Behavioral Safety Approach for Workplace Accidents Prevention (Lessons from Indian Organizations)

According to a researcher, organizations that fail to take a scientific approach to safety's human-behavior element are gambling with their futures and are ultimately only safe by accidents. Behaviour Safety is a statistically meaningful improvement of the Safety Performance in the Workplace. Behavioral safety is all about changing the basic organizational culture to inculcate positive safety at the workplace. This is popularly known as behaviour based safety (BBS).Killing thousands of...
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According to a researcher, organizations that fail to take a scientific approach to safety's human-behavior element are gambling with their futures and are ultimately only safe by accidents. Behaviour Safety is a statistically meaningful improvement of the Safety Performance in the Workplace. Behavioral safety is all about changing the basic organizational culture to inculcate positive safety at the workplace. This is popularly known as behaviour based safety (BBS).Killing thousands of people at workplace across the globe every year is a major concern and one wonders whether achieving zero accident is a mere documentation exercise or is it really achievable for industry. Unsafe or at-risk behaviours are considered to be the ultimate cause of most workplace accidents. Zero accident or zero unsafe behaviour is an occupational safety perspective that needs clarity for organizational emphasis. This manuscript challenges the management perspective and action on utilization of the existing safety systems and programs in organizations that keeps on disabling and killing people at work, thereby making zero accident-injury situations far from achieving a safe workplace for people. Author shares reflections of his longitudinal action research carried out in Indian multinational companies extended over 15 years (1997-2013) for benefit of the management practice of safety in organizations.TABLE OF CONTENTS * Foreword* Preface * Acknowledgements* Safety PoemChapter I: BBS ConceptsChapter II: BBS ProcessesChapter III: BBS Implementation Chapter IV: 26 Organizational Cases on Behavior Based Safety (BBS) in India Chapter V: 100 Varied Reflections on Behavioral SafetyChapter VI: Organizational Safety Climate SurveyChapter VII - Experiences of Organizations that implemented behavioral safetyChapter VIII - BBS Implementation case of a large multinational engineering companyChapter IX - Review of Behaviour Based Safety (BBS) Implementation in Indian Organizations Appendix 1- BBS checklist for pipelines and R& DAppendix 2 - BBS checklist for refineriesAppendix 3 - BBS Check List for IOCL Marketing LocationsAppendix 4 - BBS Sticker for putting on helmetAppendix 5 - Development of behavior based safety procedure as per OHSAS 18001:2007Appendix - 6 -Ten BBS Banners for displaying at the workplaceAppendix 7 - Photo flash of BBS programmes in IndiaReferences for Further ReadingDr Harbans Lal KailaProfessor of Organizational Psychology &BBS Trainer/Implementer,Mumbai, IndiaMobile: 0091-9322 006518E-mail: kailahl@hotmail.com