Building a Management Foundation for Behavioral Safety

Grainne A. Matthews, Ph.D.

Sometimes an organization is not quite ready for an employee-based behavioral safety process. Such was the case with a recent Quality Safety Edge customer who decided they wanted to improve Safety Leadership with a values-based behavioral approach before asking employees to become involved in observations and feedback, data analysis and action planning.

In 2000, this large manufacturing and service company assembled a new management team for this plant. The plant has approximately 300 employees who perform such tasks as welding, metal bending, metal shearing, machining, plasma and laser cutting, electrical and mechanical assembly, sand blasting and painting, testing, shipping and receiving, warehousing, and servicing units in the field. OSHA Recordable and Lost Time Incident rates were above the industry averages.

The new management team was interested in a systematic and comprehensive approach to improving safety and considered an employee-based observation and feedback approach typical of most behavioral safety processes. However, an assessment completed by Quality Safety Edge revealed the necessity for building management credibility before asking employees to increase their responsibility for safety. The assessment included a regulatory compliance audit as well as a behavioral systems analysis.

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