Unsafe behaviours

May give the questioner some insight into why solvents are being used. This alone, however, is not likely to lead to a cessation of unsafe behaviour. 

A male roofer sits in the induction room and listens carefully, he nods in all the right places, agrees with the site rules and the fundamentals of the Incident and Injury Free (IIF) safety programme in place on site, and signs up to his method statement and risk assessments, which clearly state he will use the lanyard and harness at all times when working on the roof. A mere two hours later he is seen working on the pitch of a wet metal roof with his lanyard still attached to his harness and not to the safe anchor point a few feet away. This is an unsafe behaviour which could result in a serious, potentially fatal accident, should he lose balance, slip and fall. 

Leadership is another important determinant of patient safety culture and patient safety outcomes (Katz-Navon et al. 2009 Wong and Cummings 2007). This is because leaders are often the drivers of safety culture within the organisation. They set the example for employees through their behaviours (Maierhofer et al. 2000). They also shape subordinate behaviour through the provision of rewards or punishments (Hinze 2002). When leaders take time to discuss safety with employees, employees demonstrate less unsafe behaviour (Zohar and Luria 2003). Similarly, if leaders do not make safety a priority among their team, this will be... 

Hofmann, D. A. andStezer, A. 1996. Across-level investigation of factors influencing unsafe behaviours and accidents. Personnel Psychology, 49, 307-39. 

Traditional emphasis on training of persons can be characterised with direct quotations by Reason (1997) The person model is exemplified by the traditional occupational safety approach. The main emphases are upon individual unsafe acts and personal injury accidents. It views people as free agents capable of choosing between safe and unsafe behaviour . In the person model The most widely used... 

Transient, e.g. most unsafe behaviour which can only be discovered by asking questions and using the imagination. 

Most unsafe behaviours do not involve people deliberately intending to harm themselves or others. From their point of view, their behaviour made perfect sense. ABC analysis helps the investigator understand, from the other person s point of view, the antecedents (which triggered the unsafe behaviour), and consequences (which reinforced the unsafe behaviour). Once this is understood, antecedents and consequences can be rearranged (and written into recommendations) in such a way that will make it more likely that the person involved and others will behave safely in the future. 

Having fully described the problematic behaviour, the next step in the process is to define a safe alternative to this behaviour, which antecedents will help to ensure that this behaviour happens, and the consequences that will help to reinforce the behaviour. The results of the analysis can then be turned into practical recommendations to reduce unsafe behaviours and introduce new alternatives to replace them. 

In the case of ABC analysis, for example, deficiencies in work tools and equipment could act as an antecedent for unsafe behaviour. The same can be done to identify nodes of an RCA technique that could relate to the consequences of problematic behaviours. For example, a RCA technique may include a potential cause relating to occupational stress, and the reduction of stress may be a consequence of problematic behaviour that helps to reinforce that behaviour. 

A behavioural safety programme to continually reduce the potential for violations by discouraging unsafe behaviours and encouraging safe behaviours ... 

Reinforcement of safe behaviour rather than the punishment and discipline of unsafe behaviours. 

Searching past accident records and near miss records for a repeating pattern of unsafe behaviour. 

An analysis of the previous 24 months of accident records was carried out to identify patterns of unsafe behaviours. 

Checklist modification The critical safety behaviour checklists are modified as new areas of potentially unsafe behaviour are recognized. All employees are encouraged to identify items for inclusion on the checklists. 

The UNSAFE behaviour column can have scores ranging from 0 if all observed behaviour is safe, or from V to as many unsafe behaviours (i.e. individuals not behaving safely) as are observed. 

When the checklist has been completed the safety performance measure can be calculated. This is a weighted scoring system, which is very sensitive to even slight changes in the frequency of unsafe behaviours. It is, simply, the number of safe behaviours seen, expressed as a percentage of the total number of safe and unsafe behaviours observed. To calculate this ratio, the SAFE and UNSAFE columns are totalled and the following formula is applied ... 

Total number of observations (total of safe + unsafe behaviours)... 

Reducing accidents in the workplace requires that the performance management approach is applied to all unsafe behaviours. Clearly this is a mammoth task that should be approached systematically. It can be achieved either by an analysis of the accident data (i.e. using historical data) or by using Job Hazard Analysis of tasks undertaken (i.e. using predictive data). In either case the analysis is looked at from a behavioural perspective. 

The observers audit the work area recording the number of safety critical behavioins observed and the ninnber of unsafe behaviours observed to produce a percentage safe behaviour score as follows ... 

Observe. The observation step can take the form of a general observation of an employee s behaviour and counselling in the appropriate target behaviour. Alternatively the observer can refer to a previously established critical behaviour checklist and score the number of safe and unsafe behaviours observed. 

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