Emerging Issues and Outcomes of Behavior Based Safety (BBS) Implementation

AbstractUnsafe or at-risk behaviours of employees are the root cause of almost all accidents and fatalities in organizations. BBS is a process of chaining people in safety behaviours. This article is a case of a large gas company in India on various processes and emerging outcomes of behavior based safety (BBS) implementation. A set of issues and apprehensions laced by the Lead Trainers/Observers as well as emerging outcomes of BBS implementation are reflected. Recommendations are made for consolidating BBS implementation. This study is intended to be useful for companies interested in implementing BBS as a significant step towards managing zero occupational injuries and accidents.Keywords: Behavior Based Safety, BBS, Organizations, Accidents, Unsafe behaviours.IntroductionEmployees violate safety rules inside the company as children do in school. Employees begin compromising safety rules first by not wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) and gradually go up to violating the SOP (standard or safe operating procedures). These unsafe/ atrisk behaviours on part of employees commence the journey for injuries and fatalities3,6. According to security personnel of a company, "fifty percent of contract workers inside the plant are not wearing PPE; we could not enforce it at the company gate, as head of departments (HODs) would call us to allow them inside the plant without PPE as their work would suffer. On the other hand, the contract workers did not wear PPE as they were not provided with by their contractors and the safety department did not enforce penalty for the same on the contractors. This clearly reflects that they all joined to compromise with unsafe behaviours. "With the change of ownership from top to bottom level, safety culture in organizations has dramatically changed1. According to Fred2, new BBS programs evolve through continual training. This requires communication skills among all employees, not just those on the work floor. The management team must be as excited to see progress and participate with the behavioral observers on a continued cycle, where praise and reward go a long way towards sustaining the BBS programBBS means more people would voice for safe behaviours as being trained observers4. According to a deputy general manager of the company, "safety means the number of heads entered in the company premises should be equal to number of heads out of the company gate (with a smile) everyday.Research MethodA large gas company in India invited the BBS experts to implement BBS in their gas processing units, petrochemical unit as well as pipelines for almost 4000 employees and 2000 contractors' workmen. The methodology used for implementing BBS is as follows:1. Conducted BBS awareness workshops for 20% employees i.e. 800 observers.2. Conducted five days BBS Lead Trainers Workshop for 5% i.e. 200 employees.3. Conducted five days BBS Roll-out Activities including support and hand-holding with lead trainers' observation and feedback skills.4. Formed and conducted meetings of Multidisciplinary BBS Functional Safety Committees for Safety excellence and implementation (such as Process, Physical, Maintenance, Road). * Process Safety Committee: Review and updates on Safe Operating Procedures, Work Permit System and Lock-out, Tag-out procedure, Management of Change, Training needs, Incident Investigations, Audits, Interlocks, Design Verses operating Parameters, Loading and unloading etc.* Physical Safety: PPE need and compliance, housekeeping, ergonomics, equipments and tools, mobile usage, rules-regulation and standards on safety and its compliance etc.* Maintenance Practices (mechanical, electrical and instrumentation): Calibrations, material handling, electrical tools, energisation and de-energisation etc.* Road Safety: The road safety subcommittee is responsible for assisting the Site Steering Committee to ensure road safety by developing Road safety guideline, Travel guideline, Rules and regulation for safe driving and implementing other road safety measures etc. …