A popular style of implementing workplace safety standards is behavioural based safety. The motivating concept for the worker is to protect yourself while working, so you can reap the rewards of your labour.
Protecting one’s self is not a new idea. For years, precautions have been taken to avoid injuries while working. Armour used by knights was a sort of precursor for what is used on the job site today. The gallant knights of yore did not just want to be alive at the end of the day, they wanted the continued use of all their faculties, and to enjoy the fruits of their labour to the fullest.
The Seven Principles
How can we best apply the concepts of a behavioural based safety programme? This system is derived from seven basic principles.
- Intervention: focus on the behaviours of employees, and determine how to improve those behaviours.
- Identify what can be applied externally to improve the behaviours and achieve your desired effect.
- Use interventions to create new behaviours. For example, if eye safety is your goal, hang signs, update worn-down signs, and have employees read and sign a statement that highlights eye safety hazards and preventative methods.
- Focus on how applying your desired methods will benefit the worker at the end of the day.
- Reinforce interventions wherever possible in appropriate areas. Do not have just one area where eye protection is available; make it available at multiple entrances.
- Use theories to inform. Do not limit information; spread the word with signage and reaffirm safety at appropriate meetings. Implement monthly quizzes and testing, and reward with a point system that gives employees a goal to strive towards.
- Intervene with employees. Discuss and learn how they feel about how effective a plan is for them, and how to improve it going forward. Planned safety meetings and reviews are ideal times to start.
Everyday Application
Putting this on paper is fine, but how can it be used in real life? By taking these principles and summarising them with the ABC practices, we can clearly see their potential impact.
A precedes B. B creates C.
Put simply: A is the Activator that precedes behaviour, B is the Behaviour itself, and behaviours create C, the Consequences, positive or negative.
Our Scenario
Our safety manager sees an increase in accidents around the upper facial area of some employees. She identifies this as an area for improvement. Splashing and debris alike are having an impact on workplace production. Most of the accidents are classified as near misses. One incident, though, requires emergency attention beyond simple first aid. The employee is treated and returns to work the following day. The safety manager has decided to positively impact eye safety and its awareness for all.
First she applies an activator: signs. She places more signs indicating that the required PPE (personal protective equipment) is available and needs to be worn with regularity. She replaces worn-out signs, and instructs that this topic be discussed at the beginning of each shift by supervisors.
Behaviours change. Everyone feels comfortable wearing the proper equipment. With up-to-date signage, people understand that this is not an old policy but an ongoing one that everyone is serious about. Because it is more abundantly available, and now posted at every entrance, it actually gets used more. When they have their monthly safety meeting, some people inform the safety manager that some PPE is getting worn out and needs replacing. When these replacements are refilled, the team knows the company is serious and will act on the suggestions they report.
Finally, consequences. The safety manager, with support from upper management, posts a board that employees can contribute to with pictures of their family. The team loves it because it reminds them of why they work, and what they have to look forward to at the end of the day. The board is posted in the breakroom, and it helps everyone remember that there are more faces behind the faces we see every day. Everyone understands that if we practise unsafe habits, some people may not go home in one piece, but if we practise safe habits, we can go home to the ones we love.
Applying these techniques, and tailoring them to your unique workplace situations, should help raise awareness and build a team-like atmosphere for the continued progression of a safe work environment.