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The Challenges of Behaviour-Based Safety

As safety professionals, business leaders and concerned employees we view the safety of our people as vital to the success of business. The personal, economic and social costs of injury or death in the workplace are enormous and have the potential to impact at all levels of a business. Consequently there is a constant search for technology that will increase employee safety. Through the application of scientifically proven psychological methods, Sentis offers a genuine opportunity to reach the goal of zero incidents through a safety process based upon an understanding of what really drives human behaviour.      
     
Traditionally companies have looked to Behaviour-based safety (BBS) systems. The success of any BBS program depends totally on compliance with procedures and policies and most importantly the application of consequences for a given behaviour. These consequences can be negative (injury, death, written warnings, dismissal etc) or positive (bonuses, time off credit, praise from supervisor, favourable reports, etc...). A very important point here is that each of these consequences is also dependant upon the behaviour being observed by another. Obviously this is not possible all the time on any site.     
     
The BBS model assumes that external motivators are required to have employees behave in certain ways. How many employees begin the day with the goal of getting injured? This may seem a ridiculous question, yet it is the very foundation of BBS that employees must be motivated to exercise safe behaviours through a system of positive and negative incentives.     
     
This then raises the obvious question: Why then do employees choose to act safely or unsafely, even though they know that they are not being observed, and that consequences of their behaviour will not be applied? (Remember, not everyone gets killed, injured or disciplined for risk taking). BBS programs cannot explain why this occurs because the psychological theory of Behaviourism, upon which they are based, is fundamentally flawed in its attempts to explain human behaviour.     
     
BBS is based upon the psychological theory of behaviourism, made popular last century by Skinner. Behaviourism states that the internal thoughts, feelings, attitudes, values and judgments of a person have little or nothing to do with their behaviour, and should not be considered. It asserts that an individual’s behaviour is simply a function of antecedents designed to elicit a behaviour (safety signs, policies) and the consequences (injury, praise) being applied for an observable behaviour (wearing PPE, not wearing PPE). This is known as the A-B-C model and is the basis for most safety programs within our industry.     
     
Typically BBS programs introduce many antecedents (policies, procedures, rules) and yet few consequences (injury, death, praise are infrequent) for safe or at risk behaviour. With this in mind there must be something other than external consequences mediating the success of employee safety. This is where we must look to Cognitive Behavioural Safety (CBS) to understand the total solution to employee safety.      
     
When you ask why a BBS program has been successful the answer is not 'we have shifted all consequences of behaviour so that they support safe behaviour only on this site' instead you find people answering 'increased safety awareness', 'more positive attitudes towards safety', 'leadership and management do care about my safety', 'people caring more about safety.' These are explanations that draw on the internal thinking and feeling (cognitive) processes and attitudes of individuals that are mediating their safe behaviour, something that BBS theory cannot accommodate. This points us to an explanation that is clearly outside the realm of behaviourist theory upon which BBS programs are based.     
     
As it is the cognitive and attitudinal (thinking and feeling) processes that are the underlying methods driving safe behaviour by employees it is time that safety professionals turn their attention and resources to the next step of the safety profession which is Cognitive Behavioural Safety.     
     

What is Cognitive Behavioural Safety?

The new frontier for the safety profession is the area of Cognitive Behavioural Safety (CBS). Drawing on the psychological theory of Cognitive Behaviourism, CBS recognises that an individual's behaviour is a function not only of external influences and consequences but is also guided by the individual's internal attitudes, values, belief systems and frames of reference.     
     
As an example, imagine you are a school teacher on playground duty at the high school where you work. During the course of your patrol around the school during the lunch hour you notice two students pushing each other and a crowd of other students gathering around to watch them. The students' pushing becomes more and more aggressive. Is this aggressive behaviour in an attempt to inflict harm on each other or are the students merely engaging in horseplay? Perhaps they are engaged in a martial arts class and one of them is an instructor teaching a new technique.      
     
By simply observing the student's behaviours there are a myriad of possible explanations for their behaviour. In order to get a true account however, it would require you to assess each student’s personal feelings, attitudes and intentions. Only then could you have a true understanding of why they were engaging in that behaviour.      
     
This example illustrates well the Cognitive Behavioural Approach to safety. Focusing only on observable behaviour does not explain enough to understand truly the safe or unsafe actions of people. People are far more than just a collection of observable behaviours. Intention, self-esteem, motivation, attitudes, intelligence are all essential to the way in which people behave in their lives and it is essential to understand these internal processes to appreciate what makes a person behave in a safe or unsafe way in your workplace.     
     
Underlying all human behaviour is a set of attitudes (thoughts and feelings) that guide our interpretation of our world. Attitudes guide each of us in our interpretation of entire lives at home, work and in relation to our personal safety. Attitudes (a person’s thoughts and feelings) are pervasive and powerful factors that influence all aspects of life. Attitudes have been defined broadly as an enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings and behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols (reference). They are very powerful guides for an individual when making decisions regarding how to behave.     
     
In the area of workplace safety, a common view is that BBS programs are the most successful way to manage and ensure employee safety. This is because behaviours that people engage in are viewed as easy to manage, they are concrete, observable, able to be measured and objective. It is far harder to understand a person's attitudes, thinking styles, belief systems, frames of reference and feelings. In short, attempting to understand what makes an employee 'tick' is a perplexing question best left to others. In the area of employee safety, the challenge now is that employee attitudes as well as behaviours need to be addressed in combination for real safety gains to be made. It is the internal and external aspects of individuals that will truly determine their safety and therefore the success of safety programs on site.     
     
One of the worlds leading safety psychologists Dr E. Scott Geller has stated that 'behaviour based safety (BBS) programs, taken alone, cannot be effective unless the workforce believes in and willingly applies the principles of the BBS program. To achieve a true Total Safety Culture and Zero (incidents) for our people it is necessary to integrate both behavioural and person-centred approaches to safety.' This is what Cognitive Behavioural Safety will achieve for you.     
     
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