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Behaviour-Based Safety and Safety Culture

A practical, visual introduction to behaviour-based safety and safety culture. Learn what a strong safety culture looks like, how unsafe acts and unsafe conditions combine to cause harm, why people behave the way they do and how observation, feedback, reporting and leadership build a workplace where safety is simply how things are done.
What You Will Learn
- Explain what safety culture is and how it shapes work health and safety outcomes
- Distinguish unsafe acts from unsafe conditions and describe how both contribute to incidents
- Describe behaviour-based safety and how antecedents and consequences drive behaviour (the ABC model)
- Describe how to carry out a supportive safety observation and give feedback that changes behaviour
- Explain how reporting, a just culture and everyday leadership build and sustain a positive safety culture
Course Content
- Safety culture is how safety happens when no one is watching
- By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Safety culture is the shared way a workplace thinks and acts about safety
- Behaviour-based safety focuses on what people actually do, not just what the rules say
- You can see a workplace's safety culture in everyday signals
- One widely used model (the DuPont Bradley Curve) describes four broad stages
- Behaviour-based safety sits on top of the law. It never replaces it
- Most incidents involve an unsafe act, an unsafe condition, or both together
- Unsafe acts and unsafe conditions are two different things to look for
- Unsafe acts are the risky things people do
- Unsafe conditions are hazards built into the environment or equipment
- Serious injuries sit on top of many more near misses and unsafe acts
- Blaming the worker alone misses the real cause
- Behaviour is driven by what comes before it and what follows it
- The ABC model explains why we behave the way we do
- Consequences that are soon, certain and positive drive behaviour most strongly
- Making the safe way the easy way changes behaviour for good
- Reinforce the right behaviour. Don't rely on blame alone
- A safety observation means watching real work to learn, not to catch people out
- A good safety observation follows a simple sequence
- Give feedback that builds trust, not fear
- Catching people doing it right is as powerful as correcting risks
- Every hazard and near miss reported is a chance to prevent the next injury
- A 'just culture' separates honest mistakes from reckless choices
- Consulting workers about safety is a legal duty, not an optional extra
- Leaders shape culture through what they do every day
- The standard you walk past is the standard you accept
- Now put it all together
- On the floor: a team leader in the warehouse
- The five things to carry away
Who This Course Is For
All staff and frontline leaders: supervisors, team leaders and anyone who wants to understand how behaviour and culture shape work health and safety outcomes.
Written by Kam Askari, Managing Director of Creative Directions Management Consulting Pty Ltd, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 Lead Auditor. MBA, Graduate Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety, MAICD. Checked against the sources listed below.
Sources and Legal References
This course is aligned to 17 official sources. Legal and regulatory references checked between 31 August 2026 and 1 November 2026.
Sources and Further Reading
This course draws on the following official sources. Always rely on the current version on the regulator’s website.
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth)As at 31/08/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW)As at 31/08/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)As at 31/08/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA)As at 31/08/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA)As at 31/08/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2012 (Tas)As at 31/08/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2011 (ACT)As at 31/08/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011 (NT)As at 31/08/2026
- LegislationOccupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic)As at 31/08/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (ACT)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW)As at 01/11/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Regulations 2011 (NT)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulations 2012 (SA)As at 13/09/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulations 2022 (Tas)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationOccupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (Vic)As at 01/11/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 (WA)As at 31/10/2026
Always rely on the current version on the regulator’s website.
Seven day refund if you have not started
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For employers and teams
Buy Seats for Your Team
$39.00 per seat, inc GST
Total inc GST$195.00
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What You Get
Certificate of Completion
This is to certify that
has successfully completed
All learning modules and the final assessment
Kam Askari
Director, Creative Directions Management Consulting Pty Ltd
This is a certificate of completion of a non-accredited professional development course. It is not a nationally recognised qualification, a VET statement of attainment, a competency card, a licence, or evidence of competency. It is issued by Creative Directions Management Consulting Pty Ltd, which is not a Registered Training Organisation.
Sample layout. Certificate ID WP-SAMPLE-0001 verifies as Hazardous Manual Tasks and Manual Handling Safety.
- Certificate verified by its ID
- 100% online, self-paced
- Six months of access
Bought for yourself: six months of access from the day you pay. Team seat: six months from the day the worker activates their code.
Level: Intermediate
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