Basics of Behaviour Based Safety (BBS)

Behaviour based safety (BBS) is a widely used and still a less understood term in safety.  BBS is not just about forcing the workmen to wear the chin strip of the helmet or a stage created to give gifts to certain workers. It is much more than. BBS is a scientifically designed and people driven approach to safety.

ABC of BBS

•   Antecedents
•   Behavior
•   Consequences

Antecedents for BBS usually are the communication inputs given to the target group. It can be in any form including trainings, slogans, campaigns, signages, work instructions and procedures etc. Antecedents have a diminishing effect with time. They follow the ‘Law of diminishing returns’ (for any economist reading the article). i.e If we keep on increasing the antecedents, it will finally reach a stage wherein you will not be able to find any remarkable increment in the output in comparison to the higher levels of efforts put in.

Also, the antecedents can have an effect on the person only for a shorter period of time. The effectiveness reduces as you go on in the similar fashion.

One thing you can do is to increase the intensity of the antecedents. More trainings, more campaigns etc.

But there will be certain percentage of people who never change. There will be people who change back to their normal behavior once the effect of training goes out from their minds. What to do?

The same people who dirty the coaches of Indian Railways don’t dirty the coaches of a metro. They find it too clean so that they themselves withhold from dirtying the metro coaches. The same follows in other cases also. If you have to make your people to show a behavior, then make that behavior a part of your work culture. Work culture is what you practice, work culture is what others see. A positive work culture should be developed and imbibed into all the workers in the organization. Normally, even those people who join as new comers will get into the system and become part of the work culture whether it is a good one or a bad one. People normally are like – ‘Ok. It is normal here to throw sweet wrappers on the road. Then why should I search and find a dust bin?’

Logical organization helps reduce human effort in any work. People can easily recognize and remember patterns. Why are the traffic signals always arranged in order of Red, yellow and green from top to bottom? Same can be applied to arrangement of materials, logical design of workplace and work practices etc. These can in turn act as important drivers of a good work culture.

Put in logic into what you do. That is the best way

Behaviour is anything that a person does which is also observable and measurable.

Consequences of a behaviour decides whether the occurrences of the particular behavior is increased or decreased. The consequences that drive behavior are can be summarized into four group which will be disussed in detail in the next article.

1.       Positive/ negative
2.       Immediate / in future
3.      Certain / uncertain
4.       Severe / moderate

The consequence of a behaviour influence behaviours and actions. Hence positive behaviours should be reinforced and rewarded. Negative behaviours should be stopped.