An evaluation of the effectiveness of the Behaviour Based Safety Initiative card system at a cement manufacturing company in Zimbabwe

Abstract

BackgroundA behavior-based safety initiative card-issuing system was introduced at a cement-manufacturing company in Zimbabwe in 2008 to try and curb accident occurrence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Behaviour Based Safety Initiative card system as a tool used for reducing accident frequencies.MethodsA mixed-method approach that involving administering piloted questionnaires to 40 out of 244 randomly selected employees, making observations, and reviewing secondary data were done to collect data from different sources in the organization in 2013. A paired t-test was conducted to test whether there was significant difference in accident occurrence before and after the implementation of the BBSI. Scatterplots were also used to establish the correlation between the issuance of cards and the accident and injury occurrence.ResultsThe findings suggest that the introduction of the card system brought a significant decrease in accident and injury occurrence. A negative correlation between card issuance and accident occurrence was observed, i.e., the greater the number of cards issued, the fewer the number of accidents. It was also noted that the card system positively influenced the mindset of workers towards safe work practices.ConclusionThe card system had an influence on the reduction of accidents and injuries. The organization should leverage on issuing more cards to further reduce the number of accidents and injuries to zero.

In Search of Concrete Outcomes—A Systematic Review on the Effectiveness of Educational Interventions on Reducing Acute Occupational Injuries

“…After full-text review, 35 studies were included [ Figure 1 ]. This included eight RCTs [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], six CBA studies [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ], four ITS studies [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ], one historically controlled study [ 44 ], two prospective cohort studies [ 45 , 46 ], and fourteen uCBA studies [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ]. Studies describing multiple similar interventions were considered as one study [ 48 , 49 , 60 ].…”

“…Studies describing multiple similar interventions were considered as one study [ 48 , 49 , 60 ]. Of the 35 studies, 14 were from the USA [ 28 , 29 , 33 , 34 , 38 , 39 , 44 , 46 , 47 , 50 , 51 , 53 , 59 , 60 ], 5 from Italy [ 37 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 48 ], 2 from Australia [ 31 , 57 ], 2 from Denmark [ 26 , 52 ], and 1 each from Belgium [ 27 ], China [ 30 ], India [ 32 ], Cuba [ 35 ], Mexico [ 36 ], Germany [ 40 ], France [ 45 ], Nigeria [ 58 ], Finland [ 49 ], Egypt [ 54 ], Zimbabwe [ 55 ], and Canada [ 56 ].…”

“…Manufacturing had the largest number of included studies: two RCTs [30,31], three CBAs [36][37][38] (one of which was removed from narrative synthesis due to critical risk of bias [36]), three ITS studies [40,42,43], and four uCBAs [48,[54][55][56]. Of which, all of the RCT and CBA studies, one of the ITS studies [42], and two of the uCBA studies [54,55] showed significant injury reductions. Interestingly, one commonality among the majority of effective interventions in manufacturing was that they employed either multifactorial approaches or educational methods that were not purely didactic [30,31,38,42,54,55].…”

“…Of which, all of the RCT and CBA studies, one of the ITS studies [42], and two of the uCBA studies [54,55] showed significant injury reductions. Interestingly, one commonality among the majority of effective interventions in manufacturing was that they employed either multifactorial approaches or educational methods that were not purely didactic [30,31,38,42,54,55]. Despite the possibility of cross-contamination favoring the controls, these interventions still resulted in significantly positive results, which may indicate that such efforts are especially effective.…”

“…It should be noted that among the interventions which demonstrated a significant protective effect against occupational injuries, most featured either multifactorial strategies alongside education [33,42,44,54,57] or educational approaches that were not purely didactic in nature [30][31][32]38,52,55]. This suggests that creative and multifaceted designs should be utilized when designing future injury prevention programs, especially in the manufacturing industry, where many of the aforementioned studies took place.…”