Managing Safety: Unions and Behavior-Based Safety: The 7 Deadly Sins

The right approach includes the following:

1. Rather than fixing the blame, focus on fixing the problems.

2. Realize that people make behavioral choices for a reason. If you don’t change the reason, you probably won’t change the behavior. So rather than confronting a fellow worker taking a risk, try to find out what is influencing that behavior, document it and take it to a steering team who will prioritize and address the issues.

3. Acknowledge that BBS is no silver bullet, but just another tool in your safety toolbox. Carefully separate BBS from traditional safety programs and allow them to work synergistically together without duplication or overlap.

4. Carefully separate any punishment from the process. BBS should be separate from traditional safety, and behaviors on BBS checklists should not overlap with rules and procedures. This ensures that no one is disciplined for BBS observation data.

5. Define management and supervisor’s roles, responsibilities and expectations in BBS in such a way that they support without taking over the process. Enforce these guidelines to ensure they are executed properly.

6. Include the unions in the decision to implement BBS, and in the design and customization of the process for the site. Their input is valuable and essential to success.

7. Stay true to the basic tenets of BBS, but customize and innovate approaches to fit the culture, the site and any other programs in place, such as 5S and Lean and Six Sigma.

Behavior-based safety practiced and implemented with sensitivity to union concerns can achieve superior results without encountering the resistance of other approaches. Not only does the adoption of these methods enable greater success, but it enhances the durability and fit of the BBS process to the site in a way that makes the process more sustainable long-term.

Terry L. Mathis is the founder and CEO of ProAct Safety. As an international expert and safety culture practitioner, he has worked with hundreds of organizations customizing innovative approaches to achieve and sustain safety culture excellence. He has spoken at numerous company and industry conferences, and is a regular presenter at NSC, ASSE PDC and ASSE Seminar- Fest. He can be reached at 800-395-1347 or info@proactsafety.com.