extraordinary benefits. From an outcome perspective, they started with a baseline of 13 OSHA recordable injuries in 1992 (TRIR = 4.11), and progressed to 5 OSHA recordables in 1993 (TRIR = 1.70). They sustained only one OSHA recordable in 1994 (TRIR = 0.30) and reached their target of zero OSHA recordables in 1997 and 1999. At the time of this writing (mid-2000), they are still injury free for the year. Figure 12.18 depicts the total recordable injury rate (TRIR) for this plant from 1991 to mid-2000. They had received behavior-based coaching training in the latter half of 1992, implemented their observations and feedback process plantwide in 1993, and by 1994 everyone was on board as a behavior-focused coach. They have continued this process ever since and have had numerous occasions to celebrate their phenomenal safety success. 

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