People + Process = Performance

Behavioral Based Safety and Ergonomics: A Major Oxymoron?

I recently attended a presentation in which the speaker was trying to make the case that behavioral safety and ergonomics are virtual the same and go hand in hand together.  He started off by saying that bad behaviors are caused by bad ergonomics and that good ergonomics can produce wanted (good) behaviors.  I totally agreed with him but then he gave the following example:

He stated there was an employee whose job it was to move a product that weighed 100 lbs. from one area to another.  The company bought a hoist system for the employee to use to eliminate the injury risk from repeatedly lifting the heavy object.  The employee didn’t use the hoist because he stated it was too slow.  He stated he was able to lift the 100 lbs. item quicker by himself which allowed him to have a few minutes of rest every hour.  When he used the hoist he didn’t have any breaks because he had to watch and wait for it to slowly lift and move the item.  The speaker then stated the solution (?!?) to the unwanted employee behavior (not using the hoist) was to implement a new policy that mandated use of the hoist and to observe the worker to make sure he used the hoist.  He stated that the company would be sure to send another worker over to replace him so he could get his two work breaks.

Now I don’t know about you but I don’t like that “solution” one bit.  Yes, the behavior of the worker is being observed and tracked so he uses the hoist and won’t hurt himself but at the same time the policy is creating a very frustrated and bored employee who now hates his job.  In addition, the “solution” is anything but ergonomics—optimizing the well-being of the human and overall system performance.  Ergonomics would use engineering to increase the speed of the hoist (obviously to a safe speed level) so the employee could work at a safe, comfortable pace.  This has many benefits for the employee and the company.  The employee has greater satisfaction and engagement because management listened to his concerns and produced a solution that truly fit his needs.  The company gained because the risk for injury was eliminated and the increased hoist speed would either maintain or increase production.

The example the presenter gave of behavioral based safety supposedly using ergonomic principles (providing the worker a slow hoist) in my opinion glaringly showed the major differences in mindset and purpose between behavioral based safety advocates and ergonomists.  Ergonomists use engineering and work process change to produce/drive wanted behaviors while behavioral safety uses behavioral pinpointing, observations and enforcement to produce/drive wanted behaviors.

Here’s an example that illustrates the difference between BBS and ergonomics even further based upon my experience with a tree care company.   Tree care workers often use small chainsaws when they are in the tree or bucket truck for pruning.  These chainsaws are relatively light weight and therefore the workers often use them with one hand but in doing so they put themselves at a great risk for injury.  [These small pruning saws are available with top handle trigger or the traditional back handle trigger.  The top handle trigger chainsaw balances the weight of the chainsaw and makes it easy to operate with one hand. 80% of the company’s pruning chainsaws were top handle triggered.] The BBS solution would be issue a policy that states all chainsaws must be operated with two hands.  The company would follow this up by having supervisors and the production manager observe employees to enforce the policy and wanted behavior.  The ergonomic solution would recommend that all top handle trigger pruning chainsaws be replaced with back handle trigger ones.  The back handle trigger design unbalances the weight making it heavy and difficult to use with one hand which in turn naturally causes the workers to use two hands to operate it.  Which solution do you think would be most effective and sustainable long term?

As you can see, I totally disagree with the perspective that BBS and ergonomics are virtually the same which is why I called it an “oxymoron” in the title of the blog.  Telling someone to behave or “act” safe is not the same as having human factors built directly into design of the workplace/workstation/equipment to produce the wanted behavior or action.  They may have the same end purpose, i.e. eliminating the injury, but the approach and steps to achieve the end goal is quite different.

In part two we’ll look at a method companies can use to change the unwanted behavior through workplace design.