Heidi Borner Director, Orange Umbrella® P.O. Box 13-549 Johnsonville, Wellington, 6440 Heidi@orangeumbrella.co.nz (P12, Wednesday 26, Ilott Theatre, 1.30)

1. Bringing Safety Climate
Theory to Life in the
Electricity Industry

2. Organisational Culture
“Norms, values and basic assumptions of a
given organisation”
(Gershon, Stone, Bakken & Larson (2004). Measurement or organizational culture and
climate in health care. Journal of Nursing Administration, 34(1), 33-40.)

3. Organisational Climate
“Employees’ perception of the
organisation’s culture”
(Gershon, Stone, Bakken & Larson (2004). Measurement or organizational culture and
climate in health care. Journal of Nursing Administration, 34(1), 33-40.)

4. Organisational System
Society
Organisation
Culture
F
e Strategies
e
d
Systems
b
a
c Actions
k
Outcomes

5. “The water fish swim in”
(LeBaron, M., & Pillay, V. (2006). Conflict across cultures. Boston: Intercultural
Press division of Nicholas Brealey Publishing

6. Continuum
Compliance Commitment
Have to Want to

7. Compliance
‣ “Have to”
‣ Compliance – Focus is on the “rules” and the “law”.
This is by both management and staff. Eg. “blanket
PPE” policy
‣ Level above enforces rules for level below
‣ Little leeway for problem-solving, challenging status
quo

8. Commitment
‣ “Want to”
‣ Engaged in the workplace aims
‣ Collaborative problem solving
‣ People work the same way whether or not the
enforcer is watching

9. “If I can convince them it’s a good
idea then half the battle is won.
If I can’t then I am wasting my time”
Graham Henry
Dominion Post, Oct 24, 2011

10. Health and Safety
‣ For safety sensitive work, engagement will not
happen without excellent health and safety.
‣ If people feel at risk and less important than profit,
they will not engage with the company.
Electricity - Aviation
Health care - Construction
Police and Fire - Transportation
Forestry - Oil and Gas
Mining …..many others

11. Electricity Industry
‣ This project has been building for the last 40 years
with safety management system development and
Safety Rules for the industry.
‣ Over the last 10 years the serious injuries have
plateaued.
‣ Industry agreement that an industry approach was
needed to address best practice, manage health and
safety and regulatory issues.

12. Growth of Effective Safety Systems - Fennell
Adapted from D. Fennell, “Growth of Effective Safety Systems”
(presented at the Canadian Society of Safety Engineers
Conference, 2006)

13. Electricity Industry
‣ In 2008 the ESI Safety Strategy to 2020 was agreed
to “strategically address leadership, organisational
issues and cultural/behavioural issues”.
‣ “Aim is to move the ESI beyond compliance to a
proactive safety culture”.
‣ Outcome is to reduce the incidents of injury, serious
harm, and death to electricity workers and public.

14. ESI Vision
“Safe and Healthy People in
Productive,
Well-Managed Workplaces”

15. ESI Vision
Every individual in our industry has a role and
responsibility to realise the vision:
‣ Boards of Directors who make decisions impacting
safety and who establish responsibilities and
accountabilities for their senior management team;
‣ Executive and Senior Management who establish
the culture, lead by example, visibility, who set
performance requirements and enable activities;

16. ESI Vision
‣ Designers who consider those constructing, using
and maintaining, or being near what they design;
‣ Managers and Supervisors who plan and optimise
financial, human and material resources to
productively and safely meet their objectives;
‣ Employees who have direct responsibility to
themselves, peers, family and friends to go home
safely and in good health after every day or shift.

17. ESI Strategy
Proactive Culture
‣ Industry-wide constant learning and improvement
‣ Mindful organisations:
Recognise good performance
No denial about safety issues
Raising issues is expected and safe
Information is treated seriously and acted on
Reporting is non-prejudicial.

18. ESI Strategy Aims
‣ Industry-level overview
‣ Benchmarks for workplace culture and forward-
looking indicators.
‣ Enable industry-level initiatives consistent with
safety improvement aims under the ESI Safety
Strategy to 2020.

19. How???

20. ESI Industry Platform
‣ Build on the platform established by the ESI industry
‣ Electricity Engineers’ Association (EEA) has a
mandate to facilitate and lead the industry:
Safety Rules
Best Practice Guides
Forums and Conferences
Lobby and representation of the industry to the regulators
Monitoring of performance
Reporting

21. ESI Industry
‣ Dedicated Safety Strategy and Policy Group (SSPG) to
look at safety issues in particular
‣ Willingness to look at industry and wider experience

22. Safety Climate Project
‣ Orange Umbrella® tools were used to bridge the
theory to practice
‣ Started with a Pilot to test it for the ESI and
determine uptake.

23. Safety Climate Project Objectives
‣ Valid and reliable measurement
‣ Use data to reduce the risk of illness and
injury to workers, and increase productivity
‣ Establish lead safety performance
indicators.
‣ Leading indicator benchmarks

24. Safety Climate Project Objectives
‣ Pan-industry communication and co-
operation
‣ Easily measure their own progress on a
regular basis and at low cost.
‣ ESI Health and Safety Strategy to 2020.

25. Safety Climate Project Objectives
Benefits:
‣ Productivity
‣ Quality improvement
‣ Decreased losses through incidents and injuries.
‣ Each enterprise can target the issues that are
relevant to them – very important.
‣ Pan-industry and unified approach to human factors
– lifts the whole industry.

26. Safety Climate Project
‣ Safety Climate Project Induction - Companies new to
the SCP.
‣ Safety Climate Project Continuation - Measuring
progress and monitoring status.
‣ EEA Industry Oversight & Coordination - Information
used at an industry level to create systemic change.

27. Safety Climate Project Pilot
‣ 3 Day Process Leader workshop
‣ GSP™ Survey: 2 survey rounds
‣ NewHeights™ improvement process: Orange Umbrella®
facilitated workshops to analyse results, meet with
employees and executive, plan actions
‣ Implement actions: 3-6 months
‣ Monitor: second survey
‣ Celebrate successes and keep improving.
‣ Report of project findings

28. Project Roles
‣ EEA
‣ Orange Umbrella®
‣ Participating company
‣ Process Leader
‣ Executive Management

29. Confidentiality
Aggregated, anonymised data of participating
organisations for industry reporting.

31. Repeat
1 2 3 4
SCOPE & SURVEY ASSESS IMPLEMENT MONITOR
Productivity and Injury, illness,
performance absenteeism and litigation

32. What does the SCP measure?
Health and safety performance and the enablers
that make that performance happen.

33. Systems view
‣ Employees’ views of the system
‣ Not singling out one person to blame
‣ What is working well and what needs to be changed
in our system of work?
‣ At all levels - work group, team leaders and
supervisors, managers, company, industry

34. Power of Perception
The issue is not whether
perceptions are
right or wrong

35. Power of Perception
The issue is that they are
real.
“My perception is my
reality.”

36. ABLE
to do it
KNOW Great Safety EQUIPPED
what to do PERFORMANCE to do it
WANT
to do it
®
Copyright © 1998-2010 Performance! ...by Design® . All rights reserved. The Performance Maximizer ® is a registered trademark
of Anthony Roithmayr.

37. Able
to do it
Know Great Safety Equipped
what to do PERFORMANCE to do it
Leading Indicators
Want
to do it ®
Lagging Indicators
Safety Results Company
CONDITIONS Safe Work Safe Work
& INDIVIDUAL Business
INPUTS ACTIONS OUTCOMES OUTCOMES IMPACT
Feedback and Consequences

38. SCP Pilot Overview
‣ 11 companies
‣ Three day Process Leader Workshop
‣ Two GSP Surveys – April and September, 2010
‣ 98 NewHeights™ workshops
‣ 383 Line mechanics (overhead, underground) and
service technicians.

39. SCPP group

40. Age

41. Hours per week
38% 44+
hours

42. SCP Findings
‣ The SCP is challenging “traditional safety” thinking
Eg. “Hazard ids are
ticked therefore
people are safe.”

43. Hazard Ids
‣ “We are short of time and they take a long time to do so we
do them on the way to the job.”
‣ “We complete the forms. Then we get together and do the
real hazard id.”
‣ “The checklist we use does not represent the hazards but has
to be done for the audit.”
‣ “It does not matter what we put onto the hazard id because
no one looks at it. It only goes into a file for the audit
anyway.”

44. Audits
Assumptions:
‣ “If audit scores are high, we will be safe.”
‣ “We have reached our safety target of completing 100% of
audits.”
‣ “Audits are leading indicators of safety.”
Field staff say:
‣ “The auditor does not understand our work.”
‣ “The auditor does not follow our safety rules and is an onsite
hazard.”

45. Audits
‣ Auditing is valuable to show that systems are in place. The
problem is how they are used.
Limitations:
‣ They cannot predict safety outcomes.
‣ They do not measure:
How good the system is
The human factors that affect performance
All possible scenarios that can happen in the field
Only measure what they are set up to measure

46. Injury/Event Statistics
‣ The Electricity Supply Industry is heavily LTI and audit
driven
‣ Performance is measured in LTIs and audit scores
‣ Decisions are made on LTI frequency and severity
rates
‣ KPIs have LTIs built in for Supervisors, managers,
CEOs, boards, company contracts

47. Injury/Event Statistics
‣ How LTIs are tracking is published widely throughout
the company and the industry
‣ Goals are related to reducing LTIs
‣ ACC experience rating - penalties and incentives are
based on LTIs too.

48. LTI rate
Accuracy depends on reporting:
‣ How consistently do people report?
‣ What are the consequences of reporting?
“I don’t want to be the one to break the record.”
“I don’t want to be the reason the bonus is lost.”
“Everyone will hear about it and I will feel like an idiot.”
“All investigations show it is always the person’s fault.”
‣ The compensation system
‣ The relationship with the immediate supervisor
‣ So what is the LTI rate actually measuring?

49. Incident Underreporting
‣ LTI Underreporting from Field Staff to the company
‣ LTI Underreporting from the Company to the
Industry level
‣ General underreporting for First Aid, Medical Aid,
Lost time, Near Miss and Vehicle and Plant incidents.

50. Themes - Strengths
‣ Pride, commitment, passion:
“We keep the power on.”
“Little old lady down the street…”
2.21: Leaving the worksite safe. (94.8)
‣ Depth of skills, knowledge and experience:
“We are proud of our skills and knowledge.”
SWA, Know and Able had the highest scores.

51. Themes - Strengths
‣ Openmindedness to challenging the status quo:
Honest look at themselves and the system.
Sincere feedback to improve the situation.
Wanting to be heard reflected in low ratings for
Interactions, Want, SCI.

52. Themes - Strengths
‣ Systems view:
GSP is used to evaluate the wider system rather
than focusing on individual job performance.
‣ Co-worker support:
The highest ratings across the board were for
gangs supporting each other and looking out for
each other.

53. Themes - Strengths
‣ Improved collaboration and open communication:
Worked collaboratively to create joint decisions
to make improvements.
Great platform for tackling industry challenges.

54. Themes - Challenges
‣ Leadership Skills:
Want, Interactions, SCI relating to leadership
was low.
At all levels.
Need to be able to discuss work, clarify issues
and ask for support to work safely.

55. Themes - Challenges
‣ Communication:
Tied in with leadership skills.
Respectful two-way communication, feedback,
facilitation.
No more fingerpointing, ridiculing.

56. Themes - Challenges
‣ Training:
Proportionately high numbers of staff with 4
years or less experience.
Experience in the field doing a variety of tasks
(more than once!) is a priority.
Mentoring, coaching is needed.
Cross training with other companies.
Supervisor mentoring.

57. Themes - Challenges
‣ Feedback:
Tied in with leadership skills and
communication.
Very low scores in Want, Interactions, SCI.
Defining what makes a “good” workday which
should go well beyond the absence of injury.
Being able to give feedback and recognition to
all parts of the business eg. Job planning.

58. Themes - Challenges
‣ Drug Testing:
Support drug testing.
It is now ad hoc, incomplete and inconsistent.
Not integrated with disciplinary process,
incident investigations and HR benefits.

59. Themes - Challenges
‣ Underreporting of incidents:
Underreporting due to unclear reporting
methods, definitions (eg Near Miss)
Inconsistent formal and informal disciplinary
consequences
Potential loss of business for contractors.
Need for positive KPIs to balance the injury
data.

60. Themes - Challenges
‣ Job planning problems:
Leads to, frustration, erosion of trust,
RUSHING…

61. Themes - Challenges
‣ Hazard identification sheets:
Disconnect between the real hazard id and the
paperwork.
Very strong view that hazard id is “non-
negotiable” but the paperwork is seen as a
paper exercise.

62. Round Two
‣ Surprise.
‣ Pleased that the process was continuing and is seen
as important by senior management.
‣ The survey was sensitive in picking up issues.
‣ People said they understood the questions better,
and this may have affected the ratings. Most said
they put more thought into the answers.

63. Round Two
‣ CEO and senior management involvement makes a BIG
difference - visibility, demonstration of commitment, easier
to get things improved.
‣ Communication of the Action Plans to the staff on a regular
basis demonstrates that their input is being taken seriously.
‣ Action Planning committee. Designated group, Senior
management involvement in this group helps to get the
changes approved, visible commitment, team feel.

64. Round Two
‣ Events - Earthquake, snow storms, wind storms, rain
storms, Lines Competition
‣ Almost all groups reported that the systems worked
better during events.
Hazard risk control was paramount
People respected each other, and “everyone
pitched in and helped”. “There was a level playing
field”.

65. Round Two
‣ Did we do what we set out to do in our first Action
Plan?
‣ Are we on the right track?
‣ Are there issues that need more attention?
‣ There were some easy fixes.
‣ Culture change takes time.

66. Action Plans
Range 5 to 23 Action Plans
Average 19 Action Plans per company
‣ Action Plans were largely underway when the
second survey was done.
‣ Second survey gives an indication of whether Actions
are on the right track.

68. SCP Status
2010 2011
Participating 11 19
Companies
Asset Owners 0 4
(individual)
Field Staff Survey 383 ~1200
respondents
Supervisor Survey 0 44
respondents

72. Google image