Behaviour Based Safety Training
Behaviour Based Safety Training – the Problem
Let’s cut to the chase here…
You want to improve human performance on your sites, in your factory or wherever you operate.
You’ve done a mountain of training but the accidents that are costing you so dearly in winning future work are still happening.
The consultants/trainers you engaged with have put on a bucket load of training but you still have the same problems except you are down by significant consultant fees.
What they didn’t tell you or you didn’t consider is that:
Training imparts knowledge.
It doesn’t guarantee performance.
Recognising the Human Factor
You’ve been sending ‘Alerts’ to all staff to tell of the most recent accident that you consider totally unavoidable if it wasn’t for the ‘stupidity’ of the person involved.
You think that you’d have never done something so ‘stupid’ except that we are all pretty much the same in our behaviour because you take risks, you break rules, you can’t remember everything in the briefing, you get distracted, you are occasionally inattentive and you don’t always check stuff properly.
It’s utterly human.
Accidents have multiple causation factors and are seldom the single fault of one person and alerts only ‘deal’ with the last accident and not the ones still to come.
And so, the training.
Someone has cried out in exasperation that attitudes need to change without truly understanding how deep seated and difficult to change such long in the making’ attitudes are.
The most recent accident is followed up with a new rule. Of course, within the causation of the accident was a rule violation so new rules aren’t likely to make a difference so more training then, eh?
The trainees already know what to do, they just didn’t do it. How is that so?
Asking “How” rather than “Why” will start getting to the root causes. “Why” generally stops when you reach “Who” and the blame game starts which doesn’t prevent a recurrence of such accidents.
Retraining is undertaken in the hope that this time it will work. It doesn’t always!
So what to do?
Gilbertson Shaw advocates and assists with Predict and Prevent along with Observation and Correction
Predict and Prevent – Gilbertson Shaw has, over the years, been invited to numerous safety seminars and Stand down days set up by well-meaning safety staff. Such days often involve talking at the gathered masses and regurgitating accidents in the period. Nothing changes but a production day has been lost with no discernible benefit.
Gilbertson Shaw approaches things differently by asking the gathered masses what is going to be the next accident because they will know. There are two main reasons for this:
- After an accident some one will say “I could have told you that was going to happen”. They didn’t because the forum and channel to do so wasn’t good enough or effective. If they had have done then it could have been prevented. This is the basic premise of Predict and Prevent
- What management thinks happens ‘out there’ is probably a world apart from what really does happen and therefore we gain much from asking, listening, recording and acting
Observation and Correction allows the trained and insightful supervisor or manager the wherewithal to detect what is developing that will eventually lead to accidental loss and how to effectively intervene . For example, the operative that walks into an exclusion zone or passes the rear of a reversing vehicle. Real time Observation and Correction has been proven to be more effective that the aforementioned Stand Down day talking shops. Effective interventions are key and they must be done correctly to elicit the desired and long term remedy. It’s not just a case of “Hey, don’t do that”.
Gilbertson Shaw can provide the tools and support for you to change behaviours and change culture via Behaviour Based Safety Training.
a FREE ½ day director’s briefing
We are so confident in our approach that we’ll gladly demonstrate the benefits to your company or organisation with no commitment to your most senior team.