Behavioral safety programs prevent avoidable workplace accidents.
Reducing risk of injury in the workplace is the aim of a behavior safety program. In the early 1930s, Herbert William Heinrich, a Traveler's Insurance Company employee, conducted research on workplace accidents. The results of his research indicated that errors on the part of workers caused approximately 90 percent of all workplace accidents, injuries and illnesses. Behavior safety programs prevent avoidable workplace accidents and injuries by increasing worker awareness.
Definition
Heinrich wrote the book "Industrial Accident Prevention: A Scientific Approach"--published in 1931--which resulted in companies analyzing data more systematically. In the early 1970s a flood of articles on behavior-based safety began to emerge. It is uncertain exactly when the term came into being, but in 1997 author T.R. Krause said "... the phrase behavior-based safety refers strictly to the use of applied behavior analysis methods to achieve continuous improvement in safety performance." Part of this process may include workers assigned to observe unsafe behaviors in fellow workers.
Function
Unsafe workplace behaviors can lead to accidents. For example, someone stands on a chair with a set of wheels on it to reach for something and the chair moves, causing an injurious fall. Behavioral Science Technology (BST), a California-based company, promotes an employee-driven system for safe behavior. They use the word "behavior" in a technical sense, as opposed to the everyday use of the term, and define it as "those observable measurable actions that are critical to performance in a particular organization." Used in this way, the word does not indicate blame.
According to BST, after at-risk behavior is identified, three possible reasons for its existence should be looked at: the employee accepts that changes in behavior are under his control; change is possible in behavior only if specific issues are resolved in workspace or task configuration; or under present conditions, no other way is possible to do the given task. In that case, design changes are deeply explored and implemented where possible.
Considerations
Comprehensive health and safety is a concept perceived by some to be a better alternative to behavior-based safety. The United Steelworkers of America (USWA), for example, has issued "The Steelworker Perspective on Behavioral Safety." This document emphasizes workplace safety, and states that hazzards and unsafe conditions cause injuries and illness--not worker error. Although they do acknowledge the possibility of human error on the job, USWA focuses on the design of workplace jobs and equipment, because--based on their research--dire consequences from human error are rooted in unsafe working conditions.
Tags: workplace accidents, behavior-based safety, accidents injuries, avoidable workplace, avoidable workplace accidents, human error