Increasing buy-in and effectiveness of a BBS program requires three proven strategies: securing top-down leadership commitment, setting measurable monthly participation goals, and reinforcing positive safety behaviors through structured feedback. In this blog series, we will explore these tips to increase the buy-in and the effectiveness of a BBS program. We have spoken with industry professionals Joseph Braun, EHS Manager at Ferrara Candy Company; John Peoples, Global EHS Manager at Huntsman Corporation; and Chad Rasmussen, EHS Manager at Cardinal Health to get an insider look at how to manage an effective Behavior Based Safety management program.
A BBS program looks at one main aspect of the workplace environment — people. It may be a surprise to some, but people are the most valuable resource you have to combat unsafe work conditions. Workers equipped with the knowledge and confidence to make the right safety decisions can prevent more accidents than any single piece of protective equipment or engineering control. Under ISO 45001:2018, worker participation and consultation are not optional — they are foundational requirements for a functioning occupational health and safety management system. But with something like a Behavior Based Safety program, it can sometimes be hard to monitor, and harder still to understand, the full value these programs deliver.
Build BBS Program Buy-in and Participation
The value of a BBS program depends entirely on the decisions and active involvement of your workforce. If employees are not participating, you will not get data — and without data, you cannot identify the behavioral trends and root causes that lead to incidents. Participation is the single most important indicator of a BBS program’s health. Research from leading safety bodies, including the National Safety Council, shows that organizations with high workforce engagement in safety programs see measurably lower Total Recordable Incident Rates (TRIR). John Peoples, Global EHS Manager at Huntsman Corporation says a “top-down” approach worked best for them: the key was securing “buy-in and commitment from the senior managers.” Once leadership visibly committed to the program, participation numbers grew, and the resulting data began to demonstrate the program’s tangible value — creating a positive feedback loop of engagement and improvement.
Set Monthly BBS Program Goals
Joseph Braun, EHS Manager at Ferrara Candy Company, says the best way to drive employee involvement is to “Set monthly goals and incentivize those goals.” This process can be as straightforward as requiring each employee or team to submit a minimum number of safety observations per month. Tracking goal completion through a digital safety platform makes it easy to monitor progress in real time and flag participation gaps before they become compliance risks. Incentives — whether formal recognition, rewards, or simply public acknowledgment of safe behavior — positively reinforce engagement and signal that leadership takes safety seriously. This approach aligns with OSHA’s guidance on safety incentive programs: focus rewards on participation and proactive reporting, not on lagging indicators like injury-free days, which can inadvertently discourage incident reporting.
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Include Positive Feedback in BBS Observations
A BBS program that only documents mistakes, unsafe acts, and near-misses will quickly be perceived as a surveillance tool — and workers will disengage. For a BBS program to thrive, it must equally capture and celebrate safe behaviors, correct PPE usage, proactive hazard reporting, and peer-to-peer safety coaching. Chad Rasmussen, EHS Manager at Cardinal Health, describes what an effective BBS program looks like in practice: “It needs to be perceived as positive. Accountability for doing the right thing is more important than for the wrong thing. Positive feedback breeds more of the right behaviors than negative feedback for the wrong behaviors. It also prevents the program from becoming a tattle-tale program.” This positive reinforcement approach is backed by behavioral science and is consistent with ISO 45001 Clause 7.4’s emphasis on safety communication that motivates participation. When workers see that safe choices are noticed and valued, the safety culture of the entire organization strengthens over time.
Check out previous blogs in this series and stay tuned for more!
Why You Should Include Behavior Based Safety in your Safety Management Program
How Do You Measure the Success Of A BBS Program?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why is leadership buy-in critical for a BBS program?
When senior leaders visibly commit to a Behavior-Based Safety program — completing observations themselves, reviewing data in meetings, and recognizing participation — it signals to the entire workforce that the program is legitimate and valued. Without this top-down commitment, BBS programs struggle to achieve the participation rates needed to generate meaningful safety data.
How many BBS observations should employees complete per month?
Observation targets vary by organization size and industry, but most effective programs set a minimum of two to four observations per employee per month. The goal is to generate enough behavioral data to identify trends and root causes — not to create an administrative burden. Digital BBS platforms make it easy to set, track, and report on observation targets at the individual, team, and site level.
What types of incentives work best for BBS programs?
OSHA recommends focusing BBS incentives on participation and proactive safety behaviors rather than injury-free outcomes. Effective incentives include public recognition, safety achievement awards, team-based goals with shared rewards, and non-monetary recognition such as leadership acknowledgment in safety meetings. Avoid incentive structures that could discourage incident or near-miss reporting.
How does Certainty Software support BBS program management?
Certainty Software provides a centralized platform for capturing BBS observations, tracking participation metrics, generating leading-indicator reports, and managing corrective actions. EHS managers can monitor observation completion rates in real time, identify behavioral hotspots across sites, and demonstrate program effectiveness to leadership and auditors — all from a single dashboard.
