According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), nearly 2.93 million workers die each year due to work-related accidents and diseases worldwide. While organizations invest in advanced machinery, engineering controls, and detailed safety procedures, workplace incidents continue to occur because safe behaviours are not always consistently followed. Consider a giant steel plant in Odisha, an automobile assembly plant in Tamil Nadu, or a chemical processing plant in Gujarat. In theory, they have state-of-the-art engineering controls, cutting-edge machines, and voluminous safety manuals.<\/p>\n
What goes wrong? It’s not their machinery.<\/p>\n
It is their human behaviour that becomes the missing link. Traditional safety systems are very rigid and largely rely on physical safety and punishment mechanisms. However, for building a proactive safety culture, companies will need to pay heed to workplace safety behaviours.<\/p>\n
This guide gives a glimpse of safe behaviour and risky behaviour in practical industrial cases. Further, it delves into how BBS can help understand multifaceted human behaviour in terms of safety. Finally, it presents the framework for building an extremely collaborative safety culture.<\/p>\n
Behaviour-Based Safety (BBS) is a proactive safety technique that involves observation of workplace activities on a regular basis so as to analyse and change human behaviour. The approach focuses on identifying and improving at-risk behaviours before they lead to incidents.<\/p>\n
BBS is primarily a people-oriented approach because it shifts the responsibility of safety from safety officers to the actual workers in the field. The approach emphasizes peer observation, peer discussions, and learning.<\/p>\n
Safe behaviours are actions that follow established safety procedures, use appropriate controls, and reduce workplace risks. Unsafe behaviours involve actions that bypass safety requirements, ignore hazards, or increase the likelihood of incidents. Understanding the difference between the two is the first step in building a proactive safety culture.<\/p>\n
For one to alter an undesirable behaviour, it is imperative that one understands the stimulus for the behaviour. The primary building block of any Safety Observation program is the ABC Model. The ABC Model is a psychological model of behaviour that divides behaviour into three components:<\/p>\n
Antecedents are those events, conditions, or instructions that cause the individual to behave in a certain manner. Examples include: a supervisor demanding higher production rates, a warning sign on the wall, a safety training session, or even a heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n
It is the physical action taken by the worker. The behaviour can either be safe or unsafe. An example of a safe behaviour would be clipping the safety harness onto the anchor line. On the other hand, the behaviour could also be unsafe, e.g., circumventing a machine guard to rectify a jam.<\/p>\n
Consequences are the effects of the behaviour, whether immediate or long-term. Consequences may be desirable and include early completion of a task or verbal praise by the boss. They may also be undesirable, including a severe injury.<\/p>\n
Human psychology is such that it places great importance on consequences that are immediate and guaranteed. A worker who breaks a safety rule and gets the reward of saving some time while remaining unharmed is bound to commit the unsafe act once more. This is what BBS does to bring about behavioural change.<\/p>\n
The following illustrative examples show how safe and unsafe behaviours can influence workplace safety across different industries.<\/p>\n
There is an ongoing construction project for the flyover metro railway in Delhi-NCR.<\/p>\n
A packing line at a manufacturing plant near Pune suddenly gets jammed.<\/p>\n
There is a need for an internal inspection of sludge in a tank located within a large-scale chemical processing unit in Dahej.<\/p>\n
For effective workplace behaviour safety, safety managers should dig deeper. Employees do not take unnecessary risks because of malicious motives. There are certain human factors that affect their judgment when it comes to risks.<\/p>\n
An individual who has been doing one task for five years without any accidents occurring will become complacent towards the machine. He or she does not see the machine as a potential danger anymore. Due to such overfamiliarity with the machine, the person becomes oblivious to warning signs that may appear, causing him or her to make tragic mistakes.<\/p>\n
In case corporate executives put speed above all else in terms of workplace safety, employees are put under psychological pressure. Long hours of work in order to get a plant started result in exhaustion and an inability of the mind to perceive the situation clearly.<\/p>\n
Employees of the same crew may ridicule other employees for putting on protective equipment or stopping work to have a look at a permit.<\/p>\n
To turn your organization around, you need a systematic implementation strategy. Here are some critical steps in creating your open, proactive safety culture:<\/p>\n
Safety culture begins and ends with leadership. Executives and plant managers need to set the example. When your manager walks onto the production line without a safety helmet and steel-toed boots on, he\/she can undermine the credibility of the safety program. You have to show your workers that they mean more to you than production rates.<\/p>\n
No one will come forward and say anything about a near miss or any risky behaviour of their co-workers if he\/she is scared of getting demoted, fired, or penalized. Your company needs to create an atmosphere that allows people to speak up. Every unsafe act is not about punishing anyone; it\u2019s about making your system better.<\/p>\n
Choose your front-line leaders within every department and train them in structured observations. They need to know how to do it properly, using objective checklists, logging the metrics, and giving immediate and non-judgmental feedback to their co-workers.<\/p>\n
| \n Industrial Scenario<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n Unsafe Behaviour (At-Risk)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n Safe Behaviour (Desired)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n BBS Intervention \/ Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Material Handling<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Lifting heavy valve boxes manually with a bent back to save time.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Utilizing a mechanical hoist or lifting with legs while keeping the back straight.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Conduct peer observations on ergonomics and provide immediate coaching.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Chemical Handling<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Pouring corrosive liquid acids without wearing a full face shield.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Checking the chemical SDS and donning all mandatory PPE before opening a drum.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Use the ABC model to identify why face shields are missing or ignored in that zone.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Electrical Repair<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Working inside a live junction box panel using uninsulated metal tools.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Verifying zero voltage with a calibrated meter and applying a personal LOTO lock.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Review behavioural observation trends during toolbox talks.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Workplace safety is not achieved by simply completing a checklist. Real resilience comes when safe behaviours become part of everyday work practices.<\/p>\n Here are three fundamental practices needed for creating the best safety system:<\/p>\n |