An adjusted behavior-based safety program with the observation by front-line workers for mitigating construction accident rate

Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) has been considered as a useful tool for safety management. In prior applications, workers’ behaviors have been observed by third-party consultants or senior safety personnel. Under their observations, workers will perform safe behaviors to avoid punishment; but once they are without supervision, they will quickly return to bad habits. Hence, this paper aims to introduce an adjusted BBS observation program in which the observation is made by the front-line workers. By this strategy, observation could be less conspicuous and continually deepen observers’ safety awareness meanwhile. Also, this paper presents regression analyses based on the data from 18 projects which have accumulated a total of 199,296 observations. The results show the higher the Amount of Recorded Unsafe Behaviors (ARUB) on a project, the lower the Total Recordable Case Rate (TRCR) of the project. According to this result, for projects with remarkably low ARUB, the company should conduct random safety audits to verify the implementation of this adjusted BBS observation program to ensure this program works effectively. In conclusion, the authors propose that the adjusted BBS observation program could be an additional leading indicator to reduce occupational construction accidents.