Safety Observation Process

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• Safety Observation Process

Pathway to an Injury Free Career If we can
predict it we can prevent it!
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What Is a Safety Observation?

• Tool to raise safety awareness in a
  non-threatening way
• Allows for directed / guided observation teams
• Tool to build trust
• Feedback loop mechanism
• ? increase safety awareness
• ? decrease anxiety or threat of reporting errors
• Goal is to fix things quickly and effectively

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Effective Safety Management

• Characteristics of effective safety performance
• Measurable.
• Focuses on positive activities.
• Direct impact on outcomes.
• Opportunity for two-way feedback and positive
  reinforcement.
• Opportunity for goal setting based on performance
  data.

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Observations identify job site hazards,
controls, conditions, manage exposure to risks,
reduce exposure, and thereby reduce injury.

• Apply a strategic approach
• Anticipate and prevent active error at the job
  site.
• Reduce total number of at-risk critical
  behaviors and/or conditions.
• Identify and eliminate the related
  barriers/latent organizational
  weaknesses.
• Change other factors to encourage safe behaviors.

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Safety ObservationObjectives

• Provide positive reinforcement / feedback for
  safe behaviors observed.
• Identify error-likely conditions for corrective
  actions.
• Gather meaningful data for analysis that
  identifies institutional weaknesses in work
  management systems.

Do Work Safely
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Fix the Person or the System?
Is the Person Clumsy? Or Is the Problem . .
. The Step???
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II. Human Performance Integrated Safety
Management
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Human Performance Improvement
Five Basic Principles

• People are fallible, and even the best make
  mistakes.
• Error-likely situations are predictable,
  manageable, and preventable.
• Individual behavior is influenced by
  organizational processes and values.
• People achieve high levels of performance based
  largely on the
• encouragement and reinforcement received
  from leaders, peers,
• and subordinates.
• 5. Events can be avoided by understanding
  the reasons mistakes
• occur and applying the lessons
  learned from past events.

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Industry Statistics onCauses of Events
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When Things Go Wrong
How It Is Now
How It Should Be
Human error is the cause of accidents You are
highly trained and If you did as trained, you
would not make mistakes so You werent careful
enough so You should be PUNISHED!
Human error is a symptom of trouble deeper inside
a system. You are human and Humans make
mistakes so Lets also explore why the system
allowed, or failed to accommodate your
mistake Lets IMPROVE THE SYSTEM!
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When Things Go Wrong
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Where we are coming from
I keep entering this in the system but something
needs to be done. The majority of the traffic
going down and up Pecos drive is speeding. and a
lot of the traffic is Gov. vehicles. Speed humps
need to be put in place. Someone is going to get
hit. There should be Speed humps installed on
Pecos Road because of the excess speeding going
on while people are walking to there buildings in
the morning and also during lunch. Gov. vehicles
and personal vehicles driving very fast up and
down the road. NEED SPEED HUMPS!!!! As I was
walking from the guard gate into PF-1, I observed
a craft trucking speeding from the south to the
north in a 10 MPH posted area. I was about to
step into the crosswalk when they saw me and
stopped suddenly. I motioned to the driver to
slow down. They just laughed.
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Vehicle Operator Observation1.0 Pre Trip
Inspection
Where we are headed

• Observed multiple cars in TA-55 parking lot and
  discovered that several of their tires were
  either under inflated or over inflated. with
  weather conditions becoming a factor proper tier
  pressure is important to check before driving.
• Frost on windshield caused potential visibility
  problem. On discussing the issue it was decided
  to be late for a meeting and take the necessary
  time to completely clean the frost from the
  window before travelling.
• During inspection of my motorcycle prior to
  leaving home for work, I found the brake light to
  be non-operational. The tail light was working,
  but not the brake light. I installed a spare bulb
  and that fixed the problem.
• Observed LANL semi driver leaving yard pulling
  trailer, he did not do a pull test on trailer to
  make sure it was secure to tractor, stopped
  driver helped with pull test.

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Vehicle Operator Observation 2.0 Stopping

• Driver initially stopped with about 1/2 car
  length distance between our vehicle and the
  vehicle in front of us, but increased this to a
  full car length after discussion.
• Driver did a rolling stop at the stop sign.
  Pointed out the "California" stop in a nice way
  and driver agreed that full stop would have been
  safer.
• Driver in government vehicle did not fully stop
  at stop sign when leaving parking lot. I noted
  who the driver was (someone I knew) and
  spoke/teased them about it later. They agreed
  that they should have fully stopped.
• Driver often yields at stop signs rather than
  stops. A discussion was held concerning the
  behavior and the drive admitted to fault and
  stated that through awareness, the drive will be
  comply to stop signs and making a complete stop.
  In addition, a discussion was held concerning
  crashes that could be prevented if the drivers
  stopped completely as required by law.

Vehicle Operator Observation 3.0 Parking

• Several cars were noted in the parking lot as
  having parked outside of designated spaces. I
  spoke with one driver, who didn't really care
  that they might get a ticket. They did not want
  to have to walk from TA-50 parking lot stating
  that it was more dangerous to walk and possibly
  slip on the ice than park in an unmarked spot.
• The driver did forget the turn the wheels while
  parking on a hill. This behavior was identified
  and will be corrected for future vehicle
  operations.

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Vehicle Operator Observation4.0 Backing

• Airports could be designed so that airplanes
  would never have to back up.
• Driver and Observer do not understand this
  question. Is this asking if the passenger backed
  up the vehicle before the driver did?
• Driver failed to check rear of vehicle for any
  possible hazards before backing up. Spotter was
  needed and used after being notified.
• The driver was not aware that it is a good
  driving practice to sound the horn prior to, and
  if possible, during the backing up process. He
  concurred that this signals pedestrians behind
  the vehicle to clear the area and committed to
  begin using this practice.
• The driver did not sound the horn while backing
  up. This was a safety concern that both the
  observer and the observee learned by performing
  the ATOMICS observation.
• Driver and Observer do not understand this
  question. Is this asking if the driver backs up
  the vehicle by turning the wheels 90 degrees and
  moving the vehicle side ways?

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Safety Observer Roles and Responsibilities

• Observer rules for observing performance
• Judge the behavior of the worker being observed
  with the
• same criteria you would use for yourself.
• We judge ourselves with external factors.
• We judge others with internal factors.

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Fundamental Tenets of Safety Observations

• Focuses on behaviors and conditions
• No name, no blame process
• Process is for people, it involves everybody
• Gives positive reinforcement for safe behaviors.
• Pro-active uses leading indicators
• Statistically driven.
• Unlike TRC/DART provides process numbers workers
  control.

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ATOMICS Safety Process
4 Essential Elements

• Identify the critical behaviors and conditions
• Collect data
• Provide feedback
• Use data to reduce/remove latent organizational
  weaknesses.

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Focus Shifts
Safety Stand downs Re-read procedures Safety
Meetings Retraining
Stop Think Act Review
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Focus Shifts
Fix the problem before it injures the
worker. Identification of error likely
situations. Strengthen defenses.
Total Recordable (TRC) Days Away Restricted Time
(DART) First Aid cases
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Focus Shifts
Leading indicators Process improvement Accident
prevention Near miss reporting Develop defense
in depth Error tolerance Just work environment
Lagging indicators Non diagnostic Crisis
Reactions Stand downs TRC/DART Lessons learned
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Observations manage exposure to risks, reduce
exposure, and reduce injury.

• Apply a strategic approach
• Anticipate and prevent active error at the job
  site.
• Reduce total number of at-risk critical
  behaviors.
• Identify and eliminate the related
  barriers/latent organizational
  weaknesses.
• Change other factors to encourage safe behaviors.

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How do we change behavior?
Traditional methods to improve safety performance

• Progressive Discipline
• Administrative Policies
• Visions, Goals, Plans
• Core Value Statements
• Safety Training
• New Safety Initiatives

• Committees
• Focus Groups
• Additional Defense Layers
• Contests Awards
• Safety meetings
• Motivational speakers

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How do we change behavior?
Traditional safety response Injury employee
finished cleaning toilet inside stall turned
tight and hit head on coat hanger Response
retrain employee on being more aware of
surroundings and potential hazards. Injury
walking to truck, slipped on ice Response
employee reminded to check walking area before
proceeding to vehicle for slippery
conditions Injury employee walking around
vehicle-slipped on ice and almost fell Response
retrain employee on slips, trips, and falls
safety. Injury employee missed dip in sidewalk,
slipped and fell Response be conscious of where
you are walking Injury employee sneezed acute
internal pain in lower left rib cage
area Response encourage employee to stabilize
body alignment before sneezing Injury disposing
metal piece, cut edge caught employees glove
cutting through and cutting finger Response need
to describe to workers conditions that make up
line of fire and self control of natural
reflexes.
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• If we can predict it we can prevent it!

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Observations identify job site hazards, controls,
conditions, manage exposure to risks, reduce
exposure, and thereby reduce injury.
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Are you from OSHA?
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At-risk behavior is usually a trigger, NOT a
Cause
Habit
Imperfect Memories
Poor Communication
Time Pressure
Poor Ergonomic Job Design
Peer Pressure
No Supervision
Inadequate Training
Lack of Accountability
Confusing Procedures
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Understanding Behavior With ABC Analysis
Activator Police Car Flashing Red
Lights Radiation Work Practices Phone rings
Consequence Citation/nothing Contamination
Y/N Talk with caller
Behavior Slow down/speed up Turbo-Frisking An
swer phone
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Influencing Long-term Behavior
Consequences control behavior!
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Factors that Affect the Power of Consequences
The most powerful consequences are Soon Certain P
ositive
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Feedback
Feedback is a powerful way to influence behavior

• Feedback is a consequence.
• To be effective it must be
• soon,
• certain,
• and positive

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Organizational Responsibilities

• Reducing Errors (observations)
• It is naïve (foolish) to think that positive
  reinforcement is the single mechanism for safety
  observations success.
• Managing Defenses (data analysis)
• The organizational change initiative,
  identification of system, facility, and equipment
  issues identified are at least as likely to be
  primary improvement mechanisms as positive
  reinforcement.

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Interaction Technique

• Before the observation
• Let people know you are observing them
• Answer any questions about the process
• Mention that there will be feedback/discussion
  after
• After the observation
• Observer reinforces safe behaviors, and, if
  needed, discusses observed at-risk actions and
  options to avoid future occurrence,

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Giving Feedback

• Discuss at-risks and explore barriers to
  working safely
• Separate discussion of at-risk behaviors
• from positive feedback.
• Ask open-ended questions
• (Ex Whats the worst accident that can happen?
  How could you be hurt doing this task. Why are
  you doing it this way?)
• Ask for suggestions/ideas, draw out the
  corrective action that
• may be required from the person.
• Record comments. Seek a personal commitment
  from that the individual will carry out the
  action and thank them for participating.

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Giving Feedback

• The goal of the behavioral observation is to
  improve (influence) the performance (behavior)
  of the workers observed.
• It is critical for workers to understand the
  types of behaviors and conditions that either
  increase exposure (at-risk behaviors) or reduce
  the risk of exposure (identified safe behaviors).

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A Safety Observation

• Is a sampling procedure
• Is the cornerstone of the safety process
• Is systematic and standardized
• Samples behaviors and conditions, not
  individuals

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A Safety Observation
Shares expertise From January 2010 to May 2010
the Vehicle Operator Observation sheet was
utilized by the ASM-MM group 24 times and by all
other organizations 314 times. From January
2010 to May 2010 the Lifting Observation sheet
was utilized by ASM-MM 62 times and by all other
organizations 268 times.