An analysis of the behavior-based safety program at Company XYZ

Abstract

Company XYZ is a food processor/packaging firm that introduced a behavior-based safety program approximately three years ago. Currently, three behavior-based surveys are filled out each day from each of the nine departments. They are collected and the results are entered into a spreadsheet which tabulates the number of safe and unsafe acts observed. The results of the survey are simply counted as a safe or unsafe per department. There is no distinction between the shifts, time of day, or other potentially identifying factors. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent that employees from Company XYZ are reporting behavior-based safety data correctly and determine if the information collected from this process is being used effectively. To accurately measure the problem, several different behavior-based safety programs were identified and evaluated: The DO IT Process, The Values Based Safety Process, and the STOP Program. In addition, software options available for companies to organize their behavior-based safety data were analyzed. Employees at Company XYZ completed a survey regarding their safety beliefs. Two limitations encountered in this study were a limited number of responses received from the employees as well as the possibility that not all of the completed surveys were filled out truthfully. While the results of this study were mainly positive, Company XYZ does not seem to be excelling in the behavior-based safety process as compared to similar programs in effect at other organizations. As a result of performing this study, the researcher recommends that Company XYZ reevaluates the checklists, provide more frequent and in depth training, and considers a more complete data organization system.