What is Behavioral Risk Management?

The workplace can be affected by many risk-enhancing behaviors and conditions such as stress, conﬂicts, substance abuse, political and social instability, and organizational change. The result of these behavioral changes can become disruptive, even dangerous, and can taint a company’s reputation.

Behavioral risk management is the process of analyzing, identifying, and addressing workplace behavioral issues and ensuring that the potential for damage from risk is minimized. Workplace behavioral issues include individual risks such as the behaviors of employees and directors, as well as organizational behavior which are collectively taken by the organization. Behavioral Science Applications LLC is a behavioral risk management consultancy that helps organizations of all types and sizes anticipate and effectively respond to various behavioral challenges in the workplace. We are pioneers in applying a science-based human factors approach to behavioral risk management.

Human Factors in Security, Business Continuity

& Emergency Management

As a governmental entity, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is large and complex, with 240,000 employees working across 22 incorporated agencies. The field of homeland security is also broad and multifaceted, focusing on a range of topics, including terrorism prevention, cybersecurity, human trafficking, disasters, and resilience. Just as all of the critical infrastructures vital to the United States depend on one specific sector--electricity, all homeland security agencies, and areas have one commonality-- people.

In both the public and private sectors, humans play a role in all aspects of security, including deterrence, detection, response, and recovery, for both administrators and recipients of security and emergency management procedures. For example, work in the behavioral sciences has direct implications for helping to prevent targeted violence and terrorism, in the community, on campus, and in work settings, as well as for dealing with the effects of such incidents when they occur. Understanding the human response to complex emergencies, like CBRNE situations, or cyber threats, is critical to managing all phases of the emergency management lifecycle.

Behavioral Science Applications LLC (BSA) applies the methods and doctrines of the behavioral sciences to the problems of homeland and private security, business continuity, and emergency management. The ability to form accurate behavioral assumptions can give an organization's leaders a critical tactical and strategic advantage in managing operational risks. An understanding of crisis-related behavior can inform actions that organizations can take to achieve a desired outcome. In other cases, an understanding of human behavior can lead to a more complete explanation of why people react in certain ways in disasters, emergencies, and violent incidents. Failure to adequately address human behavior in crisis response can lead to plans and procedures that are inappropriate, ineffective, and potentially dangerous.

BSA's multi-disciplinary team of advisors helps clients with analyses and insights into human behavior to facilitate effective crisis-related plans, policies, procedures, and exercises. By applying a multidisciplinary social science approach to understanding the diversity and complexity of human behavior, BSA can help optimize your organization's preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities.

The Homeland Security Human Factors Institute™

The Homeland Security Human Factors Institute™ is dedicated to assisting professionals in security, emergency management, business continuity, and related disciplines in forming accurate behavioral assumptions about how people will most likely behave in a wide range of threat scenarios. This information can then be applied to policies, plans, procedures, and exercises to ensure safe, effective, and defensible strategies and tactics in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters, emergencies, and acts of violence.

The Institute offers professional development opportunities throughout the year to help maintain and mature behavioral threat assessment and management teams. Participants can earn certificates in Homeland Security Human Factors by participating in a series or by taking individual classes, live or on-demand. The dynamic online programs provide a foundation of knowledge in disaster and emergency-related behaviors, as well as addressing emerging trends and threats.

The Center for Climate Change & Human Behavior™

Climate change is the most pressing issue of our time. We are dedicated to helping leaders in all types of organizations understand the complex behavioral impacts of extreme heat, precipitation, and other features of climate change. This crisis must be on the mind of every security, emergency management, and business continuity professional. As the temperature rises, so does the risk of a range of adverse behaviors, including aggression and violence. For professionals in any discipline related to safety and security, this will be a growing concern as the planet continues to warm.

Studies have demonstrated a linear relationship that directly ties escalating temperatures to escalating violence with assault rates peaking at the highest temperatures. Other studies have shown that in hot weather people are more likely to misread neutral signals as signs of hostility and less likely to avoid or condemn violence. When people are overheated, they have trouble thinking straight; there is notable cognitive disruption and distortions in thinking that can lead to poor problem-solving and overreactions to perceived threats.

In addition to the trauma caused by the increasing frequency and intensity of climate-fueled disasters, rising global temperatures play a part in social tensions that can boil over in the community and the workplace. “Climate anxiety” or “eco-anxiety” is defined as a “heightened emotional, mental or somatic distress in response to dangerous changes in the climate causing distress, anger, and other negative emotions in people worldwide.” Increasing temperatures also can affect collective violence in the form of civil unrest and terrorism. Research has found that changes in temperature and precipitation can increase the likelihood and intensity of conflict and violence. According to START, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and the Response to Terrorism, climate change acts as a “threat multiplier” of terrorism risk.

The changing climate will affect every part of personal and professional life. It has direct, demonstrable impacts on human behavior that must be understood and factored into policies, plans, procedures, and exercises. Leaders and decision-makers can not afford to get behind the curve in preparing for this reality. The Center for Climate Change & Human Behavior™ offers a range of consulting and training services to help organizations of all types and sizes anticipate and prepare for the inevitable challenges that climate change will bring. Now is the time to adopt a climate-informed approach to managing the behavioral risks ahead. To learn more, email us at info@climate-behavior.com.

Check out our article in Continuity Insights magazine, "Facing Extreme Heat: Are Your Employees Tougher Than The Marines?"