Behavior-based safety perception in the carpet industry and investigation of occured accidents

Human behavior is an important cause of occupational accidents, which has been revealed in many occupational safety literature. The presence of good safety behavior reflects good safety compliance. The general purpose of this study is to examine the accidents that occur in the carpet sector and to examine the behavioral-based safety management perceptions of employees working in this sector. Behavior-based safety management (BBSM) is one of the promising methods applied in the industry to reduce accidents and injury incidents. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that motivate safety and risk behavior and the critical factors for its successful implementation with a management system. The research methodology consists of two parts. In the first part of the research, survey application and data collection are included. 505 employees working in a carpet company completed the survey, due diligence was carried out by using workplace data and literature sources for research purposes. In the second part, statistical data of accidents that have occurred in a carpet company in the last 3 years were examined. The occupational accident research covers the data for the years 2019-2021. According to the findings of the research, 71 occupational accidents occurred in 2019, 103 in 2020 and 151 in 2021. According to the data, 21.6 percent of the surveyed employees had an accident at work. When the survey results regarding the most frequent accidents in the carpet sector were examined, it was determined that the part with the most accidents was weaving and the most hook-knife cutting accidents were experienced. In addition, when the accidents and their causes were examined, it was seen that the accidents occurred due to the unsafe behavior of the employees. As a result of the study, it was determined that behavioral changes occur under conditions such as stress, fatigue, etc., and as a result of these changes, accidents increase. Although it has been observed that the perception of BBSM is high among employees, it has been concluded that the perceptions of employees who have not had an accident are higher than those of employees who have had an accident.