The primary objective of the Steering Committee is to ensure the integrity of the organization’s behavioral safety process. In support of this objective, the Steering Committee performs two distinctly different types of activities. Members use observation data to develop strategies to improve safety and use data about the process to enhance the process functioning. This workshop describes both of these responsibilities and provides participants with hands-on exercises showing how to establish priorities for safety and process improvement.

Design

Data analysis begins, of course, during the design phase with decisions about what data to gather and how. One of the most important features of a Behavioral Safety process is its simplicity so the team carefully targets data collection and analysis activities. Collect only the information needed and only analyze it as much as necessary to make planning decisions. Complexity bogs down the process and burns out your team. The team also weighs the need for data with the need for confidentiality and anonymity. For example, it might be nice to know the time of the observation, but employees may be concerned that observation data will be used against them and time of observation would allow the observed employee to be identified in an anonymous process. The principle in deciding what to measure is to start with the end in mind and keep it very focused and very simple.

Review

Data is reviewed as frequently as possible and at least every other week. One of the defining principles of the behavioral approach is that it is data driven, that means that decisions are constantly evaluated and adjusted based on the data. The team chooses a strategy to improve safety or the process, implements it, and observes the result as it is revealed in the data. If their plan is effective, they add that approach to their tool kit for future use. If the results are not what they hoped, then they adjust as soon as possible rather than wasting resources on an ineffective strategy. The process will also lose credibility with the workforce and management if unsuccessful tactics are allowed to continue.

Process Goal and Measures

Measurement is driven by the goals of the process. A safety process usually has one ultimate goal – to decrease the number of injuries. Although the process may accomplish many other desirable changes, such as decreasing environmental incidents, increasing productivity, increasing communication, or improving relationships, it is not successful if injuries do not decrease. Identifying the goal and defining success before investing in any new process will increase the probability of an effective and efficient effort.

Number of Injuries

If the company identifies injury reduction as the ultimate goal of the process, then one of the design issues will be a definition, baseline, and intermediary targets. The company designs, implements, and monitors a simple tracking system. This is frequently the area where those involved in Behavioral Safety have the least input but, if the company is to decide the success or the failure of the process based on these data, then the these measures must be carefully determined. For example, if behavioral safety is to be implemented in one area within a plant, injury data for only that area is relevant. Define “injury” so that you get general agreement. In general, steer clear of using the OSHA definitions because they have little face validity.

In addition, this is the point at which to install a near miss reporting system that works. A near miss reporting system works if there are 100 reports for every medical attention incident. That usually means simple and anonymous. The same starting point applies here – define carefully what is meant by “near-miss” and design a reporting system that will gather just the information you need with the least amount of effort.

In-Process Objectives and Measures

Behavioral Safety is a process (a series of activities that occur sequentially) designed to achieve the goal of injury reduction. Since it takes time to determine if the goal will be achieved, the team uses in-process measures to ensure that they are on track.

The process is built upon the logic that incidents will decrease if both the frequencies with which employees are working safely and the number of safe work conditions increases. This basic logic gives us our first two in-process measures. The first step is to agree upon definitions, baseline levels, target levels, and timelines for achieving each target. Then a simple tracking system is designed, implemented, and monitored. Each organization answers these questions for their situation during process design.

Employees Working Safely

Some examples I have seen include:

1. Number of employees using the target safety practice per observationExample: In the welding area of a machine shop, an employee observes all the welders for 15 minutes to count the number of them who are wearing protective eyewear and welding face masks throughout each welding task or the length of the observation.
2. Number of observations where no safety concerns were observedExample: In a batch chemical plant, the process involves an employee observing her partner engaging in a routine task. The observer records whether the employee used all applicable safety practices as listed on the checklist. If not, she indicates which practice caused her concern.
3. Number of opportunities where all steps of the safety practice were completedExample: Field service technicians who drive to customers’ locations have a self-observation checklist that includes many possible safety precautions. After completing each service call, they check whether they completed all applicable precautions.
4. Number of times employees engage in the target safety practices

Example: Unloading boxes on a loading dock in a warehouse, the observer counts the number of times the employee uses ideal lifting techniques out of all lifts performed during the observation.

Other presenters have spoken about ways to choose your target safety practices, some people refer to them as “pinpoints”; the essential point is to select only those behaviors that are related to preventing injuries. Some people refer to them as “critical” safety behaviors. They are your leverage points to achieving your goal.

Safe Conditions

Some options include:

• Defining “safe environment” for a specific work area and counting the number of safe conditions observed.

Example: In a laboratory, an observer records whether chemicals have been stored safely.

This is an example of a condition that is the result of the behavior of the target people. It is actually the behavior of storing the chemicals appropriately that will be targeted but it is not necessary for the observer to actually watch the lab tech put the chemical in the correctly labeled container to know that it was done.

• Observing one employee performing a task and counting the number of unsafe conditions that affect that employee and task

Example: In a refinery, an observer watching an employee catching a sample on a line counts the number of hazardous conditions, such as an unsteady platform or unmarked pipes, etc.

This is an example of conditions that the operator has little control over but has chosen to work with rather than fix or get fixed. The behavior the process is designed to improve is reporting or fixing unsafe conditions before doing the task.

Process Measures

Neither the ultimate process goal, nor the in-process objectives will be achieved if the process is not running as planned. Therefore, the team also measures the health of the process itself. How does a healthy Behavioral Safety process work?

• Individual coaching (individual and immediate feedback based on work observation)
• Group goal setting, feedback, and celebration
• Removing barriers to safe work practices.

Therefore, we will need measures for each of these activities. Depending upon individual design, options include:

Coaching

• Number of employees trained as coaches
• Number/percentage of trained employees conducting a coaching session as scheduled
• Number/percentage of employees submitting a quality observation form
• Number of coaching sessions or Number/percentage of quality coaching sessions
• Number/percentage of employees allowing or inviting a coaching session

Group Goals and Celebration

Natural work groups set their own goals for improving target safe practices. If employees are coaches, then the group sets goals for coaching, too. These are all based on the measures decided upon for Working Safely, Safe Conditions, and coaching. Goals are based on the current level of performance, are attainable, and may either have a specific time-period or be open-ended. Graphs are posted publicly and, when goals are met, the group celebrates.

Removing Barriers

Graphing the data for natural work group goals and celebrations allows the team to monitor the health of the process. If safety and coaching goals are being met, the process is working. If attainable goals are not being met, the team analyzes the data to develop a targeted intervention. If coaching and goal setting, feedback, and celebrations are failing to produce improvements in safe work and conditions, or if participation is not meeting targets, the team uses the data and other information to discover the barriers and make plans to decrease them.

How does the team decide what to target and how? For safety practices and conditions, they select the most important practice or condition that is not improving. “Most important” could mean the one with the most exposure, such as lifting or noise, or the one that could prevent the most serious injury, such as using fall protection or unguarded presses.

Behavior Analysis

The team conducts a behavioral analysis of safety or participation as necessary. Do employees have the necessary skills and knowledge? Tools and equipment? Time and place? to do this safety practice, to attend to this condition, or to participate as coaches? Are antecedents available that prompt the behavior at the right time and place? If antecedents are adequate, are there meaningful, positive consequences that reinforce the behavior? Are there competing consequences, such as positive consequences for a conflicting behavior or negative consequences for the behavior?

Since a key element of the process is the observation and feedback of coaching, the team also ensures that this is occurring as designed. Are coaches conducting reliable observations or have they drifted since training? Are they providing feedback that is specific enough to allow the employee to know what they should do again? Is the positive feedback positive and the ratio to corrective feedback at least 3:1?

Action Plans

Finally, the team decides on a plan to remove the identified barrier – education, training, job aids, signs and symbols, tool replacement, equipment repair, facility engineering, workflow redesign, supervisor training, etc. Sometimes adjusting the process solves the problem, for example, targeting coaching to the times or areas where the practice should occur. Obviously many of these are not quick fixes and they involve more than just the team. This is where the team needs to develop skill in working with people other than the employees who are the core of the process. This might include managers, engineers, schedulers and planners, supervisors, trainers, and safety professionals, etc. The same principles apply but that is another presentation.

If the team determines that both antecedents and consequences that affect individual behavior are in place and the goal is still not achieved, then the problem may be that too much, too soon is expected. The safety practice can be further broken down so that coaches can reinforce progress towards accomplishing the entire practice. For example, “driving forklift safely” may be defined as wearing seatbelt, staying under 5 miles per hour, and using horn at corners. The goal of 100% safe for the week has not been achieved so the work group decides to pay particular attention to coaching “wearing seatbelt” and the Behavioral Safety team provides additional group incentives for achieving the goal of 100% safe on “wearing seatbelt”. Once this is achieved, using horn is added, and finally driving the speed limit is added. This is called shaping.

Another option is to lower the goal so that the work group experiences the recognition and celebration for achieving a small step and may be motivated to continue to move forward.

It is important to track all action plans resulting from the process and communicate them to the employees. This lets employees know that the process is working and it increases accountability and recognition of the team and for others who support the team in implementing the interventions, such as managers, engineers, trainers, and safety professionals. A simple report that lists all the action plans that the team has initiated and their status can be posted. Everyone will see that a certain number of plans have been completed successfully, some are underway and producing results, some are under revision, and some are on hold for a stated reason.

Once observations are underway, the team begins the process of data gathering and analysis. The process Design Team usually carries this forward as a Steering Committee for at least the first few months. This gives the process designers feedback on how their design is working and helps them:

• Identify where they might improve the system,
• Develop action plans for addressing major concerns, and
• Evaluate their initial celebration plans.

Data tracking and analysis is a key element of behavioral safety and one of the most challenging tasks for a young Steering Committee. The data should therefore be tracked and reviewed at least monthly and portrayed with simple graphs or bar charts that might include:

• number of observations conducted (by area or department)
• percentage if employees conducting observations
• percentage and number of concerns by category
• Content of comments (for clarification and detail)

Graphing data weekly or monthly allows the Steering Committee to look at both process and safety issues. The Committee can establish and maintain recognition and celebration targets for individual and group involvement with data on participation. Achieving maximal participation is a major key to success of Behavioral Safety Processes and requires considerable attention throughout the life of the process. The Team has to establish milestones for celebration of participation while taking care to avoid reinforcement that might encourage employees to submit falsified observation forms.

Tracking Safe Concerns on bar charts allows problem solving of areas where concerns are frequent and/or high-risk as well as tracking improvements. The Steering Committee closes the “feedback loop” to employees by sharing these summary results plant-wide each month in safety meetings. In this way, they encourage further problem solving and involvement of area teams action planning for continuous improvement. In addition, the Steering Committee develops action plans to address the primary concerns. These action plans will often include engineering and maintenance to address the physical conditions that contribute to unsafe acts.

The ultimate test of any safety effort is to make sure the process is indeed having an impact on safety. As the process matures, the Steering Committee must compare the observation data to actual site safety results to make sure observers are truly looking at the behaviors contributing to accidents and injuries. This provides a check on the accuracy and quality of the observations.

The observations and feedback are instrumental in achieving the initial safety improvements that result from behavioral change. The Steering Committee’s ongoing use of the observation data to maintain the process, and the implementation of action items to address concerns, are the keys to the longer term success and continual improvement.

This article in the series on Behavioral Safety outlines the role of the Design Team in planning and implementing the process. The second article covered the Design Team’s first task in the creation of the observation and coaching system Œ developing the observation checklist. This article will discuss the development of the observation and coaching process.

Once the observation checklist is finalized, the Design Team can develop the actual procedures for observation and coaching. Several of the questions the Design Team must consider are:

1. Who will conduct the observations and coaching?
2. How often will observations and coaching occur?
3. Will observation and coaching be voluntary?
4. What training will coaches need?

Who Will Conduct the Coaching?

The design team usually considers at least three options: train all employees to be Behavioral Safety coaches, assign coaching to specific positions, confine coaching to Safety Team members, or begin with one of these options and later gradually involve all employees. The great benefit of involving all employees right from the start is the sense of ownership and involvement that participation generates. Involving all employees is also consistent with the values of many of today’s organizations. Employees are empowered by their understanding of the Behavioral Safety process and their participation as coaches, observers, and perhaps team members, to protect themselves, their coworkers, and their communities. The challenge of such an observation and coaching process is coordination and efficient maintenance. However, without the involvement of all employees, the ideal of daily positive feedback for safe practices will be difficult to achieve. This leads to the next question.

How Often Will Coaching and Observations Be Conducted?

The frequency of coaching is important. Daily or weekly coaching is the best way to support lasting behavior change. Issues to consider are:

• What is the level of risk faced by our employees?
• Will all employees be included in the process?
• Will supervisors and managers observe and coach less often than other employees?

Is observation and coaching a voluntary or required activity?

Daily coaching is recommended for employees in high risk areas. Most manufacturing organizations will want to conduct at least weekly coaching. Receiving coaching every two weeks is the minimum frequency that will produce any change. If participation as an observer and coach is voluntary, then frequency becomes less predictable. Employees can conduct as many or as few sessions as they choose. In this case, encouraging participation in the process becomes critical. Recognition and celebration issues will be addressed in a future article in this series.

What Training Will Coaches Need?

Consider the existing skills and training needs of the identified coaches. For the Behavioral Safety process to be successful, coaches may need training in at least three areas:

1. Observation skills

• Use of the checklist
• The observation procedure

2. Observation-based Coaching skills

• Providing positive feedback
• Discussing safety concerns
• Problem-solving safety concerns

3. Job-related skills identified on the safety checklist

Coaches also benefit from an understanding of the rationale underlying the Behavioral Safety process. In addition to identifying the training needed to make implementation successful, the Design Team decides on the most effective way to deliver training. Plan a training process that balances effectiveness with cost and impact on the workplace. Options for training include:

* Individual coaching
* Mentoring of new coaches by successful coaches
* Seminars or workshops

Consider individual coaching and mentoring for training new coaches as a less disruptive process than providing workshops or seminars. On the other hand, providing an understanding of the rationale for the Behavioral Safety process might be done most effectively in larger groups. Allowing employees to make videos or slides of near-miss incidents or past incident situations provides an effective training tool that creates a high level of involvement. This training tool is especially useful for demonstrating and practicing coaching skills.

This article in the series on Behavioral Safety introduces the basic elements of the behavioral approach to safety improvement. We outlined the role of the Design Team in planning and implementing the Behavioral Safety process. The first task of the Design Team is the creation of the observation system. This system is the basis of the entire process.

The observations provide the objective data that make behavioral coaching uniquely effective and form the basis for additional problem solving. Coaching is essential because we know that maintaining any behavior change requires frequent, objective, and positive feedback.

The steps in the development of the observation checklist include:

1. Identify critical safety practices
2. Develop a list of pinpointed behaviors and definitions
3. Draft the observation checklist
4. Trial run the checklist

Identify Critical Safe Practices

Deciding which employee practices to include on the checklist is a balancing act between including all practices essential to maintaining a safe workplace and creating a checklist that is simple and easy to use. There are a variety of methods for selecting checklist items, including analyzing incident records for those behaviors that might prevent an injury, interviewing subject matter experts, and reviewing relevant regulations. One necessary decision is whether to create one checklist for the facility or to create individualized checklists for different areas or different types of work.
Develop a List of Behaviors and Pinpointed Definitions

The next step is to refine the list of pinpointed safety practices and definitions. Good pinpoints share some common characteristics: They are specific, directly observable, and action oriented.

Specific

Specific means that in order to improve the components of safe performance, those components must be described in detail. For example, “wearing PPE” is a class of performance that may need further clarification. In one area of a plant it could mean, “wearing hard hats and safety goggles”, whereas in another area appropriate PPE could includes “flame retardant clothing with collars buttoned and sleeves rolled down”. Often an operational, or working,? definition will provide additional specifics that further clarify, or pinpoint, checklist items.

Observable

Pinpointed definitions describe directly observable safety practices, or actions. They avoid references to internal states, intentions or other interpretations. Consider the term “careless”. A careless employee may be one who leaves tools scattered about the work area, discards waste on the shop floor, and carries out dangerous procedures without `complying with safe practices. “Careless” is an interpretation derived from direct observation of actual performance. One problem with interpretations is that they encompass a collection of discrete different? behaviors (leaving tools scattered, discarding waste on the floor, and so on) and are unobservable on their own. Such interpretations are too broad and subjective to have value in an observation process.

Action Oriented

Action oriented means that pinpointed statements describe positive safety practices. “Not placing hands in moving machinery” is an inactive pinpoint; it describes what not to do, rather than what to do. An active pinpoint might specify “lock and tag out equipment”. Pinpointing active behaviors for the checklist helps observers to focus on the positive and to encourage coach co-workers how to work more safely.

Draft the Observation Checklist

The list of pinpointed safety practices forms the basis for an observation checklist. Checklists can have a variety of formats, some that are more useful than others for particular situations. Different formats also facilitate the coach’s job of observation and recording under different circumstances. The goal is to develop a checklist format that is reliable and easy to use. Checklists may allow the observer to score each pinpointed practice as either safe or as a concern. Other formats may involve a frequency count of safe practices or concerns, a rating scale for each practice, marking a map of an area, or some combination of these. (See McSween, 1995, for examples of different checklist formats.)

Trial Run the Checklist

Designing a valid, reliable, and above all practical, checklist requires taking the drafts out of the conference room and into the work place. Design Team members can test the drafts in their areas; their experience and feedback will create s a viable and useful data collection procedure. Ideally, the observation and recording takes no more than fifteen minutes of the entire coaching session so this will be one of the features of the observation checklist that the Design Team members test.

The observation checklist is a foundation for coaching and data collection. It ensures that all of the critical safety practices are considered in the coaching session. Data recorded on the checklist provides the basis for additional problem solving and action plans.

References

McSween, T. E. The Values-Based Safety Process: Improving Your Safety Culture with a Behavioral Approach. Wiley & Sons, New York, 1995.

Behavioral safety, or what is sometimes referred to as behavior-based safety, is simply the use of behavioral psychology to promote safety at work and at home. Behavioral safety typically involves creating a systematic, ongoing process that clearly defines a finite set of behaviors that reduce the risk of injury within an organization, collects data on the frequency and consistency of those behaviors, and then ensures feedback and reinforcement to ensure support of those behaviors.

In a behavioral process, employees usually conduct observations and provide feedback on safety practices within their work areas. These observations provide data that is used as the basis for recognition, problem-solving, and continuous improvement.

Behavioral safety grew out of the early work done by early pioneers who were applying behavioral principles in organizations. In the late ’60′s and early ’70′s, Aubrey Daniels, Wanda Myers, and others were working with organizations applying behavioral concepts to improve performance in what Aubrey would later term performance management, work that grew out of the pioneering work done by Ed Feeney at Emery Air Freight.

The pioneering safety research done by Judy Komacki and Beth Sulzer-Azaroff in the late ’70s provided the basic technology that was developed and refined by Tom Krause and his associates who were working with back injuries and developed their process as a preventative intervention.

Today’s behavioral safety initiatives also draw heavily on the traditions of TQM and organizational development, involving employees in conducting observations within their work areas and in teams that analyzed the observation data and develop action plans targeting improvements in safe practices.

Most organizations charter a Design Team to take responsibility for planning and implementing behavioral safety. The Design Team is typically made up primarily of eight to ten wage roll employees, with a representative from both supervision and the safety department. This Design Team typically completes five steps in the implementation process:

• Design the observation and coaching process
• Plan how the data will be used
• Plan recognition and celebrations to support the process
• Plan the training and kick-off process
• Plan for maintaining the process