The New Values-Based Safety: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Your Safety Culture is a must-read for all safety professionals and managers who are interested in improving their organization’s safety performance. The book is written in a friendly tone, using plain language that is understandable to people with a high school education. It’s not a dry, academic paper written in complex or technical language. It’s laid out in short chapters in sections, so that it can be read-through or serve as a reference when needed. My ebook ARC had hyperlinks to each chapter in the Table of Contents.
Dr. McSween provides a brief history of safety philosophies through the past few decades and explains the challenges with implementing those approaches. He explains the concept of Values-Based Safety, which is a modified Behavior Based Safety. He provides numerous references for academic fact-checking types, but explains everything, including behavioral science, in easy-to-understand language. He is very aware that businesses exist to make a profit and explains how safety affects quality and an organization’s bottom line.
The New Values-Based Safety is a guidebook to implementing VBS in any industry, from designing an initial program to keeping the program running smoothly over time. This approach requires management commitment to safety and employee engagement, with the goal of all employees being injury-free. It involves aligning organizational behaviors with a clearly defined set of organizational values such as honesty, respect, and concern for the well-being of everyone. This VBS methodology applies to large facilities with thousands of employees and also to remote sites with a single employee. He provides case studies using different industries.
As a retired safety professional, I was intrigued by BBS but found it very difficult to implement in my workplace. I agree with his assessments and believe that VBS is more applicable in more workplaces and industries than BBS. I highly recommend The New Values-Based Safety and hope that safety professionals and organization leaders will implement its lessons. It’s the most practical and realistic safety resource that I have encountered.
I received an Advance Review Copy (ARC) from NetGalley and KeyPress Publishing for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.