Behavioural Safety: Panacea or simply blaming the workforce?

Following the HSE recent release of the ABC (Achieving Behavioural Change) course content in August 2007, the debate over the efficacy of behavioural safety management system continues. In use since the early 1990s, behavioural safety management systems are sometimes still portrayed as the answer to all the ills of health and safety management. They do have their detractors, some of whom are quite scathing about what they perceive as "blame-the-worker safety management systems".

Behavioural safety involves the observation and assessment of workplace behaviours, usually those of front-line personnel. The rationale behind behavioural safety approaches is to correct unsafe acts, using questioning techniques to identify the reasons for the unsafe act, and to praise safe behaviour.

It is firmly planted in traditional health and safety, and in ergonomics, but is also deeply rooted in psychology. The plant analogy can be taken further; plants don't grow overnight and neither is behavioural safety a quick fix or immediate solution to health and safety problems. Rather, like all things that grow, it requires care and constant attention - it is a long term investment; a powerful tool, which managed properly, will obtain the involvement and ‘buy-in' of all employees to health and safety management.

The case evidence that behavioural safety can work is overwhelming (see the HSE publication Human factors: Behavioural safety approaches - an introduction). All successfully implemented behavioural safety management systems contribute substantially to reducing accidents, incidents and lost time, improve communication between workers and management, and greater involvement and ownership by the workforce.

The question then remains: if this is such a powerful tool, why isn't everyone using it?

The clue in the previous statement is the word "successfully". Behavioural safety management systems are not a magic potion and often fail for a number of reasons such as lack of management commitment, lack of workforce commitment, lack of resources, insufficient follow up...the list goes on. These reasons are used by objectors to these programmes to illustrate that behavioural safety systems, as a ‘soft skills' approach, merely take the focus away from the ‘hard' health and safety skills of eliminating or suitably controlling hazards. In addition, further objections state that these programmes can sometimes lead to hazy reporting from the workforce (such as inaccurate near miss and incident data), contributing to the misrepresentation of the efficacy of these systems.

Yet the most overlooked reason for failure is that behavioural safety management is a tool and, like all tools, it should be employed judiciously and in appropriate situations. It is an adjunct to more traditional health and safety management systems, not a substitute for risk assessment and management.

In order to produce a beneficial effect, any behavioural safety management system must be carefully selected. It should be adapted to the requirements of the organisation, suited to the workforce and appropriate for the goals sought. It must be in addition to good risk management - it is not a substitute for it. If, for example, the problems which need to be rectified are due to poor design, hazardous conditions or inappropriate equipment, then no amount of behavioural interventions will resolve these satisfactorily. Similarly, although behavioural interventions, by definition, are geared towards changing behaviour in the workforce, they cannot replace disciplinary action for flagrant disregard of safety rules.

The requirements for successful behavioural safety management systems include:

• a workforce-wide commitment (particularly from management)
• a desire for change within the organisation
• sufficient training for key personnel
• systematic implementation across the organisation
• regular feedback and ongoing monitoring.
• behavioural safety is hard work, as it requires long term commitment, better communication throughout the company and the use of positive reinforcement of good behaviour; however the benefits can be felt throughout the
• company as the workforce feels better understood and appreciated, and develops a greater involvement in the company.

Our experience in the fields of ergonomics, health and safety, and usability enables us to advise on the suitability of behavioural safety systems and their implementation.

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First published: Sept 2007Jerry Flechais, one of our health and safety consultants, briefly considers the hornet's nest which is behavioural safety.