Behavior-Based Safety is in the Air at York International

"Behavior-based safety is more than safety. You can incorporate it not only into many parts of your business but also to make things go smoother and get what you want out of life."

Some organizations begin behavior-based safety (BBS) in response to a mandate from corporate headquarters, others because they've reached a stalemate using traditional safety methods. York International's West Virginia Field Service organization initially considered BBS because they wanted the business of Dow Chemical and... Dow Chemical wanted its contractors to use BBS. The West Virginia field service office is part of the Engineered Systems Group (ESG) for York International, the largest independently owned supplier of heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration equipment in the United States and a leading global competitor in the industry. With 2200 technicians nationwide, York International is also the largest service organization in America. York International's personnel based in Charleston, West Virginia, weren't resistant to behavior-based safety, a process that pinpoints specific behaviors for observation and data collection, then positively rewards those behaviors until they become habit. In fact, York International, based in York, Pennsylvania, has extensive experience with behavior-based safety. "Marsh Risk Consulting has worked with York in our manufacturing sector for quite some time and has a very good record of reducing our recordable injuries in the manufacturing plants. The opportunity to drive continuous improvement and further reduce injuries and illnesses can be easily achieved using the behavior risk improvement process," said Richard Eichberger, District Service Manager. The field service organization was not part of the BBS initiative, but did have a commendable safety history. "We'd had a traditional safety program in place, probably forever," said Eichberger. "Then we were given the opportunity to bid on a large contract with a Dow Chemical facility here in the Charleston, West Virginia area. They selected us based upon our technical expertise but we soon found out that our safety program and safety performance were an important part of the selection criteria. Dow's business was given to us conditionally upon the fact that we would institute a behavior-based safety process out of this office."Dow's safety requirements for contractors are stringent and Dow believes that meeting such standards requires BBS. "For us to have one recordable incident even a minor one, and still fall within Dow's guidelines, we would have to have more than 400 local employees and we have 23 employees. If our recordable rate number exceeds the number acceptable to Dow we could jeopardize jobs," said Mike Nowlin, Service Sales Representative. Determined to show that they could successfully and rapidly implement a BBS program, management asked Marsh to immediately train the field service technicians, first introducing them to the scientific basis of the technology, then teaching them how to apply it in the workplace. "The concepts of pinpoints and safe behavior versus risk behavior was explained and the program was set into place," Eichberger said. "We established committees to select safety pinpoints, set procedures on how to gather data when observations were made and from there it took off rather quickly.""The first day of training they were apprehensive over what was going to be done to them; the second day we had about 90 percent buy-in to the process. Since then we have 100 percent participation and not only our technicians but office personnel have accepted it very well," said Nowlin. Within two months the technicians, who are primarily lone workers, were tracking six pinpoints common to the group. Behavioral pinpoints may be customized for each working location in the future but for now the safety committee chose to work on the same pinpoints for a reason. "We have several very distinct work groups geographically based and that in and of itself leads to some segregation that does not bode well for our organization working as a team. The way we work is necessary but we saw BBS as an opportunity to pull everybody together as a team to share some common ground and safety is common ground for us," Eichberger commented. "We chose to start with the same pinpoints even though each location or each work group has some very distinct safety requirements and working conditions." Every person in the West Virginia group performs safety observations. All data collected is numerical only and reflects a combination of self-observations and observation of coworkers. If a safe behavior is maintained for six weeks at 90 percent or higher, that behavior is considered to have become habit and it's time to celebrate. The first two behavioral pinpoints highlighted for the group the importance of open communication and management support to make the process successful.Dollies and KneepadsTwo of the earliest behavioral safety pinpoints were: while kneeling to service, repair or install equipment, wear protective padding; and, use a dolly to transport tools and materials. BBS is largely an employee-governed process and the York technicians work very independently, often from service vehicles. They knew of the two pinpoints, yet, the first week passed and though safe observations were made, very few observations were done. "We came right out and asked 'What's the deal here?' and many of them said, 'We don't have dollies and kneepads!' Our response was, 'Then, we're going to get them for you.' Within a week there was a fleet of dollies at the door for the guys to put on their trucks along with kneepads. Safe observations quickly rose from 30 percent to 98 percent," Eichberger said."It should be noted that had the technicians asked for this equipment previously, management would have provided it, but they hadn't asked and this pinpoint prompted them to do so," said Nowlin.Hats Off to You"It may not seem a whole lot to an outsider but hats are a big thing to these guys," said Eichberger. "They're very proud of their organization and they like to wear the fact that they are from York International on their hat brims." When the group made dramatic advancement in the first safety pinpoints, especially so early after beginning the new process, Eichberger planned a celebration. Knowing the group's fondness for hats, he worked with a designer to create a logo specific to the West Virginia ESG. The new design is an outline of the state of West Virginia. Inside the outline is the York logo of a sunflake (which symbolizes that York is in the heating and cooling business). The logo and the words, "York Factory Service, West Virginia" were stitched on hats for the first BBS celebration. During the special presentation a senior technician who was scheduled to retire had the honor of throwing out the first hat. "It was received excellently. You bring hats out and you've got friends forever," Eichberger said.The achievement and celebration was significant because it showed the group how well they could work together, that the BBS process could enhance communication as well as safety and that management support for the effort definitely exists. Also, Dow, a valued client, was extremely pleased to know about the smooth start-up of the new process.Safety, Sales and Side Benefits "We've had success in two ways with BBS, not only in safety which was our goal, but with other side benefits," Nowlin explained. "We use this as a sales tool to differentiate ourselves from our competitors." Nowlin has discovered that BBS has a positive reputation, particularly in the industrial sector. In a recent presentation to a perspective client, York was the only contractor to present a behavior-based safety process rather than a traditional safety program. "That went over very well," he said. "As we are out promoting our services we always bring up our behavior-based safety process. Since a large part of our business is industrial, we're finding that many of the industrial customers also have a behavior-based process. They immediately take us to their safety coordinator and say, 'These guys are using BBS too.' I use it as a sales tool every opportunity I get. Eichberger now feels so strongly about the process that he recently made "Behavior-Based Safety and Continuous Improvement - It's more than just safety" the subject of a monthly conference call with his regional manager and 10 other district managers. Installing a process that has brought such benefits appears to have only beneficial consequences. "It has blended in almost seamlessly with our existing safety program," he states. "There was no conflict and it was a complement to what we've been doing. We still watch safety tapes, discuss best practices and near misses, everything we did before. We just added to it with the pinpoints, data collection, tracking and all of the other elements of BBS.""It takes some time initially but the rewards offset the investment not only from protecting our employees but we're also seeing an increase in revenue. The best piece of advice I could give someone is don't wait until a customer requires BBS. Get on board and be proactive and have it in place," Nowlin said.Now a process that only months before was a system that the manufacturing guys used, is not only a safety driver but also a business driver for the West Virginia ESG group. Eichberger concluded, "Our people understand that using BBS is pivotal not only for the safety and well being of their own person, but also the safety and well being of our business."

Copyright 2002 Perfromance Management Publications/Aubrey Daniels International.All Rights Reserved.
Published April 12, 2002