As an employer, safety is your responsibility. Make it your goal to identify workplace hazards and instill safe employee habits to ensure corrections remain permanent. One way to accomplish this is through behavioral observation, as it can help identify unsafe acts and conditions within a workplace, giving employers insight into potentially dangerous work habits.
Understanding Habits
Habits can be formed in two ways: through an intense psychological experience—such as accidentally touching a hot stove and learning never to do it again—or through repetitive actions the brain turns into automatic function. According to the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, habits make up approximately 40% of human behavior. In terms of workplace safety, it can be difficult to unlearn bad habits employees have formed.
One technique used for creating good habits is known as the “Habit Loop,” in which each behavior within the loop works to form a habit. There are three components that comprise the Habit Loop: A cue, a routine, and a reward. For example, when a child rides in a car, parents often form a Habit Loop: getting into a car (the cue), putting on a seatbelt (the routine), and getting praised by the parent (the reward). Managers can capitalize on this strategy to help employees form new habits or change old ones.
Changing Habits
Bad habits can easily become routine if previous outcomes of the action have not been negative. For example, if a driver who doesn’t wear their seatbelt goes without any tickets for the behavior, they will likely continue to drive without the seatbelt. By the time a company notices, the unsafe behavior may already be ingrained within the worker. To change unsafe habits and mitigate negative outcomes, it’s important to understand which Stage of Change a worker is in.
The Stage of Change theory suggests that a lack of motivation, willpower, or confidence may not be to blame when it comes to someone’s inability to change, but rather that someone may not be ready to change or even recognize that they need to. Understanding a worker’s readiness to change may be the key to determining how to approach moving them along the stages of change:
- Pre-Contemplation: At this stage, employees are unaware that a problem or risk exists. To influence someone at this stage, educate and bring awareness to the problem or concern.
- Contemplation: The contemplation stage refers to employees who are starting to consider making a change. Continued education and ongoing opportunities for self-evaluation can help employees in this stage.
- Preparation: At this point, employees have decided to make a change in order to move into a new situation. This is an easy phase to get stuck in, as employees may be unwilling or unable to make the initial step to change. Evaluate employees on an individual level and determine their intrinsic motivation. Focus on the person, not the company’s wants or needs.
- Action: Here, an employee may start to change their environment, behavior, or experience. Managers should provide encouragement, recognition, and ongoing positive reinforcement during this stage.
- Maintenance: Now that the change has happened and become part of a regular routine, employees may be able to experience the positive outcomes of their actions. It’s important to continue to acknowledge and reinforce the positive change.
Which Behaviors Should Change?
Unsafe behavior must first be identified in order to be corrected. Some ways to determine if behaviors should change include behavioral safety audits and accident investigation reports. After a problem is identified, the employer can work to adjust the behavior causing the safety issue. Once an issue is found and addressed, the employer should follow up to ensure the changes are being followed. By prioritizing follow-up on behavior issues, a workplace can start seeing improvements in practices and possibly a reduction in injuries.
