The Effect of Behavior–based Safety Interventions on the Reduction of Unsafe Behavior

Background: Behavioral-based safety interventions such as the safety training system and reward and punishment procedures were used in most industries in order to reduce unsafe behaviors. Methods: In this applied study, unsafe behavior was evaluated by collecting data through observation, interviews, checklists and the Safety Behavior Sampling technique. After conducting safety training, as well as reward and punishment procedures for two consecutive months, unsafe behaviors were evaluated again. To determine the rate and diversity of the behaviors through a pilot study, a sample size of 1162 was determined to be observed. Moreover, to analyze the data and to specify the relationship between the variables, the ratio test, contingency tables, chi-square test and SPSS 22 statistical software package were used. Results: The results of the study showed that 22.8% of employees’ behaviors were unsafe before applying interventions, which got decreased to 17% after the intervention. There was also a significant relationship between the unsafe behaviors of the employees and their work experience (P-value was 0. 004), age (P-value was 0.023), work shift (P-value was 0.027), day of the week (P-value was 0. 007) and month of year (P-value was 0. 043). Conclusions: The paper indicated that continuous implementation of safety training courses and continuous implementation of the reward and punishment system are necessary in order to reduce unsafe behaviors.