Impact of Implementation of Behaviour-Based Safety Programme on At-Risk Behaviours in the Nigerian Chemical Process Industry

Over the years, several strategies have been deplored to improve safety performance in organizations and eliminate accidents. Part of the strategies involved improved engineering designs, personnel training and deployment of safety management systems. While these strategies resulted in significant reduction in accidents rates in the different industries, they have not resulted in complete elimination of accidents. Behaviour-based safety (BBS) programme was introduced to address accidents from human frailties through a systematic process of improving safety behaviours. The process uses behavioural psychology and employee involvement to prevent accidents believed to be caused mainly by human errors. Despite the resources expended in implementation of BBS, researchers do not agree on BBS as an effective instrument for improvement of health and safety management in organizations. This research was undertaken to determine how BBS implementation affects at-risk behaviour. Specifically, the study aimed to establish whether implementation of BBS programme led to reduction in at-risk behaviours among workers in the chemical process industry. The research was conducted using questionnaires distributed to 50 workers (of different job levels and categories) in the Nigerian chemical process industry. The workers were selected through a stratified random sampling technique. The questionnaires evaluated key elements of BBS as implemented by different organizations in the industry. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation. The study established that deployment of BBS was effective in reducing at-risk behaviours. The implication is that for organizations that are having challenges with unsafe acts, at-risk behaviours, and accidents due to human errors and mistakes, BBS can be an effective tool to deploy to transform the culture. Though this research established that BBS contributes to reduction in at-risk behaviours, further study is recommended to address the proportion of at-risk behaviours that are reduced by the implementation of BBS, and to identify the impact of BBS programme focused on organisation’s management. This would enable organizations implementing BBS programme to proactively project the expected gains from programme deployment.