How to Choose the Right Behavior Based Safety Program Consultant for Your Organization

Workplace safety is not only about equipment, procedures, and protective equipment. Employee behavior also plays an important role in preventing incidents and creating a strong safety culture. This is where a Behavior Based Safety Program Consultant can help an organization identify unsafe behaviors, encourage safe practices, and improve employee participation in safety programs.

Choosing the right consultant is important because every organization has different hazards, work processes, employee needs, and safety goals. A good consultant should understand your workplace and develop a practical program that employees can follow in their daily work.

The Safety Master provides safety-focused consulting and training solutions that can help organizations improve workplace safety practices and develop a stronger safety culture.

What Is a Behavior Based Safety Program?

Behavior Based Safety (BBS) is a proactive approach that focuses on workplace behaviors that can contribute to safe or unsafe outcomes.

Instead of only looking at incidents after they happen, a BBS program encourages organizations to observe work activities, identify behaviors that may create risk, provide feedback, and promote safer working practices.

A typical program may include:

• Employee safety observations
• Identification of critical behaviors
• Safe and unsafe behavior tracking
• Employee feedback
• Safety coaching
• Corrective actions
• Safety awareness training
• Regular performance reviews

The goal is to make safe behavior a normal part of everyday work.

Why Choose a Behavior Based Safety Program Consultant?

Implementing BBS without proper planning can make the program difficult to maintain. A qualified Behavior Based Safety Program Consultant can help your organization create a structured approach.

Identify Unsafe Behaviors

Consultants can help identify behaviors that may increase workplace risk, such as:

• Not using required PPE
• Improper lifting techniques
• Bypassing safety procedures
• Unsafe machine operation
• Poor housekeeping
• Working without required authorization
• Not following established work instructions

Develop a Practical BBS Program

A consultant can help create a program based on your workplace activities instead of using a generic approach.

Improve Employee Participation

BBS works better when employees are actively involved. A consultant can help establish observation and feedback processes that encourage workers to participate.

Support Safety Culture Improvement

Regular observation, communication, feedback, and recognition can help make safety an ongoing part of workplace activities.

How to Choose the Right Behavior Based Safety Program Consultant

Choosing a consultant requires more than checking qualifications. You should also consider their experience, approach, methodology, and understanding of your industry.

Check Industry Experience

Look for a consultant who understands your type of workplace and its hazards.

For example, a manufacturing facility may require a different BBS approach from a construction project, warehouse, chemical plant, or oil and gas facility.

Ask potential consultants about:

• Previous industry experience
• Similar BBS projects
• Types of organizations they have supported
• Safety programs they have implemented
• Employee engagement methods

Review Their BBS Methodology

A good consultant should be able to clearly explain how the program will work.

Ask about:

• Behavioral observation
• Critical behavior identification
• Observation checklists
• Feedback systems
• Employee participation
• Data collection
• Corrective actions
• Program reviews

The methodology should be practical and easy for employees and supervisors to understand.

Consider Training and Competence

Training is an important part of a successful BBS program.

Ask whether the consultant can provide training for:

• Employees
• Supervisors
• Safety professionals
• Observation teams
• Managers
• BBS coordinators

The training should explain not only what BBS is, but also how employees can apply it at the workplace.

Look for a Data-Driven Approach

A BBS program should not depend only on general observations. Good programs can use observation data to identify trends and areas requiring attention.

For example, an organization may discover repeated observations related to:

• PPE compliance
• Manual handling
• Working at height
• Machine guarding
• Housekeeping
• Safe operating procedures

This information can help management focus improvement efforts.

Important Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Consultant

Before selecting a Behavior Based Safety Program Consultant, ask questions such as:

What Is Your Approach to BBS?

The consultant should explain the process in clear and practical language.

How Will Employees Participate?

Employee involvement is an important part of BBS. Ask how workers will participate in observations, feedback, meetings, and improvement activities.

How Will Success Be Measured?

Ask which indicators will be monitored. These may include observation participation, safe behavior percentages, corrective actions, training participation, and other suitable measures.

Will the Program Be Customized?

Your consultant should understand your specific workplace rather than simply applying the same checklist everywhere.

How Will Results Be Reported?

Ask whether you will receive regular reports, trend analysis, observation data, action tracking, and recommendations.

Key Components of an Effective Behavior Based Safety Program

Management Commitment

Management should demonstrate that workplace safety is an important organizational value.

Employee Involvement

Employees should have opportunities to participate in safety observations and improvement activities.

Behavioral Observation

Regular observation helps identify workplace behaviors that can be improved.

Feedback and Coaching

Feedback should be constructive and focused on improving safe work practices.

Corrective Actions

Identified issues should be reviewed and addressed through suitable corrective measures.

Communication

Safety information and program results should be communicated regularly.

Continuous Improvement

BBS should be reviewed periodically to identify what is working and what needs improvement.

Example of a Behavior Based Safety Program

Consider a manufacturing company where employees regularly operate machinery.

The organization identifies several critical behaviors:

1. Wearing required PPE
2. Following machine operating procedures
3. Keeping hands away from moving parts
4. Using machine guards correctly
5. Following lockout/tagout procedures

Trained observers conduct workplace observations and record safe and unsafe behaviors.

If an unsafe behavior is identified, the observer provides constructive feedback and discusses the correct procedure with the employee.

Management can then review the collected data to identify recurring trends and decide where additional training, supervision, or process improvement may be required.

Benefits of Working With a Behavior Based Safety Program Consultant

A structured BBS program can support organizations in several ways:

• Improve safety awareness
• Encourage employee participation
• Identify recurring unsafe behaviors
• Strengthen safety communication
• Improve safety observations
• Support corrective actions
• Promote proactive safety management
• Encourage continuous improvement
• Strengthen workplace safety culture

However, BBS should complement—not replace—hazard identification, engineering controls, safe procedures, training, maintenance, and other established safety controls.

How the Safety Master Can Support Your Organization

The Safety Master can support organizations with safety consulting, training, assessment, and workplace safety improvement services.

A suitable BBS program should be developed around the organization's activities, workforce, hazards, and safety objectives. The right Behavior Based Safety Program Consultant can help organizations establish a structured process for observation, feedback, employee involvement, and continuous improvement.

FAQs

What Are the 7 Steps in the Behavior-Based Safety Process?

A commonly used BBS process can be organized into seven practical steps:

1. Identify critical workplace behaviors.
2. Define safe and unsafe behaviors.
3. Develop observation methods or checklists.
4. Train employees and observers.
5. Conduct regular behavioral observations.
6. Provide feedback and implement corrective actions.
7. Review results and continuously improve the program.

The exact process can vary depending on the organization's BBS methodology and workplace requirements.

What Are the 7 Core Elements of a Safety Program?

The exact elements can differ by safety management framework, but a practical safety program commonly includes:

1. Management leadership and commitment
2. Worker participation
3. Hazard identification and risk assessment
4. Hazard prevention and control
5. Safety training and competency
6. Emergency preparedness and response
7. Program evaluation and continuous improvement

These elements work together with behavioral safety activities to support overall workplace safety.

What Is an Example of a Behavior-Based Safety Program?

A manufacturing company could create a BBS program focused on machine operation. Trained employees observe whether workers use required PPE, follow operating procedures, maintain safe distances from moving equipment, and use machine guards correctly.

The observations are recorded, employees receive constructive feedback, and recurring issues are reviewed by management. Additional training or corrective actions can then be introduced where necessary.

What Are the ABCs of Behavior-Based Safety?

The ABC model commonly refers to:

• A – Antecedent: Something that happens before a behavior, such as an instruction, procedure, warning, or workplace condition.
• B – Behavior: The actual action performed by the employee.
• C – Consequence: What happens after the behavior, such as feedback, recognition, or another result.

For example, a supervisor reminds an employee to wear safety glasses (Antecedent), the employee wears them (Behavior), and the supervisor recognizes the safe action (Consequence).

Conclusion

Selecting the right Behavior Based Safety Program Consultant can help an organization create a structured approach to identifying workplace behaviors, improving employee participation, and supporting continuous safety improvement. Before selecting a consultant, consider industry experience, methodology, training capability, employee involvement, data management, and reporting.

With a practical and well-managed approach, organizations can make behavioral safety an important part of their overall safety management system. The Safety Master can help organizations strengthen safety practices through professional safety consulting and training solutions.