Award Safety
... with the award that changes behavior.
Designing Awards
Systems for Behavior
Based Safety
A Synopsis of Behavior Based Safety
Entire books have been written on the subject of Behavior Based Safety. So what’s contained in
the next few pages is not intended to give you a complete lesson on it but merely a high level
overview. It will give you an understanding of how to take these principles, combine them with
any of our award systems and get your employees to improve safety performance. These same
principles can work for you and accomplish many business objectives, not just safety.
Overview
Simply put, Behavior Based Safety (BBS) seeks to increase the number of safe behaviors of
all employees and create safe habits. The culmination of this is to reduce and ultimately
eliminate accidents. BBS is founded on the beliefs of the ABC Behavior Model. These are
A.
Antecedents, or what you want people to do
B. Behaviors, or what they actually did
C. Consequences, what happens as a result of those actions?
This is done by using systematic anonymous observations performed by the employees
themselves, their peers, safety teams, safety management or general management. The
observations are used to collect data which in turn is used to provide feedback to the
employees. When changes occur, positive reinforcement is used to thank employees for
making the changes and performing tasks in a safe manner. When this process is consistently
repeated a safe habit is formed and a strong safety culture is built. Following is a diagram
showing you the ABC Behavior Model.
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What Research Has Uncovered About Behavioral Consequences
•A
small, positive, immediate consequence has more impact on
behavior than a large, future and uncertain one.
• By
consistently and continuously reinforcing behavior change with
small amounts of awards, you will change behavior.
Our safety award systems fit perfectly into this research. Our awards can be small, positive
and immediate reinforcement to employees every time they perform in a safe manner, and
you can use them continuously and consistently in your operation.
The Guiding Principle: Behavior is a Function of Its Consequences
A person does something because of what happens to them when they do it. The cause of
the behavior doesn’t happen because of what you tell them or train them to do, it happens
because of what they experience immediately after the behavior.
Several years ago, a well know behavioral scientist, Dr. Aubrey Daniels conducted an informal
survey and discovered that managers spend 85% of their time either telling people what to
do, figuring out what to tell them to do, or deciding what to do because employees didn’t do
what they were told to do. Today, that hasn’t changed much. Managers still spend the vast
majority of their time on the A side of the model, the Antecedents, and little if any time on
the “C” side, the consequences. If the behavior is a function of the consequence wouldn’t it
just make sense to put an equal amount of time into that side?
The Steps to Take
Step 1: Make Observations
Most of you already know the reasons that most injuries and accidents occur, so it is necessary
to collect this data in a form that you can easily communicate it to your employees. You’ll
also need to some observations on your own, get your employees to do some observations on
themselves, get other employees to observe each other and get other management to observe
employees as well. It is only the gathering of good data that you will be able to implement a
system to correct behaviors and then reinforce the change with positive consequences.
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IMPORTANT!!
Initially, this observation component often makes employees nervous. It is of utmost
importance that you convey to them in the beginning that it is all done for no other reason
than to uncover and correct behaviors that are causing incidents of injury and accidents. This
should be a “no name / no blame” process. No names are recorded. You are not pinpointing
individuals; you are gathering data about how safe a group is. When employees see that
the net result is nothing more than a reward for making the necessary changes, you will be
surprised how willing they are to self-observe and have peers observe their behavior.
Step 2: Understanding Consequences.
Every behavior has multiple consequences, even the simplest ones, and a negative
consequence to one may be a positive consequence to another. We don’t expect you to
understand all the nuances of this behavior science, but you will need to understand some
fundamentals. Once you grasp the simple fundamentals, you will know why certain unsafe
behaviors are being repeated regardless of how often you tell employees not to do them. It’s
the characteristics of the consequences that give them their power. When virtually everyone
knows that smoking or being overweight is proven to be bad for you, do you ever ask yourself
why people smoke or don’t lose weight? Understanding these characteristics will go along
way toward answering that question.
Characteristics of a Consequence
TYPE
Positive to the person
TIMING
Immediately-while the
behavior is happening or
immediately thereafter
Negative to the person
Future-a few hours, days
or later
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PROBABILITY
Certain-happens close to
100% of the time
Uncertain-the consequence
only happens some of
the time
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Positive vs. Negative
These are two sides to the same coin. Positive consequences encourage more of the same
behavior; negative consequences discourage more of the same behavior.
Example: Public praise can be very positive for some and they strive to get more.
Others may be embarrassed by it and it will discourage the repeat behavior
that achieved it.
Immediate vs. Future
Immediate consequences are much more powerful than future consequences. The further
away the consequence the weaker the influence.
Example: Threatening the negative consequences of smoking to a teenager.
Certain vs. Uncertain
Certain consequences are much more powerful than uncertain ones. When it is uncertain it
will ever happen, it is not very powerful.
Example: When children play with matches and get burned they get a certain and
immediate consequence which will not likely be repeated. When you speed
for years and don’t get a ticket, because the threat of being pulled over and
getting a ticket are so uncertain.
PIC & NIC’s
The following definition* may be helpful in determining the types of consequences to employ
to get your employees to improve their safe work performance.
“...Consequences that are both immediate and certain (regardless of whether they are
positive or negative) are the most powerful. Consequences that are positive, immediate
but uncertain are the next most powerful....consequences that are negative, immediate
but uncertain are less powerful. Those consequences that are certain but future
(whether positive or negative) are also less powerful. Consequences that are both
future and uncertain are the weakest of all.”
*J. Agnew & G. Snyder, “Removing Obstacles to Safety” PMP Publications, 2008
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Think about past safety award programs you may have been involved with. How many of
them have been programs that awarded employees in some form at the end of a quarter or
year if they didn’t have an accident? In other words, how many of those programs were in
the PFC category?
The AwardSafety.com award systems give you a tool to provide reinforcement on a PIC basis...
Positive, Immediate and Certain. Our objective is to change the behavior of your people,
build long lasting, safe habits that reduce your incidents of accidents and injuries.
For information on our products and services please contact us at:
[email protected]
623-328-9431
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