Safety coaching process

It is possible, however, that some people will participate for the reward. Thus, it is crucial to consider carefully what specific behavior is most desirable in a safety-related process. The NORPAC employees believed the preeminent feature of interpersonal coaching is the one-on-one feedback discussion. Thus, they linked the reward to this phase of their behavioral safety coaching process. 

The safety coaching process described here is founded on the basic premise of behavior-based safety. Injuries are a direct function of at-risk behaviors, and if these behaviors can be decreased and safe behaviors increased, injuries will be prevented. Indeed, the well-known Heinrich Law of Safety implicates unsafe acts as the root cause of most near hits and injuries (Heinrich et al., 1980). 

There is no quick-fix substitute for this process, no effective step-by-step cookbook. Achievements from safety coaching are a direct function of the effort put into it. The guidelines presented in this chapter need to be customized. Who knows best what step-by-step coaching procedures will succeed in a given work area The people employed there know best and they need to be empowered to develop their own safety coaching process. 

Obviously, many factors contributed to this extraordinary performance, but there is little doubt their safety coaching process played a critical role. At the end of 1994, for example, 98 percent of the workforce had participated as observers to complete a total of 3350 documented safety coaching sessions. They identified 51,048 behaviors, of which 46,659... 

Who will be on the steering committee to oversee the safety coaching process, answer these and other questions about process implementation, maintain records, monitor progress, and refine procedural components whenever necessary ... 

In sports, athletic coaches normally have a higher status than their players. In the workplace, safety coaches are more similar to Player-Coaches they are at the same level as their coworkers whom they observe and provide feedback to. An employee does not become an expert or superior just because he or she functions as a safety coach. It is normally a peer-to-peer process. 

Offer ongoing support As we have discussed, management leaders must make the transition from safety cops to safety coaches, mentors. They must support employees safe behaviors and bring the process back into alignment if it veers off course [4]. 

The acronym "SOON" depicted in Figure 8.8 reviews the key aspects of developing adequate definitions of critical behaviors to target for a DO IT process. You are ready for the observation phase when you have a checklist of critical behaviors with definitions that are Specific, Observable, Objective, and Naturalistic. We have already considered most of the characteristics of behavioral definitions implied by these key words, and examples of behavioral checklists are provided later in this chapter, as well as in Chapter 12 on "safety coaching."... 

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). 

Over time and through building trust, a short CBC can be readily expanded and lead to one-on-one safety coaching. Safety coaching is one very effective way to implement each stage of the DO IT process and is detailed in Chapter 12. First, it is important to understand how the first two stages of DO IT can facilitate a proper behavioral analysis of the situation. 

My colleagues at Safety Performance Solutions use both education and training to teach safety coaching skills. They start with education, teaching the basic principles behind a behavior-based approach to coaching. Then they use group exercises to implement a training process. 

Coaching is essentially a process of one-on-one observation and feedback. The coach systematically observes the behaviors of another person and provides behavioral feedback on the basis of the observations. Safety coaches recognize and support the safe behaviors they observe and offer constructive feedback to reduce the occurrence of any at-risk behaviors. This chapter specifies the steps of safety coaching, points out trainable skills needed to accomplish the process, and illustrates tools and support mechanisms for increasing effectiveness. 

The term "coach" is very familiar to us in an athletic context. In fact, winning coaches practice the basic observation and feedback processes needed for effective safety coaching. They follow most of the guidelines reviewed here. As illustrated in Figure 12.4, the most effective team coaches observe the ongoing behaviors of individual players and record their observations in systematic fashion, using a team roster, behavioral checklist, or videotape. 

As I have emphasized throughout this text and have written in other articles (Geller, 1994,1995,1999,2000), a behavior-based approach to safety treats safety as an achievement-oriented (rather than failure-oriented) process (not outcome) that is fact finding (not fault finding) and proactive (rather than reactive). This chapter illustrates coaching techniques that meet these criteria and demonstrates the critical value of safety coaching for achieving a Total Safety Culture. 

The Exxon procedure is markedly different from the "planned 60-second actively caring review" implemented at a Hoechst Celanese plant. For this one-on-one coaching process, all employees attempt to complete a one-minute observation of another employee s work practices in five general categories body position, personal apparel, housekeeping, tools/equipment, and operating procedures. The initial plant goal was for each of the 800 employees to complete one 60-second behavioral observation every day. Results were entered into a computer file for a behavioral safety analysis of the work culture. 

This undersfanding is critical if safety coaching is to be a "fact-finding" rather than "fault-finding" process. It also leads to an objective and constructive analysis of the situations observed. This is how people discover the reasons behind at-risk behaviors and design interventions to decrease them. 

Answers to these and other questions are explored with the observee in the next phase of safety coaching—the heart of the process. 

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. 

Systematic safety coaching throughout a work culture is certainly feasible in most settings. Large-scale success requires time and resources to develop materials, train necessary personnel, establish support mechanisms, monitor progress, and continually improve the process and support mechanisms whenever possible. For example, the following questions need to be answered at the start of developing an initial action plan. 

Safety coaching is a critically important intervention approach, but keep in mind the many other ways you can contribute to the health and safety of a work culture, hi other words, safety coaching is one type of intervention for the "1" stage of the DO IT process. Any variety of activator and consequence strategies explained in Chapters 10 and 11, respectively, can be used as a behavior-based intervention. These steps require people to go beyond their normal routine to help another person. The next chapter shows how we can support and, thereby, improve safety with everyday interpersonal conversations and informal coaching. 

Each month, employees schedule a behavioral observation and feedback session with two other employees, who are safety observers. They select the task, day, and time for the coaching session, as well as two individuals to observe them. Employees choose their observers—and coaches—from anyone in the plant. At the start of their process, the number of volxmteer safety coaches was limited to about 30 percent of the workforce, but today everyone is a potential coach. 

The basic components of effective safety coaching were presented in Chapter 12, with each letter of COACH signifying a label for the sequence of events in the process. The coaching process should start with an atmosphere of interpersonal Caring and an agreement that the coach can Observe an individual s performance, preferably wifh a behavioral checklist. Then, the coach Analyzes the observations from a fact-finding, system-level perspective. Subsequently, the results are Communicated in one-to-one... 

There is a performance management process implemented that increased productivity over 20% and developed front line supervisor leadership to lead, coach and feedback the warehouse team towards a continuous improvement process. There are shift log meetings performed in the beginning of each shift to discuss safety, KPI performance and allow two way commimications with all warehouse employees. 

Leaders will be eager to coach, counsel, and inspire employees to act and work safely. The environment they create will be one where employees actively participate in the safety process and consider the process their own. 

Safety and health professionals should be aware that this cultural change through empowerment of all levels within your organization can be an elongated process built through day-by-day consistent and constant efforts. The pathway of success is not always smooth, and there are many other variables and outside factors that can delay or derail your efforts. The safety and health professional, as the coach, should guide... 

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