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

Background: Behavioralbased 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, chisquare test and SPSS 22 statistical software package were used. Results: The results of the study showed that 22.8% of employees rsquo; 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 (Pvalue was 0. 004), age (Pvalue was 0.023), work shift (Pvalue was 0.027), day of the week (Pvalue was 0. 007) and month of year (Pvalue 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.