Safety behavior observation

Safety behavior observation

From the theory to the practice by Muniriyathse 

How to best put into practice the habit of highlighting Safety behavior observation.

Safety behavior observation is a great tool for preventive culture, which allows for increasing the improvement of safe behaviours in the organization and also reinforcing safety leadership at all levels of the company.

We are used to focusing on what is missing, failing, bad or can be improved. Today we suggest you focus on safe behavior. The objective of this blog is to provide you with ideas and tips to generate the habit of observing safe behaviours and also to help leaders in their organizations carry out this good practice.

Safety behavior assessment tools

Safety observations at work are classified into two types:

1. Incidental observation: It is the observation that is carried out as a normal activity and typical of your position (routine).
2. Planned observation: It is the type of observation in which it must be decided in advance which person and what work is going to be observed. For this, preliminary information about accidents that have occurred in your work area can be taken into account.

To develop a planned Safety behavior observation, the following steps must be followed:

1. Prepare for observation: Decide on people, tasks, and procedures.
2. Carry out the Safety behavior observation.
3. Record the observation: Use the report form and establish the substandard actions detected. Make corrections and congratulate when appropriate.
4. Reinforce observation: Verify compliance with recommendations and reinforce safe behaviours. 

In general, Safety behavior observation offers a set of advantages: We will look for simplicity and practicality. Let's break this seemingly complex task into 5 simple steps:

 Planning:

To get into the habit of Safety behavior observation, take time to plan your tours and schedule them to avoid putting them off.

Remember to keep in mind:

• Specific times and days,
• What areas are you going to observe on each tour?
• What aspects are you going to give greater focus to?
• Before starting the tour, check your emotions, your thoughts, and your mood, and manage the best way to be at that moment.

Contemplation:

• Identify area hazards before entering.
• Identify or ask for evacuation routes.
• Be cautious, and avoid interrupting critical or care work.
• Observe the performance of the activity long enough to understand the dynamics.
• Focus on the situation, observe the work and everything around you.
• Identify safe behaviors.
• Identify risk behaviors.

Interaction and conversation with the worker:

• Check how your emotions, your body and gestures, and your thoughts are before intervening.
• Request verbal permission to enter the observed work area.
• Introduce yourself, be interested in the person, their name, their experience, their time in the company and in the position.
• Explain the reason for the visit and the process of safety observations.
• Invites the person to identify for themselves the positive aspects of safety in themselves and in their workplace.
• Induce the person to identify with their words the risks that were avoided by following these safe behaviours.
• Ask who and how the identified safe behaviours could benefit.
• Ask for their opinion on the findings detected, safe, healthy and clean behaviours and behaviours to improve.

How to improve safety behavior?

• On whom and what does safe behaviour depend?
• What solutions do you consider should be applied?
• Find out what your personal commitment is to improve that aspect and what things motivate you to establish this commitment.
• Ask their opinion about what they thought of the exercise, and what conclusions and learnings emerged from the dynamic.

Closing:

• Appreciate your openness and ideas for creating a safe workspace.
• Repeat what the positive findings were.
• Appreciate and reinforce their commitment to taking action on the behaviours to improve.
• Discuss the findings and commitments obtained with the area leader.

Safety behavior observation checklist

Safety behvior observation at work are incidental or planned activities, aimed at reviewing the conduct and performance of people to carry out a specific task and its comparison with specific requirements of the Professional Risk Prevention Management System. , to establish whether compliance with these has been obtained.

Substandard actions constitute a significant percentage of the causes of accidents, hence the importance that must be assigned to safety observations, since in this way the personal factors that motivate them can be identified.

However, you must determine who to observe and to do so you must take into account that situations and people change and that control can only be maintained through frequent observations. For example, beginners may be negatively influenced by former workers or have bad habits picked up in previous jobs.

Who to watch

1. The inexperienced worker: It is easier to correct a worker's operational defects at the beginning than to convince him later that his practice is incorrect and unsafe.
2. The accident repeater worker: A follow-up observation on the accident repeater can guide towards the origin of the problem and therefore offer alternative solutions.
3. The chronically insecure worker: There are people who have a tendency to forget the rules or procedures, developing their own inadequate work methods.
4. The worker with physical or mental problems: All jobs that require physical effort require health and build compatibility with said effort. Observing people allows us to appreciate whether or not there is compatibility between their physical and/or mental condition and the work they do.
5. The experienced worker: The experienced person often looks for new alternatives to do a job, which can be dangerous. Furthermore, this worker is generally followed by others, hence the need to eliminate incorrect practices and habits.

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To define whether the worker must be previously informed that he is being observed, the following criteria must be applied:

• Failure to inform: When the purpose of the observation is to check whether the worker complies with the established standards.
• Yes, inform: The purpose of the observation is to find out how much the worker knows about the correct procedure for a job.

 Behavior-Based Safety Program 

The objective of a Behavior-Based Safety Program (BBS) is, above all, to achieve behavioural change among workers. In particular, minimize unsafe behaviour, the cause of most accidents.

In relation to unsafe behaviours, the Triconditional Theory of Safe Behavior states that three conditions must be met for the worker to act safely:

• The worker must be able to work safely
• The worker must know how to work safely
• The worker must want to work safely

On the other hand, the first two conditions (power and knowledge) must continue to be applied through operational programs, risk assessments, safety inspections and derived action plans, as well as the necessary safety training.

Behaviour-based Safety is a proactive methodology of continuous improvement applied to safety. It should be considered as a process, the purpose of which is to minimize unsafe behaviour and, consequently, reduce the number of accidents.

Safety based on Behavior: training of Observers and Information generated

The Behavior-Based Safety program includes the training of personnel designated as “observers,” who must visit areas where activities are being carried out on a regular basis and determine if they are being carried out safely. The information generated in the behavior-based safety observation becomes a metric that allows obtaining percentages of safe behaviour. Based on this information, specific improvement actions will be defined.

The BBS program starts with a set of observations to establish a “baseline” or initial safety level and to determine or confirm the behaviours initially considered critical. From there, we begin with the bulk of observations and the process of analyzing the results and derived actions. Next, risk behaviours must be modified, as well as new objectives reformulated in a process of continuous improvement.

Information feedback is the key ingredient for any improvement initiative. In this sense, it can be implemented in three ways:

1. Verbally to the worker at the time of Safety behavior observation
2. Through graphics placed in strategic places
3. With brief periodic meetings where the results of the Safety behavior observation is analyzed

The combination of the three allows you to obtain the desired result.

Conclusion

We hope these tips are useful to you, to generate the habit of Safety behavior observation in your organization, in you and in the leaders who accompany you.

It is extremely important to be able to train observers in advance with simulation exercises and for an expert safety coach to observe points of improvement, in order to obtain a better experience with workers, taking into account that the image or positive influence of the observer is in play at that moment.