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President’s Column
By Terry McSween, Ph. D.
Terry McSween, Ph.D., is the founder, president and CEO of Quality Safety
Edge in Montgomery, TX. He is also the founder of Behavioral Safety NOW, an
annual professional conference. McSween has more than 25 years of experience
consulting in educational, institutional and business settings, and he is the author
of The Value-Based Safety Process: Improving Your Safety Culture With Behavior-
Based Safety, 2nd ed., as well as numerous publications on the topic of behavioral
safety. McSween is a member of ASSE’s Gulf Coast Chapter.
Note: This article was initially written for another publication, but was never
published. However, we are including it here because we think the information
has value and practical application for our readers. —Terry McSween.
also suggests that such participation is even more important during times of significant
change than during initial implementation. Further, this year's data expands our informal
observations from the previous study and demonstrates the importance of having an
active employee champion for the process.
The Results
The data show that when both the formal and informal leaders consistently
perform observations, employees at their locations are more likely to actively participate
in conducting observations. At locations where leaders conducted 80 to 100 percent of
their observations, an average of 76 percent of the employees participated in conducting
monthly safety observations. At locations where leaders conducted 60 to 70 percent of
their observations (30 to 35 observations per year), an average of 50 percent of the
employees participated in conducting monthly safety observations. At locations where
leaders conducted less than 40 percent of their observations (an average of .1 per month),
an average of only 27 percent of the employees participated in conducting monthly safety
observations.
More employees conducted observations when their supervisors actively
participated in conducting observations. These findings replicate the results of the
previous study, demonstrating the importance of supervisor participation, and suggest
that their involvement in sustaining behavioral safety may be even more critical than
during the initial implementation. In fact, data from this study show an even stronger
The Role of Leadership in Behavioral Safety Observations
From The Safety Edge Blog – http://www.qualitysafetyedge.com/blog
Discussion
We do not maintain that a leader simply conducting observations is sufficient to
support behavioral safety. Clearly, this support consists of such activities as monitoring
employee participation, providing feedback, and ensuring that significant safety issues
are addressed in a timely and meaningful way. Nevertheless, the active involvement of
leaders in conducting observations is a positive indicator of other forms of active support.
In addition, by modeling such participation and gaining firsthand understanding that
comes from such participation, leaders are able to have more positive dialogues with their
employees when promoting safety and encouraging participation in safety observations.
In addition, this study is the first to document the value of having an active
employee safety champion who conducts observations in each area as well as the
importance of both formal and informal leaders remaining active in supporting
observations. The high correlation between the number of both formal and informal
leadership observations and employee participation suggests that organizations will have
the best results when both supervision and employee leaders are aligned in support of the
process. Having the active involvement of both the supervisor and informal leader
should result in more consistent feedback and ensure both better safety and better
maintenance of established safety processes.
Future studies should help define the activities that support behavioral safety,
beyond simply participating in regular safety observations.