Behaviour Based Safety (BBS) is a strategy that uses safety observations to inform management and employees about the overall safety of the workplace. The purpose of the BBS programme is to increase the organization’s employee safety by drawing workers’ attention to their own and their colleagues’ regular safety behavior
The Basics of an Observation
Observers (workers trained to perform on-site safety checks) conduct reviews of other employees with an eye on their behavior when implementing a BBS programme. These observers document safe and dangerous conduct, as well as safe and unsafe workplace circumstances. The observer then informs the worker of his or her observations and gives comments. Positive feedback is welcome.
Discussing strategies for employees to conduct their activities in a safer manner helps workers and observers become more conscious of their actions. BBS programmes are built on a continuous feedback loop in which employees and observers offer comments on how to enhance safety to one another, and safety professionals use the data gathered during the observations to continuously improve the BBS program
Organizations that adopt a BBS programme establish a proper list of behaviors to watch out, depending on their organization specific habits and hazards. Safety professionals often create a checklist style that is simple and quick for field observers to complete, and outlines the objective behaviors.

BBS Program Objectives
- Enhance safety as a core value of at all managerial levels through BBS
- Embed change at all levels by implementing a customized behavior-based safety & cultural transformation process
- Develop safety behaviors identification and improvement intervention
- Prepare and implement process / procedure guidelines for BBS
- Train and develop internal auditors/observer for carrying out BBS and guide in conducting the audit/Observation program
- Use of scoring system and protocol to do the assessment and audit the effectiveness of BBS.
- Use of BBS rating for correcting and improving BBS
BBS Process Implementation methodology
Pre-BBS development review:
- Identification of Critical to safety behaviors reviewing Past incidents, audit, recommendations, safety programs, employees involvement in safety related activities.
- Conduct customized Safety Climate Questionnaire Survey for Management, supervisors and operations personnel which shall include: Data analysis, Determine the current safety climate rating
- Presentation to Management on findings of safety climate survey reports by team leader
- Design organization Specific BBS Technical Process Standards based on Observation and Feedback. Designing Organization BBS Standard (Development of BBS steering committee, BBS procedures, observation card)
- Develop BBS Charter and Roles and responsibilities of BBS team and HODs
- Review with organization HODs on BBS progress and support if any
- Guide and support Organization IT team in developing a BBS Web Portal site which can be viewed by all employees to get relevant information with regards to BBS.
BBS implementation – Process approach
- Integration – Safety observation and other safety management system(Integrated Management System (IMS), Workplace Safety (WPS), Process Safety Management(PSM)
- Training
- Steering team size
- Observation data – Observation process
- Observation strategy
- Data utilization – root cause analysis – why brainstorming , RCA etc and apply ABC model
- Managers/supervisors support
- Eliminating non value added steps
- Efficiency and Effectiveness

How to manage safety and Risk BBS and safety culture

Behavior Based Safety Observation Program – Data analysis
