Today, we’re going to talk about behavioral safety, also known as behavior-based safety. Although most safety programs and research center around safe work practices and engineering solutions to safety and health problems, those strategies are not likely to have the desired effect if you don’t also have an effective way to encourage employees to engage in safe behaviors every day on the job.

During today’s session we’ll learn about what influences employee behavior and how you can change behavior to prevent accidents and illness and keep your employees safe.

And by the way, you can use everything you learn in this session to influence employee behavior in other ways as well. The same principles can be applied to other key job issues such as performance quality, attendance, and teamwork.

Session Objectives

The main objective of this session is to discuss the benefits of using behavioral safety techniques and explain how you can use these techniques effectively to encourage safe behavior from your employees. By the time this session is over, you should be able to:

• Understand how safety behavior is shaped;
• Analyze employee behavior;
• Pinpoint, observe, and measure specific behaviors;
• Provide effective feedback; and
• Use positive reinforcement successfully to improve safety performance.

What You Need to Know

During the session, we’ll discuss:

• How to conduct an ABC (antecedents, behavior, consequences) analysis;
• Types of consequences;
• How to strengthen consequences;
• How to pinpoint, observe, and measure behavior;
• How to give effective feedback and set reasonable safety goals;
• Types of positive reinforcement; and
• Reinforcement mistakes.

Why Employees Engage In At-Risk Behaviors

At-risk behaviors cause more accidents than unsafe conditions. An employee might engage in at-risk or unsafe behavior a thousand times and not be hurt. But eventually an injury is likely.

Why do employees engage in risky behavior? There are many reasons, including:

• The fact that it often enables them to get their job done faster;
• The perception that the risk is low;
• The attitude that they are somehow invulnerable and nothing’s going to happen to them;
• The unfortunate reality that at-risk behavior is often inadvertently reinforced by busy supervisors and management facing production and financial pressures; and
• The fact that workers might not actually be aware of the risks.

Can you think of other reasons why employees might engage in at-risk behavior? Perhaps you can think of examples from your experience.

ABC Model

The big question is, how can you change that situation and encourage employees to make safe choices? The place to begin is with what’s called the ABC model. The ABC model provides a simple and effective way to evaluate employee behaviors in order to determine why they choose to act or behave in a certain way.

• The “A” stands for antecedents that prompt people to act a certain way, which we’ll discuss in more detail in the next slide.
• The “B” stands for behavior. Behavior is defined as any action you can see someone doing. Behavior includes visible actions or activities only. It does not include things you can’t see, such as an employee’s attitude or thoughts. The guiding principle of behavioral safety is that the result of doing something safely is the product of a series of behaviors. Safety is more than a result, it is a process of safe behaviors.
• The “C” in the ABC model stands for consequences that happen after the behavior, which we’ll talk more about after we take a look at what we mean by antecedents.

Antecedents

• Antecedents are anything that prompt people to act in a given manner.
• Antecedents precede the behavior. Antecedents can be a person, place, thing, or event that gets the behavior started.
• Antecedents communicate information such as hazards, dangers, warnings, and so on. In safety, we attempt to use many antecedents to influence desired behavior. For example, we use safety signs, training, safety rules and policies, safety meetings, and much more.
• Effective antecedents communicate specific behaviors and results. For example the Department of Transportation corrosive chemical label shows a visual of a hand being eaten by a chemical. Employees see the label and do not want to let the chemical touch their hands, so they wear gloves.
• Antecedents work best when paired with consequences. Effective antecedents are paired with previous consequences. For example, an employee remembers that last time he didn’t wear personal protective equipment, he was injured. Consequences can become antecedents.
• Antecedents only work in the short term if the employee does not experience consequences. For example, employees are told to pick up slip-and-trip hazards right away. But if no one notices, employees will stop doing it because it is not reinforced with a consequence.

Consequences

• Consequences are “what happens after the behavior”—the payoff or the punishment. Consequences are stronger than antecedents in predicting future behavior. Past consequences become antecedents for future behavior.
• For the most part, the term “consequences” has a negative connotation. Most people do not want to suffer the consequences of their behavior.
• However, consequences can also be positive and are highly effective in changing at-risk behavior and getting safe behavior from employees when used properly.
• Consequences will either strengthen or weaken behavior. For example, the behavior of touching a hot stove will weaken or decrease due to the consequence of getting burned. The behavior of eating chocolate will strengthen or increase due to the consequence—the good taste.
• There are four categories of consequences, which we’ll review in the next four slides. Those categories are:

– Punishment;

– Extinction;

– Negative reinforcement; and

– Positive reinforcement.

Punishment

• Punishment is getting what you don’t want.
• Examples include criticism, injury, a written warning in your file, and so on.
• Punishment is used to stop an unwanted behavior, and it usually works. However, the problem with some punishment is that the punished behavior usually recurs or is replaced by some other undesirable behavior.

Think about the use of discipline for safety rule violations. In your experience, how effective is discipline in getting employees to change at-risk behavior?

Extinction

• Extinction is not getting what you want.
• Examples include no recognition, no acknowledgement, and so on.
• This type of consequence usually has the reverse effect of what you want to happen. It usually causes wanted or safe behavior to decrease. Extinction is not a good choice for trying to change at risk behavior because there are other consequences that may be motivating a worker. For example, when a supervisor uses extinction by ignoring or not acknowledging that an employee has failed to wear required PPE, the employee will not be motivated to use PPE the next time. Instead, the employee might think it’s OK not to wear it.
• Extinction can cause safe performers to slip. For example, employees who generally wear PPE may start to slip and stop using it if their supervisor never acknowledges that they are following procedures properly.

Can you think of any situations in which this type of consequence was shaping employee safety behavior?

Negative Reinforcement

• Negative reinforcement is not getting what you don’t want.
• Examples include avoiding criticism, unpleasant tasks, or accidents.
• Negative reinforcement encourages employees to perform desired behaviors just to avoid being punished. In the arena of safety, many behaviors are the result of negative reinforcement. Employees follow safety rules not so much to prevent injuries as to avoid disciplinary action.
• Negative reinforcement gets the desired behavior, but for the wrong reason. Employees perform the desired behavior, or act safely, only when you’re watching. That means you become the antecedent to safe behavior. Negative reinforcement causes employees to perform desired behaviors only because they feel like they have to.

Can you see why negative reinforcement is ultimately ineffective in influencing employees to choose safe behavior for the right reason?

Positive Reinforcement

• Positive reinforcement is getting what you want.
• Examples include acknowledgement, recognition, and better work assignments.
• Positive reinforcement causes employees to maintain or increase safe behavior in order to get rewarded.
• Positive reinforcement is the only consequence that prompts your employees to give you discretionary effort. Positive reinforcement encourages employees to give more than what is asked of them. They are motivated to exceed expectations.
• When a behavior gets an employee what he or she wants, that behavior will occur more frequently in the future—which, of course, is exactly what you want to have happen with safe behavior.

Think about your employees and their safety behavior. Do you routinely use positive reinforcement to shape employee safety behavior?

Examine the Behavior

• When attempting to apply consequences to influence behavior, you need to examine the results of what you do—not just look at what your intentions are.
• The type of consequence is not determined by your actions. It’s determined by how the employee receives it. You may be intending to apply positive reinforcement, but the employee might see it as punishment.
• If a behavior is increasing, the consequences are either positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. For example, if you attempt to punish or discipline an employee who is late for work by giving them a day off without pay and the worker continues to be late for work, you have positively reinforced—not punished—the behavior of being late for work.
• If a behavior is decreasing, the consequences are either punishment or extinction.

Strength of Consequences

Not all consequences have equal strength. That is why people choose one behavior over another. Consequences compete for behavior and the strongest consequences win. The strength of a consequence is determined by type of consequence, when it happens, and the probability of it’s happening.

• The type of consequence can be either positive or negative.
• When the consequence happens, it can be either immediate, such as during or soon after the behavior, or future, such as from a day to several months or years after the behavior. For example, when eating chocolate, the consequence of good taste is immediate and the consequence of weight gain is in the future.
• The probability of the consequence occurring can be either certain or uncertain. Certain consequences are strong. Employees can count on the fact that they will absolutely occur following a particular behavior. On the other hand, uncertain consequences are weak and have much less effect. They might never occur. Take the chocolate example again. When eating chocolate, you are certain it will taste good, but uncertain that you will actually gain weight. So what do you do? You go with the certain consequence and eat the chocolate.

Powerful Consequences

• The most powerful consequences are those that are both immediate and certain. If there are two consequences that are both immediate and certain, the positive consequence will win over the negative consequence.
• Moderately powerful consequences are either immediate or certain, but not both. They may be:

– Positive, immediate, and uncertain;

– Positive, future, and certain;

– Negative, immediate, and uncertain; or

– Negative, future, and certain.

• The least powerful consequences are both future and uncertain. They may be:

– Positive, future, and uncertain, or

– Negative, future, and uncertain.

ABC Analysis

An ABC—antecedents, behaviors, and consequences—analysis can help you determine why at-risk behavior is occurring and the steps necessary to correct the behavior. Remember to analyze the behavior from both perspectives—the desired behavior, for example, wearing required PPE, and the undesired behavior, not wearing PPE.

• Begin the analysis by describing the performance you observe—that is, the risky behavior. Describe what this employee should be doing. Analyze the problem performance and the correct performance.
• Then list all the possible antecedents and consequences that are relevant to the employee. Indicate whether each consequence is positive or negative, immediate or future, certain or uncertain.
• Next, determine which consequences are motivating the employee’s behavior. These will be the strongest consequences that are both immediate and certain.
• The solution to the problem behavior is to change the weak consequences—those that would motivate the employee to perform the desired behavior—into stronger consequences so that the employee indeed performs the desired behavior.

Behavioral Safety Basics

• Now it’s time to ask yourself if you understand the information presented so far. Do you understand what we’ve discussed about ABC analysis? About antecedents and consequences, and the different types of consequences?

In order to use behavioral safety techniques effectively with your employees, you must be thoroughly familiar with all the basic principles.

Pinpointing Behavior

Now that you have a basic understanding of behavioral science, we’ll talk about the action steps necessary to effect behavior change. To change behavior and improve safety, you must be specific about current employee behaviors and about the results of those behaviors.

The first step in effecting behavior change in your department is to create a team of employees that, under your guidance, will be responsible for focusing on a short list of very specific safety-related behaviors. This is often referred to as “pinpointing behaviors.” Remember, behaviors are not attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, or anything else internal or subjective.

Pinpointing behavior allows you to reinforce with precision. A good pinpoint must contain all of the following attributes:

• The behavior must be measurable, something that can be counted.
• It must be observable, a behavior that can be seen or heard.
• It must be reliable—that is, a behavior that is seen the same way by two or more people.
• And it must something over which an employee has control.

Be sure to keep your pinpoint positive. Describe the behavior that you want done, not the behavior you don’t want.

Behavior Observation

• Once you and your team of employees have selected three to five pinpointed behaviors, the team can create an observation checklist. Consider printing these on cardstock so that they’ll stand up to wear and tear as workers carry them around. Encourage all employees to participate in the behavior-based safety program by filling out observation cards. No employee names are written on the cards, by the way—it’s anonymous.
• Here’s how it works: Employees keep their cards with them throughout the workday and spot check for the different pinpointed behaviors during the day.
• If, for example, they observe a co-worker doing Pinpoint 1 safely, they put a check mark in the “safe” column. If they give that co-worker positive feedback about the safe behavior, they can put a check mark under the “positive” column.
• Later, if another co-worker is observed doing Pinpoint 1 unsafely, a check mark is placed under the “unsafe” column. If employees offer corrective feedback, they can put a check in that column.
• Your employees do this throughout the day for the various pinpointed behaviors. Then at the end of the workday, they turn in the card at a designated location. Each observation card should have numerous check marks in the different columns for each pinpointed behavior.

Measurement

• Once all the cards are collected, your behavior-based safety team can take them and record the observations for each pinpoint—safe, unsafe, positive feedback, and corrective feedback. Then the team can analyze the data to measure safety performance for each pinpointed behavior.
• Objective measurement is a critical part of performance improvement and behavior-based safety. Without measurement, all you have is a subjective evaluation of performance. Without the kind of safety data you get from observation, all you have is opinion.
• Safety performance historically deals with results such as accident frequency and severity. However, to improve safety you must begin measuring the safety process, not just the results. • Measurement gives feedback to employees. It also captures small improvements in safe behavior that might otherwise go unnoticed.
• Measurement helps you be specific about the performance of certain pinpointed behavior. In the end, measurement becomes a positive reinforcement.

Positive Verbal Feedback

As we noted earlier, verbal feedback is often used after an employee is observed. It is highly effective in one-on-one situations. Positive verbal feedback gives employees information on what they are doing correctly so that they can maintain or improve their behavior.

• When you give employees feedback about safety behavior—or any other behavior, for that matter—be specific about the behavior that was just observed. Positive reinforcement about general or broad behavior is not effective. Make sure feedback relates to a specific behavior. For example, to a forklift operator, you might say, “Thank you for driving slowly around that corner and using your horn to warn others.” Avoid generalizations such as, “Thanks for driving the forklift carefully.”
• Also be sincere about your thoughts regarding behavior. Tell employees how much you appreciate what they just did. Be yourself. Genuinely express how you feel about the employees’ behavior. Don’t try to be something you’re not. People can smell insincerity, and if they do, it can weaken the effectiveness of the feedback.

Positive Verbal Feedback (cont.)

• Another important point to remember about positive verbal feedback is to deliver it immediately after or as close to the behavior as possible. Waiting too long will reduce the effectiveness of the positive reinforcement.
• Also be sure to identify the person or group to whom you’re giving the feedback by name. For example, “John, thanks for mopping up that spilled water. You just prevented someone from slipping and falling and getting injured.” Avoid saying things like, “Thanks everyone for keeping the floor clean.”
• And finally, don’t use the word “but” or “however” when giving positive feedback. They destroy the positive. “Good to see you wearing safety glasses, Sally, but …” See what we mean? It spoils the whole thing. The employee only hears the part after the “but,” not the positive reinforcement preceding it.

Think of instances in which you’ve observed employees at work and given them specific positive feedback about their safety behavior. How did the employees respond to your feedback? Do you think it helped improve safety performance?

Corrective Verbal Feedback

Of course, it would be great if you only had to go around giving employees positive feedback. But what if they’re not acting safely? That’s when you need to give corrective feedback. Corrective feedback is giving information on what the employee is doing incorrectly and also providing information for improvement. Here are some key points to remember about corrective verbal feedback:

• Always prevent the accident. That has to be your first priority. Don’t ignore unsafe behavior that could result in an accident.
• Acknowledge progress or small improvements in the employee’s behavior.
• Be objective. Only talk about what happened. Don’t talk about your opinions or interpretations of what you observed.
• Be specific. Focus on the correct behavior only. Don’t discuss other behaviors at this time.
• Use a questioning approach by asking the employee why he or she behaved in an unsafe manner.
• And try to use a 4 to 1 ratio of positive to corrective feedback—in other words, plenty of positive feedback along with the corrective feedback.

Graphic Feedback

There’s another important kind of feedback of which you need to be aware as well. That’s graphic feedback. Your behavior-based safety team can use the data from observation cards to create graphs that visually display behavior patterns. Graphic feedback shows the performance of a work group and serves as a basis for discussion and reinforcement. Graphic feedback is highly effective in motivating work groups, but only if used properly.

• Effective graphic feedback is presented in relation to past performance or baseline performance. This way you have something to compare with and can either see improvement or decline.
• Effective graphic feedback is also presented in relation to current goals. Those goals should be shown on a graph or chart.
• Graphic feedback should also be used frequently to be effective. Present and discuss it daily, if possible. The more frequently you show employees a graphic representation of their safety behavior and talk about it, the more effective the feedback is. People can see the changes each day right before their eyes. Through discussion, they can understand how their behavior impacts the graph.

Goal Setting

• You and the team of employees that is leading your behavioral safety process should also set safety goals for the work group. To be effective, goals should be short-term and achievable. People want to be challenged, but they also want success.
• Goals do not have to be set in stone. They should be dynamic and negotiated as needed. Get input from the work group in order to get their buy in.
• When you set goals, also think in terms of giving employees more opportunities to receive positive reinforcement. To do that, use step goals so that employees are rewarded as they improve. An example of an overall goal might be 90 percent safe behavior for a specific pinpoint. There can also be step goals, such as 70 percent safe behavior and then 80 percent safe behavior, before achieving the ultimate goal of 90 percent. When the goal is achieved, employees should be rewarded with social and tangible positive reinforcement. And that’s what we’re going to talk about in the next two slides.

Think about your experiences setting safety performance goals. How effective were they in achieving a positive result?

Types of Positive Reinforcement

Once your employees have met a goal established for a certain pinpoint, it’s time to reward them for success with positive reinforcement. There are two basic ways to do this—social reinforcement and tangible reinforcement. Social reinforcement involves interaction with other people and may be:

• Written, such as a certificate of achievement;
• Verbal, such as public or private praise; or
• Physical, such as a handshake.

Social reinforcement can also involve:

• Something as simple as a smile, a nod of acknowledgement, a thumbs up, or some other appropriate gesture of approval;
• Humor—giving employees a chance to laugh and enjoy themselves; and
• Most important—the time and attention of a boss who listens— and cares.

Types of Positive Reinforcement (cont.)

Tangible reinforcement has a physical or financial value and often provides an antecedent to remember success. Tangible reinforcers are objects or activities that increase a behavior when presented following the behavior. Social reinforcement should always accompany the delivery of tangible reinforcement. Tangible reinforcements include such things as:

• Food, such as donuts for the whole crew or a free lunch in the cafeteria;
• Money, such as cash rewards for safe behavior;
• Gifts, such as caps, T-shirts, gift certificated, and movie tickets;
• Framed certificates, plaques, and trophies; and
• Privileges, such as getting a special parking space for a week or month, getting a preferred job assignment, or being excused from less desirable assignments for a while.

Think about the social and tangible reinforcements you use to reward employees for safe behavior.

Using Tangibles

• Just remember that tangibles should be used to anchor the memory of the accomplishment and not to overshadow it. Avoid escalating the quantity and value of tangible reinforcers. That could lead to the tangible becoming the object of the behavior—the only reason for performing the behavior—and that could cause a number of problems.
• To use tangibles effectively, take advantage of the element of surprise. Make small tangible items appear to be spontaneous by presenting them as close to the desired behavior as possible.
• Discuss the behavior connected to the tangible when presenting it. This will help anchor memory.
• And try different items as tangibles, because not everyone likes the same thing.
• Remember, too, that high-value tangibles sometimes have the reverse effect of what you want. People have been known to lie, cheat, and cover up to get high-value tangibles. Money as a tangible has a short life in changing behavior and should be used sparingly.
• And finally, don’t overuse tangibles. Intangibles like social reinforcement are cheaper and more effective.

Reinforcement

• Do you understand all the information presented in the previous slides about behavior observation? About providing positive and corrective feedback? About the types of positive reinforcement?

It’s important that you understand this information so that you can use these techniques effectively to promote safe behavior among your employees.

Reinforcement Mistakes

Positive reinforcement is a powerful tool in improving safety performance. But it has to be used correctly to be effective. There are several common mistakes people make when using positive reinforcement in behavior-based safety programs.

• One of those mistakes is using positive reinforcement too much and too frequently. This can weaken its effect.
• Another common mistake is expecting too much behavior change too soon. Reinforcement takes time. Shaping behavior takes time because you are taking small progressive steps toward a bigger goal.
• People also sometimes negate the effectiveness of positive reinforcement by delivering it before the behavior takes place. This isn’t reinforcement, it’s bribery. Always reinforce after the behavior.
• And don’t give positive reinforcement that has not been earned. Positive reinforcement must be contingent on the behavior and must never be given without the proper behavior. Giving positive reinforcement that has not been earned will set up an environment for extinction among star performers.

Now let’s go on to the final slide and wind up this session with some key points to remember about behavioral safety.

Key Points to Remember

Here are the main points to remember from this session on behavioral safety:

• Learn how to use consequences effectively;
• Analyze safety behavior with the ABC model;
• Pinpoint behaviors and make observations;
• Study collected data to measure results in an objective way; and
• Give positive feedback for safe performance and corrective feedback for unsafe behavior.

This concludes the behavior-based safety training session.