People-Focused Safety

For more than 75 years safety professionals have used traditional safety methods to implement and enforce rules as established through industry standards or hazard analysis. These methods are then paired with investigating incidences to determine root causes. Lagging indicators such as OSHA incident/severity rates and insurance modification rates were the primary measures used for program effectiveness. This was better than the days where high fatality rates were expected and perceived as an acceptable loss for high hazard industries such as utilities, large bridge construction, logging, commercial fishing, and mining to name a few. 

About 40 years ago, the new concept of behavior-based safety (BBS) was introduced to industries, enhancing the effectiveness of many safety programs. An important aspect of this model was to understand what drives employees to work safely. 

The methodology required a study of human behavior which is largely driven by positive immediate consequences as perceived by the individual. Some success was realized when new positive reinforcers were injected to entice desired behavior. This provided a necessary tool to lower lagging rates and helped to change the culture of organizations which formerly viewed safety initiatives as a direct expense.  

Now it’s time to advance to a new generation of safety excellence where safety is not viewed as an expense but rather a necessary process to benefit all employees and reduce operational costs by harnessing the power of workplace safety. People-focused safety is a top-down comprehensive approach to help empower all employees to be responsible for making critical decisions affecting themselves and their co-workers.

With eSafeTrak’s field observation system and eTailboard form, field employees can be empowered to conduct an effective analysis and have full control over the completion and filing of the forms.