The Role that Informal Systems Play in the Success of Behavior Based Safety

Behavior based safety has gained in popularity in the last few years in most industries that are trying to effectively reduce accidents. Impressive behavior changes have taken place and significant reduction in injury rates have been achieved on sites where behavior safety has been implemented in a structured manner. However, along with these improvements, misconceptions have also surfaced, depriving some companies of the success they could have easily attained.

Companies that apply the principles of the behavior based process correctly have succeeded in improving their safety performance. Others that have not applied the principles underpinning the process, or have not done so in a structured manner have not succeeded.

Fundamental to the success of the behavior based safety process is the acceptance and understanding by senior management that safety, quality and production performance are threatened by informal activities within the formal system of the organization.

All organizations have a formal system in place to direct and control the behavior of employees. Policies, procedures and rules are all part of the formal system. Management selects, purchases, installs and directs the utilization of technology, production process, machinery and equipment. Management is the owner of such technology, processes, equipment and machinery and in the final analysis has the sole authority in final decisions as to who and how it will be operated, when and how it will be maintained, and to what degree it will be safeguarded.

Managers are often unaware of the importance of informal systems in their areas of responsibility and only focus on trying to get compliance with the formal system. The informal systems can be the silent killers of the formal system in the company. An informal system is described as the social relationships among employees, the unwritten conventions about their work.

If taking short cuts, condoning unsafe practices, victimization of incident victims, blaming of workers, allowing controls to be rendered ineffective, allowing the withholding of information that can prevent accidents and lack of cooperation across departments exists in a company, then performance excellence in safety will be very difficult to achieved.

As a result of the possible existence of these informal systems that can kill the formal system, most effective behavior-based safety processes are designed to focus mainly on the activities of the informal systems that may or may not exist in the organization. It should be clear that the closer the informal system is aligned with the formal system the better the results obtained will be.