Behavior Based Safety Audit Checklist

Behavior based safety audit checklists can be an effective means of addressing unsafe work practices and eliminating their cause, ultimately leading to workplace accidents. Utilizing low-code platforms makes creating, distributing and implementing such checklists efficient.

Start immediately with this fully editable behavior based safety observation checklist template, available free in both PDF and HTML formats for use across any industry. Download now in either format!

1. Observation of Safe and Unsafe Behaviors
An effective behavior-based safety program relies on employees being observed and assessed for safe or unsafe behaviors, with an observation checklist providing the tools needed for such assessments – including access and egress in the workplace, environmental factors, body positioning and more.

An effective safety observation checklist should also include questions on whether employees are following workplace safety protocols. For instance, employees who neglect to observe ladder safety protocols like maintaining three points of contact while climbing may put themselves at risk for injury.

One way of identifying unsafe behaviors is through near miss reporting. Near miss reports allow organizations to quickly pinpoint issues that might be contributing to unsafe actions and take corrective actions accordingly.

2. Observation of Hazardous Behaviors
Behavior-based safety takes an observational approach that encourages employees to become active participants in managing their workplace health and safety.

Identifying unsafe work practices allows us to address them prior to any potential accidents occurring. Accidents rarely happen by design – rather they often stem from unguarded errors and shortcuts we all make over time. Utilizing a BBS checklist to identify unsafe behavior can help identify this habitual behaviour before it results in an incident.

DataMyte’s online BBS checklist template makes it simple and efficient to identify unsafe work practices and provide respectful feedback to workers, which can create a safer workplace while decreasing accidents and injuries. Furthermore, its use as part of process audits layered audits to detect unsafe conditions make a BBS observation checklist an indispensable way of monitoring employee safety.

3. Observation of Unsafe Work Practices
Unsafe work practices include anything from bypassing safety protocols to using improper equipment, so monitoring these unsafe behaviors and taking corrective actions to address them are an integral component of behavioral-based safety observations.

Your team should take note if employees take short cuts by misusing workstations for multiple purposes instead of their intended ones, which could result in injuries and property damage. Furthermore, any time someone stores materials unsafely it could fall and cause personal harm.

These observations should include coaching and descriptive comments instead of punitive feedback, in order to foster a proactive mindset toward workplace safety. This approach can especially beneficial in high-risk environments like those involving heavy manual labor. With low-code platforms like DATAMYTE it’s simple and quick to create and share safety observation reports among teams.

4. Observation of Safe Work Practices
Accidents often result from poor work habits – unconscious errors and shortcuts we form over time – but with behavior-based safety observation companies can identify where these unsafe habits emerge and take preventative steps against them.

Safety managers can use checklists to observe employee handling of tools and equipment, PPE, safety systems and procedures, ergonomics and more. Once observations have been recorded they can take photos or attach files as evidence and automatically generate a report.

Observations should take place regularly to ensure any harmful behaviors are quickly addressed, whether through feedback, coaching, training and/or punitive measures. It’s also crucial not to blame employees directly for unsafe working conditions – this will only create more resentment rather than sustainable change – instead, management should instead reward safe behaviors while making workers aware of any necessary precautions that must be taken.