The Power of Behavior-Based Safety Programs (BBS)

Behavior Based Safety is about understanding what keeps us safe and acting on it, not just nodding along to more regulations. BBS programs are dynamic, turning safety into a collaboration where everyone plays a role to protect and support the team.

Behavior Based Safety Unpacked

Behavior Based Safety (BBS) focuses on modifying individual behaviors to prevent workplace accidents and injuries. It involves observing workers, providing feedback, and implementing interventions to encourage safer actions. By engaging everyone in an organisation, recognising their safe behaviors, and continuously refining safety processes, BBS aims to create a culture of safety and reduce incidents through proactive measures.

Behavior Based Safety (BBS) targets ‘at risk’ tendencies in order to make safety-first thinking a priority. Often these risk habits are unconscious, so the idea is to first move from…

1. ‘Unconscious and risky’ to
2. ‘Conscious and safe’ and then
3. Hardwire that new habit so that safer behavior becomes both a reflex and a mental habit.

Behavioral change is difficult in the same way that getting fit can be difficult – but it is so worth it! Any difficulties encountered through making you do things differently will be far outweighed by the upside of reduced pain and frustration through error and accident.

Leadership's Role in Cultivating Behavior Based Safety

Fostering a safety culture means, first of all, taking a holistic view: this is for everyone on the team, top to bottom – this is why leadership participation is key for workplace safety changes.

That means everyone goes to training sessions and participates in the activities: a manager that is up-front about the challenges they face in undoing risky habits picked up early in their career can stimulate a valuable discussion.

CASE STUDY I: Machine operator Jackie

Machine operator Jackie is struck by her manager’s sharing of how he makes more mistakes after lunch. She realises that her focus usually flags at that point in the day too. In the group discussion, she comes up with the idea that a good new practice would be to make sure a spotter is on hand whenever she starts up the machine in the afternoon. The spotter’s presence will make Jackie bring her A-Game focus to the task.

Strategies for Implementing Behavioral Change in Workplace Safety

As you implement a behavior-based safety program, it is wise to identify critical behaviors in a way that people will be struck by and remember. For instance, most of us are completely unaware that nine in ten accidents arise out of unintentional human errors in moments of physical or mental/emotional distraction.  Yes, that is right: 90%!

Observation and Feedback

Taking steps to observe these kinds of ‘states’ in our day and in the lives of other people around us, providing feedback in a positive way, will make a huge difference.

Leveraging Human Nature

The best leadership always stays in tune with human nature: this is how the great football managers motivate their players. To do this, they use the same kind of tactics that parents have used with their children since time began!

Goal Setting and Rewards

For instance: celebrating those times when a colleague has taken the trouble to check their state and reset their behavior: people like to be praised. This helps to reinforce the new workplace safety habit.

We all respond well to goals that are set for us. The ‘Couch-to-5k’ program for instance has brought millions of people from complete unfitness to middle distance running in a matter of months, one doable step at a time.  

Using Nudges and Technology

That phone in your pocket is a perfect helper as a nudge companion, just giving you a little reminder for a micro-task and making sure that you remember what choice you really want to make. The YOUFactors digital nudge companion is the Swiss Army Knife of this field, doing the heavy lifting you need for incident tracking, social sharing, close-call analysis, education capsules, error-anticipation help, learning courses (that demonstrate the reality and explain the often counter intuitive lessons) and much more.

Harnessing Competition and Support

Of course workers love nothing better than forming up competitive teams, as any training day facilitator will tell you! Again that is just human nature, and psychologists are increasingly seeing the power of gamification for behavioral change.  Carefully designed incentive program can encourage people to chase results for goodies like branded hoodies and exercise gear.

Buddying up with a partner is another great commitment strategy. Friends are there to tell you the truth and want you to reach your personal goals, from weight to workplace safety.

Extending Behavioral Change Beyond the Workplace

Here’s something else you might not have thought of: getting your team to take their safety thinking across the panorama of their lives not only on but also off the clock.

This is not only a great way to get them excited (who doesn’t want fewer accidents in their home, for example?!) but also means everybody wins: after all if a worker avoids breaking a foot one Sunday while cleaning their gutters it means they won’t need to take time off work to recover.

CASE STUDY II: Jackie’s Husband

Remember Jackie, the Machine Operator whose insight into complacency improved her work habits? When she tells her husband the story, he realises that his friends at the local cycling club too could use a change of approach in their weekly spin through the countryside: he has noticed that spills tend to happen more after the peloton stops for a break and some refreshments. The next week he institutes a new habit at the club: before hopping back on their bikes everyone has to verify that the cyclist beside them is properly focused and fit for on-road cycling. This puts a ‘full stop’ on the social part of the day and refocuses the mind for the next phase.

Sharing BBS with your circle of friends and family is like a different kind of wealth creation and can only do your company and its wider community good. From children to elderly people, everyone can benefit from behavioural change!

The Future is Now: Digital Platforms for Behavioral Change in Workplace Safety

Using technology, such as behavioural safety software, is key in changing how we handle workplace safety. By combining behavioral science with digital tools, we can actively prevent accidents and improve safety.

We mentioned nudge strategies above. In fact, nudge-based platforms are the key emerging trend in the field. YOUFactors, a digital solution built on 30 years of experience, is centered on this principle. Like a supportive teammate and personal coach rolled into one, the platform helps you and everyone on your team make fewer mistakes and achieve more, whether at work, at play, or at home. By encouraging small, everyday changes, YOUFactors makes safety and peak performance automatic. YOUFactors is the perfect way to bring effective behavioural change in workplace safety to your organisation.

Before we end, lets review:

• BBS is the game changer you need for behavioural change and workplace safety
• The starting point is clarity about how errors happen
• Leaders sharing their challenges shows that this is a human challenge across all levels
• Goals, micro-steps, gamification, accountability partners, & nudges all help!
• Nudge-based platforms are built on cutting-edge science for added firepower.
• Behavioral change is not just something inside the walls of the workplace: there is tremendous potential for boosting your everyday life.

Ready to  learn more about embracing behavioural change strategies? Get the lowdown on how YOUFactors can help your organisation’s workplace safety and sign up for a free, no-obligation demonstration here.

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