After the initial kick-off, employees continue to participate in training and in conducting safety observations with their work groups. This involvement in the design process results in a high level of employee ownership and support. Quality Safety Edge creates employee ownership working with a team of employees to plan and implement the behavior-based safety process. Learn more here (INSERT LINK with text “Visible Safety Leadership) How does behavior-based safety involve employees? Quality Safety Edge also offers safety leadership programs to help companies improve their readiness for behavior-based safety. Second, executive management needs to ensure that the organization aggressively addresses physical hazards and unsafe working conditions. The result is a managerial environment of trust that will help maximize the acceptance of behavior-based safety. First, ensure that managers and supervisors are providing effective leadership by developing working relationships with employees that foster open dialogue and communication. If you would like more information on readiness assessments, click here (INSERT LINK with text “BBS Readiness Assessments”) What can we do to get ready for behavior-based safety?Ĭompanies can do two things to help pave the way for a behavior-based safety process. In general, readiness requires three things: 1) employees must believe that management is committed to safety 2) management demonstrates this commitment by ensuring that facilities are properly designed and maintained and 3) employees are willing to work with management to minimize the risk of injury. Readiness is a complex issue that must be assessed based on the culture of the client organization. How does a company know if it is ready for behavior-based safety? Behavior-based safety now has a proven record of accomplishment in numerous industries including manufacturing, food processing, chemical plants, office environments, oil field operations, hospitals, healthcare, isolated field service operations, delivery fleets, and construction. Today, behavior-based safety has been widely accepted as an important element of an organization’s total health, safety, and environmental effort. Industrial organizations such as Citgo, Chevron, and Tenneco Gas Pipeline that were striving for a reputation as innovators in the field of safety were among the first to use behavioral safety. Many organizations see a return on their investment in as little as twelve months. The cost depends on the size and complexity of the client organization and the level of support required. How much does behavior-based safety typically cost and what is the payback? As a result, behavior-based safety creates a much higher and more consistent level of feedback supporting safe workplace practices as compared with a typical STOP observation process. It typically involves employees in analyzing data from safety observations to develop action plans for continuous improvement. In addition, behavior-based safety is a more positive process. Behavior-based safety is designed and managed by employees resulting in a truly high levels of active employee involvement at all levels of the organization. How is this different from DuPont’s STOP process?ĭuPont’s Safety Training Observation Process (STOP) is a management-driven process that involves layered safety audits. Our results are consistent with the published studies. (For a recent review of the empirical work, see “Does Behavior Based Safety Work?” by Beth Sulzer-Azaroff and John Austin in Professional Safety, August, 2000, pp. Research shows that behavior-based safety processes typically result in improvements of approximately 30% within a range from 20% to 50%. Employee teams analyze information gained from observations to develop action plans that remove obstacles to safe practices and promote continuous improvement in safety. These practices are then compiled into a checklist(s) that employees use to conduct observations of their peers and provide positive feedback on safe practices to increase the consistency of safe habits in the organization. It initially involves identifying practices critical to reducing the risk of injury. Behavior-based safety is a method to actively engage employees in promoting safety improvement in the workplace.
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