By EVELYN SACKS
HR.BLR.com

Over the past decade, "behavioral safety has fast become an established weapon in the war on workplace accidents, as its use has helped many companies to dramatically slice through their accident plateau." That's the assessment of Dr. Dominic Cooper, a global expert on the subject. What is this method all about and what potential does it hold for you and your workers? Read on to learn more, and to gain insight into two well-known behavioral-based safety approaches by BST and The Topf Organization.

Behavioral Safety 101

Just exactly what is behavioral safety? Cooper offers the following definition: "the systematic application of psychological research on human behavior to the problems of safety in the workplace." He and others point to a vast body of scientific evidence that attests to the effectiveness of behavioral safety initiatives across a variety of industries in many countries. Cooper cites declines of 40 to75 percent in accident rates within six-to-twelve months of implementing a program.

He explains: "Ducking under or climbing over assembly lines to reach the controls, not holding the handrail when ascending/descending stairs, not putting equipment away after completing a job, etc. are all unsafe behavior. These are in the direct control of the person engaging in them, and therefore can be targeted for improvement via a workforce-driven behavioral safety initiative."

But he cautions that not all available systems are of equal merit. Cooper suggests that certain essential criteria be present in a program:

• It involves significant workforce participation.
• It targets specific unsafe behaviors.
• It is based on observational data collection.
• It involves data-driven decision-making processes.
• It involves a systematic, observational, improvement intervention.
• It involves regular focused feedback about ongoing performance.
• It requires visible ongoing support from managers and front-line supervision.

When programs are solidly designed and implemented, the results can be bountiful -- from accident reductions, to improved levels of safe behaviors, lower accident costs, and increased reporting of near-misses and defects.

Behavioral Science Technology, known as BST, was founded in 1979 in Ojai California by Dr. Thomas Krause, a psychologist, and Dr. John Hidley, a physician. The founders say they "pioneered the application of behavioral methods in industrial settings with emphasis on practical issues facing the managers charged with implementing this new approach." The company has evolved its Behavioral Accident Prevention Process, or BAPP technology, which is in wide use today throughout the U.S., Canada, and Britain.

An important shift for BST came in the mid-1980s with a move from management-driven to employee-driven systems for safe behavior. BST holds an annual users' conference, which typically attracts more than 2,000 participants. To date, the process has been used by more than 1,400 companies, including 3M Company, American Airlines, National Park Service, Pacific Gas & Electric, ExxonMobil Chemical, and Xerox.

At the heart of the BST approach are four linked, key activities:

• Identify behaviors that are critical to on-the-job excellence.
• Gather ongoing data on workgroup performance of those site-specific behaviors.
• Provide regular, two-way feedback on workgroup performance of the identified critical behaviors.
• Identify and remove behaviors to continuous performance improvement.

BST makes clear that its use of the word "behavior" as a technical term is different from the everyday meanings of the word. For BST, the word refers to "those observable measurable actions that are critical to performance in a particular organization." However, the company and its representatives emphasize that a focus on behavior in no way means "blame the worker," a belief shared by The Topf Organization as well. BST claims that workplace behavior is affected by many factors, most of which are ultimately controlled by management.

"Fixing the problem, not the blame, is the principle that brings results and develops internal resources," according to BST. The company asserts that the only way to understand why workers behave in a certain way is to look at the entire organizational structure, including training, procedures, management systems, company values, equipment design, etc.

BST Strives to Be BEST

BST Business Development Manager James Grant says whatever the size of a client company, or the size of its goals, the strategy is to help define what it wants to achieve. The next step is to set up a behavioral structure and introduce tools to help the client make a cultural transition to reach those goals. "When you change behaviors you end up with culture change," he explains. Grant says that despite strong motivation and desire for change, it too often does not happen because the tools and structure are lacking.

At the site level, BST typically establishes and trains a 10-person steering team to help roll out the behavioral process. One of the essential tasks of this group is to determine the behaviors most important to the organization based on injury, near-miss, and other types of data. These 15-20 behaviors make up a Critical Behaviors Inventory -- the core "at-risk" behaviors that will be the focus of the process.

The team is trained in observation and feedback, data collection, and in how to respond to the findings, for example by establishing an action plan for change. Eventually, about 15-20 percent of the workforce is trained to conduct field observations. These sessions can be as short as 15 minutes. Picture an employee with a clipboard observing and talking with a worker as he or she performs her typical duties.

"They talk about what was done safely, and about any at-risk behaviors, including ideas of how to avoid these in the future," says Grant. If at-risk behaviors are identified, three possibilities exist. The first is that the employee agrees that changes are under his or her control and will be made. The second is that changing behavior will be possible, but only if certain changes are made to the workspace or task design. The third possibility is that there appears to be no other way to perform the job under present conditions. In this case, the observer goes back to the steering team, which takes a more in-depth look at the possibilities for design change. Whatever the outcome, Grant emphasizes it's a "no judgment, non-disciplinarian," coaching-oriented style process.

Beyond Observations

Beyond training employees to conduct observations, BST works with its client businesses to help them manage the process and use the information they glean. Grant says that, using the analogy of a car, the idea is to manage from the windshield (proactively) rather than out the rearview mirror (reactively).

BST has developed software to help its clients track and measure their performance. "The BAPPTrack software crunches data and analyzes it to allow a team to be more effective," says Grant. And IMPACTSafety is a customized program for reporting and analyzing progress. The company looks for success in terms of "upstream behaviors," like the percentage of safe behaviors suggested by observations. But "downstream measures" like significantly lower injury rates are also anticipated, and achieved.

In sum, Grant says "Behavioral Science Technology is not a "gotcha" process. It's about going home safe.

According to founder and president Michael Topf, the organization and process he has created is markedly different from traditional behavioral approaches, primarily because its keystone is attitudinal change, which he says, leads to altered behavior. He describes it as a "holistic, integrated process" based on a number of behavioral methods.

Topf, who holds degrees in biology and chemistry, worked in organizational development and counseled people with addictions early in his career. Combining those two spheres led him to the field of occupational safety and health. He and a colleague established a company in the late 1970s to help companies make change. Eventually, he moved out on his own to specialize in safety. A formative project for him was an undertaking for DuPont. A research group was working on improving its safety record and was having trouble understanding why highly educated, motivated individuals were getting injured on the job.

"We learned through surveys and incident reports that the issue was human behavior, including daydreaming, distractedness, inattention, and stress. People were losing their focus on ended up hurting themselves," he recalls.

What was especially significant to Topf was that many of the DuPont people worked alone, with no daily supervision. That led him to conduct pioneering work in the area of self-observation and self-management techniques, which, today are a significant part of his approach. He developed a training module for DuPont that evolved into the process he and his staff today use with a range of national and global organizations.

How It Works

The Topf process is based on the premise that beliefs and attitudes determine behavior. For example, a driver may barrel down the highway at 100 miles per hour because he believes he is skilled and capable behind the wheel. But that sense of invincibility is likely to end his life, or to end someone else's. Like BST, Topf trainers start by assessing a client company's needs, past injury history, workplace conditions, relevant documents, etc., and by learning about the company's culture. A steering committee is established to help determine the goals and the purpose for the training.

Once this is known, employees at all levels participate in a four-hour training called Safety: A Function of Responsibility (SAFOR) in which they engage in exercises to make them aware of their attitudes and the effect on behavior and safety.

They're also instructed in the difference between automatic or non-deliberate "going away" behaviors that can result in injury, as compared with more deliberate risk-taking. The training includes self-observation and self-management skills, which Topf says keeps people monitoring themselves and making wiser choices both at work and off the job.

Supervisors undergo their own 2.5-day training in a program called "Managing for Safety." Explains Topf: "We seek to build a leadership coalition and teach managers the skills to help them coach, counsel, deal with noncompliance and, if all else fails, discipline." In more recent years, Topf has added a behavioral observation process, which is seen as an adjunct to other efforts, but is not seen as an essential part of the process.

He feels there's considerable value in introducing observation after employees have learned about the role of attitudes and beliefs. "At this point everyone has gained self-awareness and self-management skills. If you bring observation in at the beginning, it's harder to get them to accept it," says.

Satisfied Customer

Nick Porro is supervisor at the Hercules Research Center in Wilmington, Delaware. He chose the Topf process at his facility in late 1994 and notes: "One of the things that was appealing for me was that we would address behavior without engaging in one-on-one observations." Hercules, a chemical company, was soon to be involved in layoffs and he was wary of how employees would respond to "someone looking over their shoulders" at such a critical time.

The result has been "a complete cultural shift," including changed expectations on the part of company leaders who believed in the past that employee injuries were to be expected. A rate of 14 recordable injuries in 1995 dipped to 2 two years later, and has stayed there ever since. He also likes the monthly reinforcement program offered following the initial training. And he praises Topf's "agreements and breakdown" committees, which are established to deal with ongoing safety and health issues long after the consultants are gone. (Topf refers to these as "continuous improvement teams" that can and do operate indefinitely.)

Like many companies that bring in outside programs, the Hercules site created its own customized program reinforcement component, for example adding its own observation program in later years. Porro says the Topf method has been adopted throughout the Hercules research and development division, including at sites in Europe.

Assessing progress is of critical importance to The Topf Organization, as it is to BST. The company has developed the SAFOR Score Card, a focused questionnaire employees complete at strategic points throughout the process. Information gleaned is compared to baseline data. "A cross-section of labor and management complete the cards. They give feedback and we will design interventions based on that feedback," Topf adds. "Bottom line, we don't want people hurt. We also look for safe behaviors, like wearing personal protective equipment, following procedures, and proper training, as well as whether management is showing support and co-workers are interacting positively."

Although statistics are important, they're not enough, he says. "When people are behaving properly, the numbers go down. We see it on OSHA logs, severity rates, and workers' comp costs."

Much to Be Gained

Both Behavioral Science Technology and The Topf Organization note that the processes they've developed around safety and health have potential value in other areas, including production and quality. Both methods have been well-received in the marketplace, and both report significant improvements and cost-savings for client organizations.

If investigating behavioral-based methods to injury and illness reduction is one of your new year's resolutions, there's a great deal of information available. These and other vendors are pleased to share information and success stories, as well as testimonials and statistical data. It's a big undertaking, but the potential rewards can be significant.