Changing Behaviors – 1 of 2.

Reality is that changing behaviors is nearly impossible. Ask any parent who has tried to get a teenager to write a book report when it is first assigned rather than the night before it is due. Ask any employer who has a worker that lives five minutes away, but gets to work ten minutes late every day. Human behaviors are very difficult to change.

Behavior based safety is big business. Most company executives are very smart people, but they spend a lot of time and effort trying to change the behavior of their employees when they, themselves are not motivated by some fairly harsh punishment to follow a few simple, common sense, logical rules.

The business of safety incentive programs is another well-intentioned concept that causes as much harm as good. Commercial trucks are required to pass certain inspections conducted by the Department of Transportation (DOT). When the DOT enforcer pulls a truck over on the highway, it is inspected for compliance. If the truck passes, a sticker is issued to display showing the truck is compliant. The sticker allows the truck to avoid being inspected again in a time period. The driver is rewarded with a $100 bonus. A friend who manages a fleet of trucks reports that, once the drivers figured out that their trucks would pass any inspection, they removed the stickers in hopes of being stopped again – and being rewarded with another bonus.

At SafetyRich, we try to change behaviors by focusing on the things that are important to the employer and the worker, then we present our case in the strongest way possible.

In Part 2 we discuss specifics on demonstrating the benefits and affecting the behavior of employers and employees.

See our Web site: SafetyRich