Alan Bartholomew

BSC; M.ED.; IOSH Tech.

Behavioural Safety

New Approaches to Managing Workplace Safety 2019

Workshop Sessions

By the end of the workshop you should be able to consider:

• Different Approaches to Behavioural Safety;

• The Psychology of Human Safety behaviour;

• The Challenges of Safety Leadership and Culture;

• Identifying Behavioural Safety Targets in your Business;

• Influencing behaviour: Different behavioural approaches;

• Ensuring Accident Investigators consider behavioural questions;

Session One

Human Safety Behaviour

Key Issues to set the Scene

• In the 21st century the consistent decline of accident and incidents rates

has stalled.

• Why is this and how can we take the next steps in safety management?

The ‘Safety’ Plateau

Behavioural Management:

Empowering Staff

EngineeringControls

Effective HSMS Systems

Acc

ide

nt/

Inci

de

nt

rate

s

1970’s 1980’s/1990’s 2000’s

Behavioural Management:

Telling Staff

What is Behavioural Safety?

• ‘The systematic application of psychologicalresearch on human behaviour to theproblems of workplace safety (DominicCooper 1999)

• A central belief has been that ‘injuries andillnesses’ are a result of ‘unsafe decisions’ byworkers, underpinned by a variety of factors

• To prevent injuries staff at all levels shouldidentify and target ‘unsafe behaviours’ andwork together to reduce the impact of these

IOSH - ‘Looking for higher standards’

• Behavioural Safety is a natural progression from highly prescriptive engineered and procedural systems

• Is a recognition that progressive companies will already have an effective Health and Safety Management System (HSMS)

• Behavioural Safety should recognise workers as mature human beings with an interest in their own wellbeing

• Workers can contribute best when they can influence their own safety practice

Hierarchy of Risk and Human Behaviour

People Control

Behavioural

Place Control

Technical

The Target Zero Culture

1. Hands up if you have a zero target for ‘accidents and incidents’ in your business?

2. How many of you genuinely believe zero is an achievable target 365 days every year, forever?

• Dr Robert Long (www.humandymensions.com) suggests these things about zero targets:

They set managers and colleagues up to fail and

Colleagues/managers hide or don’t report failures (e.g. near misses) for fear of being accused of failure

Is Behaviour a Matter of Choice?

If we’re honest sometimes we think safety but

we don’t behave safely

Safe Behaviour Unsafe BehaviourChoice

Why is there sometimes a mismatch between intention and practice?

Risk Decisions - Conscious or Unconscious

• The unconscious brain processes 11

million bits of information per/sec prior

• This unconscious brain influences our

perceptions of risk – e.g. we use

experience to make risk choices

• The conscious mind processes

information at 40 bits of information

per/sec. In this mode we use rational

thinking, e.g. follow SOP’s

How many of your businesses have a safety

strategy that deals with risk thinking at an unconscious

level?

Behavioural Safety - Some Key Issues

Behavioural Based Safety

3) OwnershipPromoting ‘ownership of safety’ as a core business

value for all Leaders; Managers; Colleagues; Contractors and Clients

4) Measurement and Analysis

Understanding why safety ‘goes well’ and analysing

why things ‘go wrong’

1) LeadershipRecognising how safety leadership influences ‘Safety Culture’ through

action or inaction

2) AwarenessEnsuring all staff are

aware how their ‘behaviour and attitude’

can influence safety practice

Session Two

Behavioural

Psychology

Human Safety Behaviour – What do you Believe?

Heinrich 1930’s

• 88% of all workplace accidents caused by “man-failure” (human error or mistake)

• employers and business owners need to control hazards as well as pay attention to the behaviour of workers

Behaviourism/Behaviourist

James Reason 1990

Rather than being the main instigators of accidents operators tend to inherit system defects created by:

poor design;

incorrect installation;

faulty maintenance

poor management decisions.

Social Psychology

Behavioural Safety How does your HSMS view your staff?

Workers: A problem to Control?

Workers: A solution

to harness?

Sydney Dekker 2011

Human Psychology – The Safety Debate

On your tables briefly discuss the following:

What drives safety behaviour?

1. Is everything okay as long as we follow

instructions? (Behaviourism)

2. Do we always think through what we learn and

make safety decisions based upon training and

rational thinking? (Social Psychology)

3. Do we always think before acting? (Conscious V

Subconscious)

A summary of Psychological Approaches

Behaviourist Psychology

• Human Behaviour changed by external influences - Safety Rules or Manager control

• Worker ‘errors and violations’ controlled through ‘one best method’ (SOP’s)

• Behaviour control uses reward (Near Miss reporting) and punishment for rule violations and sometimes errors/mistakes

• Anticipates conscious thinking re SOP’s

• Popular from 1920’s to 1970’s

• Reward and Punishment still used in many HSMS systems today

Social Psychology

• Human behaviour a response to internal thinking and external influence

• People are complex with value and belief systems,

• You can ‘train out’ human errors and violations

• Use of reward and punishment should be last control option – not effective long term

• More popular theory of human behaviour from 1980’s onwards

• Behaviour based on conscious thinking

Human Error &

Violation

HSG 48

HSE - Human Factors (HSG 48)

‘Human factors refer to: environmental; organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics which influence behaviour at work in a way

which affects health and safety’.

This involves addressing human factors in:

• relevant job, individual and organisational safety;

• risk assessment;

• accident investigation;

• design and procurement;

• day-to-day operations;

• involving the workforce and their representatives;

• selecting from a range of effective control measures.

Sydney Dekker – Understanding Human Error

Safety Failure - Latent or Active

Active failures:

• have immediate consequences - made by front-line workers; operators; engineers etc.

Latent failures: -

• made by non operational colleagues; e.g. designers, leaders and managers; CEO’s

Latent influences:

• subtle safety influences

• difficult to see unless questions asked during auditing or following accident or incident investigations

On your table discuss:

1. In your organisation identify colleagues who have a latent safety role?

2. What safety training do you give these colleagues so that they understand their part in safety management?

3. How many times do ‘latent safety’ issues get recorded as a ‘near miss or safety violation’?

Latent Safety – a Summary

• poor design of plant and equipment;

• ineffective training;

• inadequate supervision;

• ineffective safety communication;

• uncertainties in roles and responsibilities

Common Sense

A definition:

“The ability to see what is in front of someone else's eyes rather than your own – that’s what would make it common”

Robert Ludlum

Common sense is a much misused term in everyday life but what might it actually mean in safety terms?

Behavioural ‘Common Sense’ in Safety

• How an organisation communicates and engages with their employee’s on safety and

• How it uses staff ideas to empower their human behaviour risk management strategies (Bartholomew 2019)

Examples:

• Using staff perception of where ‘errors and mistakes’ are most likely to occur in operations;

• Creating risk assessments and method statements that discuss and reflect on conscious and unconscious behaviours

Session Three

Safety Leadership

and Culture

Leadership and Management

A healthy organisation requires both safety managers and leaders

Safety Leadership – What safety leaders should do!

Suggestions:

1. Acts as a good role model

2. Regularly promotes safe work

practice

3. Is approachable and receptive to

colleague ideas on safety

4. Develops a team ethos where

everyone looks out for each other

5. Respond quickly to safety concerns

and feeds back on actions taken

On your tables discuss these questions?

Name 5 things you do regularly to support safety practice?

Name 5 things your CEO does regularly to support safety?

Name 5 things board members do regularly to support safety?

How do you measure success regarding the above activities?

Technical role Functional role

Coaching andmotivating role

Culture shapingrole

Leading

Supervising

Leadership Roles

Supporting

Safety Leadership – Dr Dominic Cooper

Safety Leadership Styles - Transactional

Style:

• Leader tends to talk at people

• Leader thinks people perform best when clear chain of command

• Leaders use Rewardand punishment to motivate staff

• Does not encourage innovation or change

Safety Leadership Styles - Transformational

Style About:

• Integrity and fairness

• Clear goals and high expectations

• Provides support and recognition

• Involves other’s emotions

• Gets people to look beyond their own self-interest

• Inspires people to reach for the improbable

Safety Leadership Styles - Servant leadership

Style About:

• Focus is on the needs of others before your own

• Listening and acknowledging other colleagues' views

• Building a sense of community

• Style leads to higher engagement and trust

• Increased innovation

Safety Leadership – Culture and Learning

When your staff go on safety training courses do managers always:

• Pre-brief staff regarding what they should expect to get out of the safety training?

• Debrief them after the course and find out how they will put new safety learning into practice?

• Check after 3 months how they have changed their safety practice?

If your business does not do this - it will contribute to a poor attitude towards safety and its culture!

What ‘Empowers’ Culture Change?

If you had buttons you could push to make the biggest change to safety behaviour inside your organisation.

Which of the following would you choose and why?

• Design

• Behaviour

• Culture

• Leadership

• Systems

Dominic Cooper – Safety Culture

Safety Culture – Dr Dominic Cooper

Safety Culture

“The product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies and patterns of behaviour that can determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of an organisation’s health and safety management system”.

ACSNI Human Factors Study Group, HSC (1993)

Psychological Aspects

‘How people feel’

Can be described as the ‘safety climate’ of the

organisation,

This is concerned with individual and group values, attitudes and perceptions.

Behavioural Aspects

‘What people do’

• Safety related Actions and Behaviours

• Conscious/Unconscious

Situational Aspects

‘What the organisation has to control safety’

Policies, procedures, regulation organisational

structures, and the management systems

Safety Culture Concepts

Emerging Culture

Little safety

leadership

Production always

prioritised over

safety

Little workforce

Involvement

Little proactive

safety practice

Accidents seen as

part of the job

Workers blamed

for Accidents

Generic or basic

RAMS

Behavioural Safety:

• Not ready for any

Implementation

Managing Culture

Some safety

leadership

Production often

prioritised over

safety

Some workforce

involvement

Staff disciplined for

safety breaches

Monitoring focus is

reactive indicators

Workers sometimes

blamed for

accidents

Some consultation

on RAMS

Behavioural Safety:

• Start planning

implementation

Involving Culture

Essentials of safety

leadership in place

Production still

sometimes prioritised

over safety

Some effective

workforce

involvement

Compliance by

supervisory control

Some monitoring on

accidents and N/M

Some root cause

analysis (RCA) of

accidents

Workers asked to

contribute to RAMS

Behavioural Safety:

• Ready for basic

implementation

Cooperating Culture

Safety leadership

ongoing and visible

Safety always more

important than

Production

Proactive workforce

safety involvement

Safety monitoring on

leading and lagging

indicators

Root Cause Analysis

(RCA) conducted on

reported accidents

& incidents - linked

to Organisational;

Job & Personal,

factors

RAMS linked to

Behavioural Safety

Behavioural Safety:

• Consider complex

implementation

Continuous

Improvement Culture

Safety leadership is

visible - a value for all

Safe production is

always top priority

Proactive safety

learning applied daily

by teams and staff

Safety performance

inherently linked to

Business KPI’s

Latent and Active

safety understood at

all levels

Accidents and

Incidents seen as

system flaws

Behavioural Safety is

an integral part of

RAMS

Behavioural Safety:

• Behavioural Systems

Operating effectively

Safety Culture Assessment

Developed from a model created by HSL

Assessing and changing a Safety Culture

Exercise:

• On your table discuss the type of safety culture that this photo suggests?

• Identify and record what steps you would take to change this culture?

The perception

The message

Why is perception the most important issue?

BehaviourWhat people do or believe

they should do!

Safety Culture?

Session Four PM

Behavioural

Safety Targets

Identifying Behavioural Safety Targets

Watch the excerpt from ‘Safety Differently’ and then discuss the following questions:

• In your current safety plan how much of this is devised by the production staff?

• If you could only target three behavioural safety issues in your business what would they be?

• Could you reduced your overall annual safety targets to a bullseye sticker size that you can strongly promote?

Leadership Performance Indicators – Dominic Cooper

Job:• Tasks• Workload • Controls• Procedures• Displays

Individual:• Competence• Safety Attitude• Personality• Skills• Risk Perception

Organisation:• Leadership• Culture• Work Patterns• Communication• Resources

Other Factors

• Business Values

• Legal Liability

• Reputational Damage

Targetting Behavioural Change

To make behavioural safety changes you first have to recognise what you can and cannot do

What will you agree to do and when?

In Table Groups discuss:

1. What extra could you do on a regular basis to support behavioural safety management in your business?

2. How will you undertake these actions e.g. who do you need to work with?

3. What monitoring will you put in place to check whether these actions are being done?

Session Five

Influencing Human Behaviour in your

Business

ABC - Model of Behaviour Modification

Activators: (Antecedents)

• events that come before behaviour and influence behaviour to occur (manager asks colleague to get backlog of boxes moved by end of day)

Consequences:

• whatever happens (something or nothing) to the colleague which always follows the behaviour (colleague injures back rushing - uses poor lifting technique)

Behaviour:

• any action that you can see someone doing or hear them saying (colleague rushes to get boxes moved)

A

Continuous Feedback Needed

(Reinforcement)

B

C

ABC – Behaviour Analysis - Negative Culture

Unsafe BehaviourFail to Wear Hearing Protection

Activators (influences) Behaviour Consequences (If caught)

• Colleagues take shortcuts through hearing protection area without ear defenders

• Always busy at work

• Everybody does it - so can I

• I’m only in there a short time

• Ear defenders kept in locker

Staff regularly take short cut through high noise areas of warehouse

• In breach of company

procedures but

• Managers don’t usually take any notice

• I get to lunch quicker

• Everybody does it

• Minimal likelihood of disciplinary action

ABC Behaviour Analysis - Positive Culture

Safe BehaviourDamaged rung on ladder identified

Activator (Influence) Behaviour Consequences (If caught)

• Aware that damaged rung is unsafe and could result in injury

• Staff feel empowered to stop the job if unsafe -encouraged by manager to be safe

• I always want to get the job done safely

• Don’t use ladder with damaged rung

• Easy procedure to get replacement

• Colleagues know business will always spend money to keep staff safe

• The job takes longer but done safely

• Reduced risk of incidents/accidents for self and others

• Complies with procedures & legal duties

• Reinforces ‘Safety’ as a value for business/staff

ABC - Positives in Practice

• On your table discuss what questions you might use to change the attitude to danger for these scaffolding employees?

• If you were an external consultant where would you target your safety interventions in this business?

Can Behaviour Change be fun?

Nudge Theory – Working with the Unconscious

• Nudge theory has been around for some

time and is now being applied to safety

practice.

• A successful nudge could be anything that

influences a desired behaviour change,

e.g. to indicate hazards

• Safety nudges link to the science of signs

and symbols (Semiotics) - how visual and

environmental issues nudge us

subconsciously into doing the right thing

• An example would the sign opposite

placed on every ladder on a site

Safety Nudges

Nudges can be used in workplaces to:

• make the safest choice the default choice

• prompt safe practice and actions

• encourage workers to assess, use and request the correct resources

• reduce complacency

• encourage participation in safety programmes and initiatives

• increase hazard awareness

Safety nudges have the potential to address both Conscious and Subconscious behaviours such as errors and violations;

Using Nudge principles

1. What approach you would take to influence the poor manual handling practice opposite?

2. Where do nudge principles fit in the ‘Hierarchy of Risk Control’?

Human Factors

and Safety

Coaching

Coaching Spectrum

Downey, M. (1999), Effective Coaching, Orion Business Books

Coaching (Servant)

Telling (Transactional)

A good coach moves up and down the continuum as necessary

Coaching - Question Framework

Competency - assess current level of

safety performance

Outcomes - set safety outcomes for

improvement

Action - agree safety tactics and

initiate action

Checking - give safety feedback &

make sense of the planned changes

Competency

Determine what people are currently doing or have tried

Think about one additional

question?

What other ways have you tried so far?

How can we do this task safely?

Servant Leadership

Outcomes

Agree outcomes or goals for the person or team

What will safe practice look like in

this instance?

How will we all know we are safe?

How important is safety for you?

Think about one additional question?

Servant Leadership

Action

Look for opportunities to or create situations to apply this approach

To leaders:What can you do for the business to keep

everyone safe?

To managers:What do you do daily

to help make your team safer?

Servant Leadership

Checking

Check progress against outcomes, make sense of what has been learnt, encourage feedback, reset outcomes

Do we need this current

procedure?

What isn’t working well in safety terms?

What extra equipment

would help?

How are you getting on with

this task?

Influencing (Cialdini)

Learning Feedback Process: (AA)

Observe a ‘behaviour’

If they followed the SOP how did that work?

What would they change in the SOP if they had the choice?

How does their team usually approach safety when doing tasks task?

What other/different equipment would help them with safer practice?

Positive message - Encourage the use of safe practice at all times.

Telling Feedback Process: (AC)

x Observe a ‘behaviour’

x Tell the person what you saw

x Tell them whether they followed rules (SOP) or not

x Tell them how to change their safety practice and what to do better next time

x Thank them for undertaking the observation and leave them with positive message

Safety Coaching – ‘Learning’ not ‘Telling’

Session Six

Behavioural factors

when Investigating

Accidents

Performance Influencing Factors - HSE

On your table we have now put some copies of Performance Influencing factors as identified by the HSE in HSG 48.

1. Discuss which of these are the most important of these in your business?

2. Which of these do you ask your accident investigators to focus on during their investigations?

Accident Hindsight Bias – Sydney Dekker

Safety

Choices

My Safety

Choices

Outcome 1 -

Safety

Outcome 2 -

Minor

Outcome 3 -

Disaster

Investigator

Option 1

How stupid!

Why did they

do that?

Safety

Choices

Safety

Choices

Safety

Choices

Investigator

Option 2

What

contributed

to this

Accident?

What can we

learn?

Investigating Accidents – Human Factors

Investigating accidents can be like looking for puzzle pieces.

Where do you start?

When investigating human behaviour you need to think about what the person saw/was thinking

before things went wrong?

Accident Investigation & Human Behaviour

People Control

Behavioural

Place Control

Technical

Does your HSMS spend enough time investigating why human safety controls failed?

Why things go wrong?

Safe Person Concept - (Predictable Risk)

Provide PPE

Relevant

Training

Information

on hazards

Clear Instructions

Method Statement

Supervision

and Support

Create Safe

Systems of

Work

Specialist

Equipment

Effective Staff

Selection

Maintains safety

vigilance for self and

colleagues

Recognises own

abilities and

limitations - asks for

help

Competent to

perform tasks

assigned

Thinks like an effective

team member

Self-disciplined - works

within agreed SSOW but

analyses and challenges

when needed

Maintains safety whilst

adapting to changing

circumstances

Safe Person Concept – (Unpredictable Risk)

Work design & context

SafetyLeadership

Supervision / Coaching

Behaviour Change

Performance Management

Maximising Human Reliability

Conclusion:

• We have covered a great deal of ground today looking at how individuals think and behave in the context of different safety cultures and leadership styles

• The next stage is yours?

• If you have any questions then please think of these and we will try to answer them in the final Q & A part of the session