Safety Knights

In my experience, BBS does not work as designed for the exact reason you stated. I'm not saying that it's completely useless and that there's no value in it, just that like any system it has flaws.

I worked at a big name oil and gas company that was big into BBS. All contractors (but not their own employees) had to fill out a card every day. By the time I was there the system was already broken, but from what I understand, in the beginning people liked it and took it seriously. However, with the sheer number of cards coming in, there was no followup and nothing changed. Once the workers realized that the cards were meaningless, they stopped taking it seriously. Eventually it was clear that no one was even reading them and most of the cards were used to document the employee's bowl movements. They still required contractors to fill them out every day, but they just went into a box.

I worked for a construction company that did not have a quota on observations, but employees were expected to document some. They had a monthly safety meeting where they were reviewed...but still nothing was done.

The Quest for QHSE podcast addressed this in its first few episodes as well.

As far as what works, it is my opinion that getting workers involved with safety is almost entirely dependent on them seeing the results of their effort. If someone brings up a safety concern, and it is corrected in a timely manner, they'll probably bring up another one next time. If they see that nothing gets done when they speak up, they'll stop speaking up.

Our current management team rolled out bbs in the last 1.5 years or so. The front line was skeptical immediately, they thought it was about blame and getting folks in trouble, even when prefaced with that not being the case. Numbers were low, then they became mandatory, most front lines think it has little to no value, some bring up site hazards and they get ignored, resentment and disinterest grows, and pencil whipping increases. It's too bad, I don't 100% agree with bbs, but if field staff would have been included in the creation and rollout of this, it could have had far greater cultural buy-in. Of course, I can't predict exactly what would have helped but that's my experience.

At one of my previous employers, we built them into supervisor's annual reviews. Gave them accountability to get them completed by their teams. We great success. We noticed that as the quality increased over time.

I was first handed a DuPont STOP workbook in 1976. The STOP program is probably one of the oldest BBS programs I know. It is far from a new concept. As a young foundry supervisor I had to submit at least 4 STOP Cards a week. There was heck to pay if you didn’t!
Over the years I have used STOP 4-5 times. In my experience it is a good short-term “stop-gap” (no pun intended) when you have a spike in injuries. It allows you to “stop the bleeding” (again no pun….)
I would not run a BBS or STOP program over about 6 months. If you run it longer it quickly becomes mundane and stale. We use to call it “writing tickets” like a cop would do, and you just go through the motions.
BBS is a tool in your toolbox. If you run a BBS program be ready to plug in something else at the first sign of it going stale! My $.02 from over 45 years in the game!

I've found optional anonymity through the whole process is very helpful. Anonymous submissions so that someone uncomfortable with follow up can report without fear of retaliation. Anonymous submission on who was observed so that the BBS program does not turn into a contentious program where people use BBS to cause issues for others.

Using the system to really dive into opportunities for process improvement and hazard reduction is key. Celebrate and communicate your wins along the way. Share results often and gamify the process when able.

Lots of great information to gain from a properly rolled out BBS system.

We have an incentive through what we call Safety Observation Cards. It gives employees the opportunity to identify an unsafe act/condition, make a suggestion, or identify a positive safety observation. If they submit one they are entered into a monthly drawing for $100. If they make a suggestion that is implemented they automatically win $100. Participation is part of their 90 day and year end reviews. They don't need to participate monthly but have to participate to some extent. Ideas don't have to be incredible, its more the value of showing they are thinking about safety at work.

BBS has a place however most workplaces fail at it because ;
1 they require too many observations by a staff that is focused on keeping their numbers up
2 they do not respond to the reported concerns with any urgency
3 they fail to properly train staff on the use, benefits and outcomes of the program
Instilling a successful BBS program is a long journey that requires support from the very top of an organization down to the bottom It is not an overnight fix or a flavor of the day it is a process that requires culture change in most cases