Consider how different your workplace would be if you could see ahead to prevent safety hazards with greater speed and precision. Safety on the job is always the top priority, so it’s something everyone in the company needs to take seriously. One valuable tool that many companies have adopted is the “Behavior Based Safety Program” or BBSP. These programs help identify safety hazards and unsafe behaviors and then train workers on how to develop safer practices while also keeping their eyes open to other hazards and alerting everyone. Again, the goal for any Behavior Based Safety Program is avoiding hazards before anyone gets hurt. Learn how to digitally implement a Behavior Based Safety Program to identify and prevent hazards to keep workers safe.
What is a Behavior Based Safety Program?
A well-designed Behavior Based Safety Program includes a safety checklist developed to examine employee behaviors. Next, it involves a safety-trained employee recording observations using that checklist. Safety leaders then provide feedback for improvement. The key issue for a BBSP is that it should not be punitive, but encouraging and positive. The employees themselves should be incentivized to be part of the solution, and not feel like they’re being scrutinized. After all, their safety is at stake, and should feel invested in the process. In fact, Behavior Based Safety Program studies have shown a marked decrease in accidents as a result of BBSPs.
Unfortunately, not all Behavior Based Safety Programs work: 70 percent of them fail, leading to a loss of resources used to implement them, as well as a lack of critical safety improvements. Some particular problems causing BBSPs to go under include not using technology to automate observations. Another big issue that trips these efforts is making the feedback negative instead of positive. A clear line has to be drawn between replacing unsafe behaviors with safe behaviors, and sometimes those lines are not clear. Behavior change takes time, and the entire company culture has to be focused on it, in a positive way. Furthermore, leadership itself is often a barrier, as they sometimes aren’t held as accountable as other workers. So, what should be considered to make a Behavior Based Safety Program successful?
Things to Consider when Implementing a Behavior Based Safety Program
Implementing a Behavior Based Safety Program is important for any workplace that has safety risks. This means every workplace, but especially in manufacturing. These are some aspects leadership will need to consider as they choose a BBSP for their workplace:
1. Will Employees at All Levels Be Held Accountable?
The answer to this question should always be yes. Every worker and every leader, on every level, should be involved and accountable for their safety behavior. Leaders themselves really have to set the tone for safety for the workers they supervise, or mixed messages, low morale and accidents can proliferate. So, first ask how leadership is being held accountable under the system, and good leaders will be able to encourage their workers to step up to safety measures as well.
2. Should it be Implemented Digitally?
Any good Behavior Based Safety Program will collect and analyze data in order to gain insight for improvements in safety across the company. But collecting this information on hundreds or thousands of sheets of paper reports is expensive, slow and will cause delays in safety improvements. It’s important, now that the digital transformation tools are available, that companies set Connected Workers in the center, with tools to collect immediate, real-time, digital safety data from observations, mobile devices and sensors. Using automated technologies to capture data can collect leading indicators rapidly, so safety hazards can be detected quickly and prevented before they cause risks.
3. Is the Program Engaging?
Very few people are excited about meetings, training classes or webinars. The other problem with classic training exercises is that half of the information given is likely to be forgotten once the session is over. And yet, this is critical information. What will make it more engaging and immediate? A Connected Worker Platform like Anvl provides in-the-moment training that engages workers through digital solutions and gamification, making safety more of a quest than a chore.
Implement a Digital Behavior Based Safety Program with Anvl
Anvl can help leadership bring the best of your Behavior Based Safety Program to fruition by helping you bypass the mistakes that have caused others to fail. Anvl’s mobile application puts real-time data to work for you and your workers, in an engaging format that helps replace outdated paper forms and ad hoc processes. Click here to see Anvl in action and be sure to contact our safety experts for guidance today.
