A user on one of the behavior-based safety (BBS) sections of Linkedin.com recently stated that he thought BBS was one of the “simpler” elements of an organization’s safety management system. Though I did not respond at the time, I considered that this comment was probably made by someone whose only experience with BBS was a STOP system, or one of the other relatively basic observation programs promoted by a number of organizations and practitioners.
Engage Employees In The Safety Process
By Tarek Abousaleh
When deciding on a behavior-based safety (BBS) process, it is important to take into account more than simply whether there is a need for behavior change in order to reduce incidents and injuries. In addition to recognizing the need for members of the organization to join together in taking responsibility for reducing incidents, an analysis of the rules and contingencies of the workplace should be completed.
By Terry E. McSween, founder and CEO, Quality Safety Edge
Last year I had the opportunity to speak with a group of 35 construction and maintenance contractors that were involved in active behavior-based safety (BBS) peer observation processes. I was invited to speak on the topic of improving peer safety observations.
The participants were mostly safety managers from their respective companies with a small number of other managers who worked in the field and had shared responsibility for safety. Also, this was not a random group drawn from the universe of organizations using BBS. They elected to come to a session that was billed as discussing common problems with BBS, so I assumed it was a group representing companies whose BBS programs were struggling with at least some aspects of the BBS process. I was not connected to the participating organizations in any way. I had not met them before nor had QSE worked with any of them. As a result, I had very little background concerning their organizations with which to frame our discussion. Luckily, we have begun using an audience response system that allows us tocollect data and receive feedback from our audience, so I decided to solicit some information from the audience on their specific problems with BBS observations.
In 1998, the Thunder Creek Gas Services, LLC Company was established with just over a handful of employees as a joint venture to build a gathering and transportation system for natural gas in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. Since that time, the enterprise has grown into a successful organization of currently almost 40 employees with locations in Gillette and Douglas, Wyoming, and Denver, Colorado.