I am seeing a lot of disinformation regarding Behavior Based Safety, and of course, those dis’ing BBS have the latest and greatest approach to fix all your safety problems. But don’t be fooled. BBS is a tool in our safety toolbox and like any tool in the hands of UNTRAINED personnel, it can be misused and even abused. It is not the tool’s fault, it usually comes back to a management system failure.
Most workplaces are NOT ready for BBS. This is my opinion after 30 years of designing, implementing, and managing BBS processes. Most of the processes I grew up using were the most popular brands (Geller and Krause), but lately, I have been designing some very specific BBS processes for clients. Still, it is fundamentally the same process but with a very focused observation process.
What I typically see is a business that struggles to meet OSHA/code compliance attempting to shift the focus to the worker’s behavior(s) BEFORE we have OUR house in order. And this can be DISASTROUS!
But there will come a time when we are doing our annual data review, and we realize that the incidents we are having are outside our traditional safety programs, such as LOTO, machine guarding, PIT, etc. AND, the majority of those incidents/injuries can not be prevented through the typical OSH model (written program, training, auditing, etc.). So we begin to wonder, how do I/We collectively manage these risks outside of our safety program? The answer: a BBSP.
But if we are still having compliance issues on a regular basis and those issues are the leading causes of our events/injuries, we have to MAXIMIZE our SMS to gain control over these fundamental risks BEFORE we think “we can fix the worker(s)”. In other words, if your machinery is not properly guarded and you’re having amputations, BBS is NOT your solution.
Lastly, BBS may not even be the solution after we have properly guarded our machinery AND we find workers taking the guards off the machines. Understanding WHY they are doing this unsafe behavior is MORE CRITICAL to developing the solution than simply saying, “It’s an unsafe act, and we need BBS.” Nothing could be further from the truth if the workers are removing the guards because the production demands outweigh the safety demands and management is turning a blind eye to the behavior AND they do not recognize their influence on the employee’s decision-making. BBS was NEVER intended to correct LATENT ORGANIZATIONAL FAILURES such as this. BBS is designed to manage the last 5% of behaviors occurring well outside our traditional OSH approach to safety.
I hope this makes sense. If you’re weighing the idea of implementing a BBS, reach out, and we can discuss it. Or ask questions in the group, as I know there are hundreds of us here who have managed BBSPs and can offer insights.
