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reducing workplace accidents Behavioural Safety www.bsms-inc.com

reducing workplace accidents - behavioural-safety.com - BBS ebook.pdf · safety observation tours. Subsequently recorded in PEER® software, the build-up of potential SIF’s is monitored

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reducing workplace accidentsBehavioural Safety

www.bsms-inc.com

Behavioural safety programmes can help toprevent work related accidents and diseases,which are expensive for companies. Research

has shown that up to 80% of work related accidentsare caused by employees’ behaviour.1 Behaviouralsafety is about identifying bad habits that couldcause accidents or lead to ill health and reinforcinggood habits. It’s important not to confuse thisapproach with inspections, which are looking forunsafe conditions. Safe behaviour is regarded as acritical work related skill so unsafe behaviours canact as an early warning system for accidents andincidents. If we measure these behaviours, thisprovides information we can use proactively toimprove workplace safety and health.

What do organisations need to do beforeintroducing a behavioural safety programme?If a behavioural safety programme is to be effectiveit must be implemented well. There are severalstages to follow for a successful implementation. Thefirst is to assess whether the company is readyculturally for such a programme. For example isthere management commitment to the idea, doesthe company have a good internal communicationstrategy and is there a ‘fair blame’ culture? A surveycould be carried out before the programme starts tomeasure the safety climate.2

It is essential to have support from both themanagement and work force. The best way to gain

Excellence in workplace safety and health

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Behavioural safety is a key part of a business’s journey towards ensuring excellence in workplace safety and health. Here Jill Joyce, Senior Policy & Research Adviser at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) explains the process thatcompanies can take…

EDITORIAL FEATURE

support from employees is to involve them in theprogramme. A steering group needs to be set up tooversee the programme and it is important that thisis representative of the whole workforce.

The next step is to train the observers how to identifycritical safety behaviours, what to record and how toprovide feedback. It’s important that everyone isusing the same criteria to judge behaviours. It isusual to compile a checklist of critical behaviours.These can be based on analysis of previous accidentsor incidents. Near misses are particularly importantto consider as they may give an indication ofbehaviours that could have led to accidents. Whenthe checklist is ready, it is useful to establish a baseline by conducting initial observations and noting thecurrent level of safe behaviours. This enables futureprogress on the programme to be measured. 3, 4

Then there follows a continuous loop of observation,feedback and review and if necessary training. It’simportant that feedback is phrased positively so thatsafe behaviours are reinforced. For example,someone who is acting safely would be praised, butsomeone who was not would be told how they couldchange their behaviour without apportioning blameto them. The data from the observation process canbe used to examine trends and identify areas forimprovement. Participative goals that employeeshelp to set are more effective.5 Rewards can be givenfor meeting safe working goals, for example at theLondon Olympic Park, these ranged from verbalpraise to monetary rewards, vouchers, knock offearly schemes, T shirts and fleeces etc.6

Visible leadership is importantManagers need to show commitment to the processand can do so by allowing observers time to conducttheir observations and encouraging employees toreport problems with safety and health. They shouldpraise individuals they see working safely and ensurethere are resources available if any corrective actionsare necessary.

It’s also important to understand why employeesmight behave unsafely. For example, do work

deadlines mean that they have to cut corners (forexample not using a mask because it isuncomfortable and a job will not take long to do)? Do employees understand the risks associated witha particular task or are there ergonomic factorsthat prevent them behaving safely? At the LondonOlympic Park construction site, employees handedout yellow and red cards to highlight unsafebehaviour. These were followed up with a discussionwith the employees concerned to establish why theyacted unsafely.

Behaviour based approaches work best when thephysical environment and plant are well maintainedand procedures are in place. The benefits ofintroducing a behavioural safety programme withinan organisation is the opportunity it provides for thewhole workforce to co-operate together proactivelyto continuously improve safety and health.

References1 Pigeon T (1991) Safety culture and risk management in

organisations. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology. Volume

22 pp 129-1402 http://www.hsl.gov.uk/products/safety-climate-tool.aspx3 Cooper M.D. (2009) Behavioural Safety Interventions – A

review of process design factors. Professional Safety February

2009, 36.4 Looking for higher standards – behavioural safety IOSH

Wigston. 2013 www.iosh.co.uk/behavioural5 Locke E.A., Latham G.P. (2002) Building a practically useful

theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 3 year odyssey.

American Psychologist 57 (9) 705-7176 Sudden C et al (2012) Safety culture on the Olympic Park.

http://learninglegacy.independent.gov.uk/publications/safety

-culture-on-the-olympic-park.php

Jill JoyceSenior Policy & Research AdviserInstitution of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH)www.iosh.co.uk

3EDITORIAL FEATURE

by ‘unwanted’ behaviours, or those triggered by aninteraction between poor controls, hazards, andbehaviours.

Defined as an ‘unexpected and unwanted event’, anincident refers to property damage, a quality problem,a personal injury, or a catastrophe.

Incident pyramids (shown opposite), illustrate thatmost incidents have a relatively mild impact, andthat critical impacts (i.e. catastrophic) are relativelyinfrequent events. It is a matter of chance, however,whether a mild impact event may have been moreserious, as the severity of the outcome cannot becontrolled in the same way as the inputs.

Preventative opportunities arise, therefore, fromcontrolling unwanted behaviours, eliminating hazards,and tightening management controls at the base ofthe pyramid. Behavioural safety helps to identify theissues in all of these areas. Simultaneously focusingon all of these, significantly reduces the possibilityof a critical impact event, while greatly improvingperformance and efficiencies.

People’s behavioural choices account for around 56%of all potential serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs),with poor management controls (i.e. job planning),and physical hazards accounting for the remainder.

Dominic Cooper, PhD CFIOSH CPsychol

Introduction to Behavioural Safety

What is a 12% productivity increase worthto your company, in addition to 30%reductions in insurance premiums, around30-70% reductions in undesired incidents,and significantly reduced operating costsfor your company?

Behavioural SafetyThese proven, real world results have been achievedwith behavioural safety approaches over the pastfive decades in a wide variety of industrial andcommercial sectors.

Beginning in the USA in the mid-1970’s, behaviouralsafety came to Europe in the late 1980’s, early 1990’swhen the British Health and Safety Executive (HSE)funded two construction research projects at UMISTwith a team including Professor Dominic Cooper ofBSMS, Dr Tim Marsh, Robin Phillips and others: the firstsought to establish how to optimise behavioural safetyfor the European Culture, while the second focused onindustry applications. Successfully improving safetybehaviour, both projects also demonstrated theimportance of people’s commitment to the process.

Equally applicable to both quality and productivity,the purpose of behavioural safety is to reduce thenumber of unwanted incidents caused either bypoor management controls, and/or hazards presentin the working environment: those triggered solely

4

Over each of the past 30 years, UK incident datareveals a stable experience average of 20,000 actualSIF’s, while less serious reportable injuries droppedfrom 180,000 to 60,000 per year. This shows thatexisting risk control strategies are not reducing veryserious injuries at the same rate as less severeinjuries, and that something new is required and/orexisting strategies need tightening.

87% of all potential SIF’s can be observed duringsafety leadership ‘walk-rounds’ and behaviouralsafety observation tours. Subsequently recorded in

PEER® software, the build-up of potential SIF’s ismonitored so that any underlying contributors canquickly be identified and addressed.

Recognising that safety is a social activity, where oneperson’s behaviour can affect many, behaviouralsafety approaches systematically address behaviouralchoices, management controls and physical hazardsin a proactive and planned manner. Targeting people’sbehaviour at all organisational levels to addressthese, helps to create a safety partnership betweenmanagement and employees.

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Behavioural Safety LeadershipSafety leadership can positively impact people’ssafety behaviour by up to 86%, and reduce incidentsby around 35%. Leaders who set their people up forsuccess, facilitate their follower’s needs, and showthey care, are very successful at positively impactingperformance.

Behavioural safety leadership affords managementthe opportunities to be seen doing so. There is nosubstitute for seeing operations with your own eyes,and helping people maximise their performance.By conducting regular, twice weekly walk-roundsto observe people’s behaviour and hold safetyconversations, managers can demonstrate care andconcern for their people’s well-being, create asupportive environment, engage people in the safetyimprovement effort, facilitate hazard reduction, andmake informed decisions to stop small problemissues escalating into major incidents; all of whichhelps to reduce production barriers.

Many behavioural safety leadership processes useobservation cards that contain pre-defined categoriesof activity (e.g. access and egress, mechanical liftingoperations, body positioning, etc.,). Some also includediscussion categories identifying underlying contrib -utors (e.g. poor job planning, insufficient manpower,poor communications, ineffective leadership, etc.,).Categorisation is useful, as it provides guidance on the kind of safety issues that a company canexperience.

Before embarking on regular observation tours,managers are trained to identify permanent andtemporary hazards related to their industry and thevarious types of safety behaviour to observe duringtheir walk rounds. Training in communication andcoaching skills also helps them to positively influencebehaviour change, and win over people’s hearts andminds to the safety cause.

Trained managers then conduct regular safety

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Behavioral Choices

Failures in Task Planning

Competency

Leadership

Job Pressures

Manpower levels

Poor Work Environment

Support

Communications

Resources

Job Planning

Standards

Job Methods

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3

11

322

2

4

3

1

Cumulative breakdown of potential life-threatening SIF’s by underlying issues

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observations, and have safety conversations withpeople during their normal daily duties twice a weekor so. This presents every manager with regularopportunities to positively reinforce safe behaviour,or coach those behaving unsafely, while alsodiscussing the underlying reasons for an unwantedbehaviour. Cumulatively, this constant focus ofattention on safety behaviour leads to higher levelsof safe behaviour, and dramatic reductions in alltypes of incidents.

The greater the number of safety leadershipobservations, the greater the impact as thepotentials for a SIF are reduced.

With the PEER® process, no checklists are carriedduring these tours, so people do not feel intimidatedin any way. However, taking advantage of technology,after the interaction is complete, the results of theobservations and discussions are recorded in theaccompanying PEER® software.

The value of the PEER® behavioural safety leadershipprocess is the speed of execution, as training isminimal (half-day classroom, half-day site practice),and there is a rapid impact on incident rates – oneEuropean construction project with an 800 personworkforce achieved zero incidents within two weeks!

With any behavioural process, it is extremelyimportant to regularly analyse the observationdata to highlight strengths and areas of opportunity.This data is used to facilitate any corrective andpreventative actions, as well as to track progress.

For example, the results can help to refocus each safetyleader’s ongoing observations and conversationson behaviours shown to be problematic. Similarly,they can be used to highlight and address thoseunderlying contributors shown to be directingpeople’s unsafe behaviours. Eliminating just one ofthese can significantly reduce the number ofpotential SIFs.

Widely disseminating feedback about the observationresults takes place via managerial meetings, toolboxtalks, posters, newsletters, etc.

Behavioural Safety for EmployeesOver the past 5 decades, employee-driven behaviouralsafety processes have a remarkable track record ofreducing injuries, resulting in substantial economicbenefits of around £1m per 100 workers per year.

IDEAL behavioural safety processes all share thefollowing components:

Identify unwanted behaviours.

Develop observation checklists targeting unwantedbehaviours.

Educate everyone by briefing everyone; Trainprocess facilitators, champions, & observers.

Assess & monitor actual behaviour via regularobservations.

Limitless feedback provided to all – verbal, graphicaland written.

In practice, two basic behavioural safety processesexist: those focused on the behaviours of everyonein a workgroup, and those targeting individuals usinga one-on-one, peer-to-peer approach. Regardless ofapproach, all facility personnel should be informedabout the process, what it means to them, and howit will operate, before proceeding to establish buy-inand support.

“The value of the PEER®behavioural safetyleadership process is thespeed of execution, astraining is minimal…”

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Workgroup Focused ApproachesRecognising that safety is a social activity, theworkgroup approach harnesses existing socialdynamics to re-set the group’s safety norms.

To identify problem behaviours, trained project teamsexamine their facility’s recorded incident history.Ideally, specific unwanted behaviours of all facilitypersonnel are identified, including any undesiredsafety leadership behaviours. This includes thebehaviour of people directly impacting the safety ofoperations (e.g. purchasing and supply, finance,etc.,); the operational safety behaviours of front-lineworkers (e.g. filling product tanks); and, the behavioursof those responsible for corrective actions, managementof change procedures, etc., to ensure these systemsfunction as intended.

Once completed, the triggers (e.g. unavailableequipment) driving any unwanted behaviour(s)(e.g. using improvised tools), and what factors aremaintaining them (e.g. getting the job done to meetdeadlines), are identified so appropriate correctiveactions can be taken.

Worded positively so they focus solely on the safeway to do work, a maximum of 20 safety behavioursare placed on checklists for each workgroup ordepartment. Some checklists can be used acrossdifferent shifts or locations where people undertakethe same activities. Before use, drafts are approvedby those who will be observed to obtain theiragreement on the behaviours.

One or more trained workgroup observers monitorand record their colleague’s behaviour for 10-20minutes every single working day. Verbal feedback isimmediately provided to the observed. Each day’sobservation is entered into a database to be collated,so results for the entire week can be printed anddiscussed at weekly workgroup meetings (e.g. Shiftmeetings, Toolbox Talks). The first one or two weeksobservations are used to calculate a performancebaseline for each workgroup, so they can use it toset an improvement target, and compare theirperformance over a period of time (usually 5-6months).

To refresh the process and avoid observer fatigue,colleagues rotate into that role every so often; this way, everyone eventually becomes an observer.Each observer rotation triggers an update of theobservation checklists to ensure a continuing focuson relevant safety behaviours. Trained project teams(a project champion who is a senior site manager,and an employee facilitator) are required to overseethe entire process and help drive and guide it tosuccess.

Although, more complicated to set-up than a singleperson approach, the workgroup approach is knownto triple the impact on incident rates. For example,BSMS used this approach to help one constructionproject achieve 121 million man-hours workedwithout a lost-time injury (out of 240 million hours)with 47,000 workers (at peak) from 64 differentnationalities.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

0.160.14

0.12

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0

Lost Time Incident Rate

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Peer-to-Peer Focused ApproachFocused on individuals, a single person approachuses peer-to-peer, one-on-one interactions, similarto the PEER® process described previously forbehavioural safety leadership.

Employee-driven, the process is run by voluntarymembers of a part-time Steering Committee thatmeets once a month to collate and aggregateobservations, and provides feedback to the sitemanagement team. They also post this on noticeboards for general consumption.

The Steering Committee is usually comprised of arepresentative from each department in a facility,with most being employees, as well as one or twomanagers who can provide guidance, and thenecessary access to follow-up resources.

Trained observers make use of observation cards

that contain generic categories of activity (e.g.personal protective equipment, potential injurycauses, tools & equipment, environmental, healthprocedures, & orderliness, etc.,). Definitions for thespecific activities within each category are usuallycontained in separate documentation to provideguidance to observers. The back of the card is oftenused to record the actual unsafe act or conditionobserved, what corrective action was taken by theobserver, and what improvement was noted.

Comprising 10% of the workforce or more, trainedobservers usually complete monthly or quarterlyquotas of observations. Each time they observe, theyask the individual for permission to do so, while theydo their job. The observation usually takes anywherebetween 10-30 minutes. Verbal feedback is givenimmediately after the observation, with theinteraction recorded on the card and handed in to asteering committee member for data entry.

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Performance IndicatorsPerformance indicators are used in the short-termas a ‘health check’ on the status of the process. Long-term trends are evaluated so the process can beadapted as necessary. Typical behavioural safetyindicators include:

Behaviour Change Indicators• Percent Safety Leadership• Percent Safe Behaviours• Reinforcement Ratio

Process Indicators• Observation Rate • Participation Rate • Observation Quality• Visible Ongoing Support

Follow-up Indicators• The number of close-calls reported • The Corrective Action Rate

If all trend positively, there should be associatedincident rate reductions.

0

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70

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100 0.35

0.30

0.25

0.20

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00Jul-06 Aug-06 Sep-06

% Safe% Safe TRIR Linear (% Safe) Linear (TRIR)

TRIR

Oct-06

Man hours since last LTI = 7,729,552

Nov-06 Dec-06 Jan-07 Feb-07 Mar-07

Pre-Behavioural Safety

Post-Behavioural Safety

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B-Safe®The Award Winning

Behavioural Safety Processwww.bsms-inc.com

Conclusion Based on the philosophy of safe production is thenumber one priority,well-designed and well-executedbehavioural safety processes fully engage bothmanagement and employees, within a mutuallytrusting and supportive atmosphere, to improvesafety.

A proven method, behavioural safety is an effectiveway of positively impacting safety behaviour, andreducing or eliminating incidents. Focused onunwanted behaviours with the potential to causeserious injuries and fatalities, behavioural safetyprocesses link the root causes of incidents to theirprecursor behaviours; this includes behaviours thathave the potential to cause process safety incidents,as well as personal injury incidents.

Organisations good at managing safety also tend tomanage operations well – in other words, operationaland safety excellence go hand-in-hand.

Behavioural safety processes are known to providea Return on Investment of around £1m per 100workers, per year, from incident reductions. Thesecost-benefits arise from identifying and eliminatingsystem faults, addressing physical hazards and risks,and reducing production bottlenecks.

Strong evidence of positive spill-over effects alsoshows productivity improvements of around 12%,and 30% reductions in insurance premiums andoperating costs.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Dominic Cooper PhD CFIOSH CPsychol

A Chartered Fellow of IOSH, Dominic Cooper PhD, is co-founder and CEO of BSMS Inc., a global safety consultingfirm based in Franklin, IN, USA. He has consulted on 5continents, in 25 industrial sectors, for almost 3 decades.

A licensed I/O psychologist and registered safety professional,Cooper consults with senior executives on safety leadership,safety culture and behaviour change.

An award-winning author and past professor of safety,and professor of I/O psychology at Indiana University,Bloomington, Dominic has authored many books, articlesand scientific research papers on safety culture, behaviouralsafety and leadership.

Based on an examination of process safety disastersoccurring over the past three decades, his latestpublication, ‘Strategic Safety Culture Roadmap’ waspublished in 2013.

11

Order Your CopyBehavioural Safety:

A Framework for Successwww.bsms-inc.com

www.bsms-inc.com

“Behavioural safety processesare known to provide a Returnon Investment of around £1mper 100 workers, per year, fromincident reductions.”

US e-mail: [email protected]

EU e-mail: dominic.cooper.nordnet.fr