Coaching And Observation: Two Elements As The Basis Of The Entire System

Grainne A. Matthews

Behavioral safety is simply the use of scientific psychology to promote safety in the workplace, community, and home. At work, it typically involves creating a systematic, ongoing process that clearly defines a set of behaviors reducing people’s risk of injury. The process provides that information on frequency and consistency of these practices is collected and then ensures discussion and positive reinforcement to support those behaviors occurs. Employees usually conduct peer observations and coaching on safety practices within their own work areas. These observations are the basis for recognition, problem-solving, and continuous improvement.

Successful organizations charter a Design Team to take responsibility for planning and implementing. The Team is eight to ten employees plus supervisor and safety representatives. They complete five steps to implement:

1. Design the observation and coaching process
2. Train coaches and team members
3. Kick off and roll out
4. Extend feedback and involvement
5. Enhance recognition and celebration

Observation and Coaching are the basis of the entire system. Observations provide the objective data that make behavioral coaching uniquely effective. Coaching is essential because maintaining any behavior change requires frequent, objective, and positive feedback.

Observation

Coaching is built around an observation checklist. Such a checklist ensures all of the important safety practices are considered in the coaching session. The checklist also helps the coaches to be objective, specific, and positive in discussing observations with the observed employees. The steps in the development of the observation checklist include:

1. Determine critical safe practices
   Deciding which employee practices to include on the checklist is a balancing act between including those essential to maintaining a safe workplace and creating a simple and easy to use tool. There are a variety of methods for selecting checklist items, including analyzing incident records for those behaviors that might prevent an injury.
2. Pinpoint those practices
   Practices included on the checklist must be described in such a way as to allow coaches to reliably record their observations. Each item must be detailed enough that the checklists of two independent observers, observing the same employee at the same time, will be substantially the same.
3. Draft the observation checklist
   Checklists can have a variety of formats, some which are more useful than others for particular situations. Different formats also facilitate the coach’s job of observation and recording under different circumstances. The goal is to develop a checklist format that is reliable and user friendly.
4. Trial run the checklist
   Designing a valid, reliable, and above all, practical, checklist requires taking the drafts out of the conference room and into the work place. Design Team members can test the drafts in their work areas. Ideally, the observation and recording takes no more than fifteen minutes of the entire coaching session so this will be one of the features of the observation checklist to test.

Coaching

Once the observation checklist is finalized, the Design Team can develop the coaching procedure. Several of the questions your Design Team must consider are:

1. Who will conduct the coaching?
   The design team usually considers at least three options: train all employees to be coaches, assign coaching to specific positions, confine coaching to Safety Team members, or begin with one option and gradually involve all employees.
2. How often will coaching be conducted?
   The frequency of coaching is important. Daily or weekly coaching is the best way to support lasting behavior change. Issues to consider are the risks associated with your business, the number of target employees, whether different areas or levels of employee will coach at different frequencies, and whether coaching is voluntary or required.
3. What training will these coaches need?
   Consider the existing skills and training needs of the identified coaches. For the Behavioral Safety process to be successful, coaches may need training in at least three areas: observation skills, observation-based coaching skills, job-related skills identified on the checklist

Analysis of Observation Data

Once the observations are underway, the team (now called a Steering Committee) begins the process of data gathering and analysis. Data will help them to:

1. Identify where they might improve the system,
2. Develop action plans for addressing major concerns, and
3. Evaluate their initial recognition and celebration plans.

Data tracking and analysis is a key element of behavioral safety and one of the most challenging tasks for a young Steering Committee. The data should therefore be tracked and reviewed at least monthly and portrayed with simple graphs or bar charts.

Graphing data weekly or monthly allows the Committee to look at both process and safety issues. They can establish and maintain recognition and celebration targets for individual and group involvement. Achieving maximal participation is a major key to success and requires considerable attention.

Tracking Concerns allows timely problem solving and action-planning for frequent or high-risk concerns. Plans often include engineering and maintenance action to remove physical barriers to safe behavior. The Steering Committee closes the “feedback loop” to employees by sharing results at least monthly to encourage involvement.

The ultimate test of any safety effort is its impact on incidents and injuries. As the process matures, the Steering Committee compares the observation data to actual site safety results to make sure observers are truly looking at the behaviors contributing to incidents and injuries. This provides a check on the accuracy and quality of the observations.

Observations and coaching are instrumental in achieving the initial safety improvements that result from behavioral change. The Committee’s ongoing use of the observation data to maintain the process, and the implementation of action items to address concerns, are the keys to the longer-term success and continual improvement.

Recognition and Celebrations

Reinforcement is ultimately the key to the success of a behavioral safety process. All involved employees must receive some form of reinforcement if the process is to survive. Some of that reinforcement may be naturally occurring, such as when observers see their co-workers working more safely, or when the number of incidents is significantly reduced. Often, however, these natural consequences must be supplemented to ensure both initial success and long-term survival of a behavioral safety process.

Problems with the Use of Reinforcement

Planning reinforcement is one of the most complex aspects of behavioral safety. Successful reinforcement requires a detailed analysis of both behavior and its consequences. Too often, the Design Team develops a plan that provides tangible award for completing observations. The program often looks much like a traditional safety award program except that the awards are earned by submitting completed observation forms rather than completing a period of time without an incident. While this type of award process may occasionally be appropriate to encourage initial participation, it can create a very predictable set of problems, such as:

1. Increased rate of fraudulent observations
2. Increased costs to support the process
3. Chilling effect on participation when awards are removed

An additional problem with poorly designed reinforcement programs is that some employees resent the process, as evidenced by negative remarks and comments that discourage and punish participation. An undesirable subculture develops that is not aligned with, nor supportive of, a commitment to safety.

Social Community

The most effective Behavioral Safety programs establish coaching and continuous improvement as part of the company’s cultural values. Employees support, encourage, and sincerely appreciate one another’s efforts to create a safer work place. They provide social reinforcement that supports participation in the process. The process creates a large amount of social reinforcement (attention, approval, etc.) for safe behavior. Well-designed recognition and celebration provides the foundation for this kind of a social environment. The Committee promotes sincere positive interactions for safe actions and involvement in the behavioral safety process, and not simply pats-on-the-back. This is best achieved by a Steering Committee composed of representative employees who:

1. Are informal leaders
2. Have a good understanding of the behavioral principles
3. Model positive interactions and support for the process with their co-workers

This article first appeared in Occupational Health and Safety, Sept 1999 and is reproduced here with permission.