Will employees speak out?

A good safety culture is one in which employees feel valued and able to speak their mind without fear of reprisal, the experts say. For example, DEKRA helped NASA assess its safety culture in the wake of the space shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003. DEKRA’s survey of all employees at 11 NASA locations found that the space agency scored poorly when it came to perceived organisational support and upward communication, which both had the potential to impact safety.

Psychological safety (“the feeling that your boss has your back”, says Grant) is important if workers are to feel able to point out where things aren’t being done correctly. Does a supervisor play fair, or play favourites with certain employees? Are they looking out for everyone’s best interests? When issues were brought up in the past, were there positive or negative consequences?

“That is extremely powerful for workers in terms of whether they are going to speak up if there is a problem,” says Grant. The same rules apply at suppliers, but standards may vary considerably. “Contractors come from different cultures and have different levels of operational excellence in safety performance.” Nonetheless, utilities should endeavour to ensure they are on the same page when it comes to safety. “When you look at workplace safety, contractor safety is the most challenging area,” McGonegle believes.

In the event of an incident, says Marc Ulrich of SCE, leaders should “turn it into a learning opportunity. The reaction to an injury is important – it should be empathetic, not like a drill sergeant berating people.”

He adds: “There are some old-school leaders out there who say, ‘if someone got hurt that means somebody was violating a rule, and if somebody was violating a rule I need to fire someone’. That is not the kind of leader that works in today’s safety playbook. Accountability means you can account for your actions. It doesn’t mean, ‘I get fired if I make a mistake’.”

At Duke Energy, accountability starts at the top if there is a safety issue. “When we have a high-energy event, we have a prescribed management response,” explains Landis. “If there is a SIF, it triggers what we call an ‘enterprise prompt investigation response team’.” The response team reports on the incident within 48 to 72 hours, communicating any lessons learnt to each of the business unit leaders. This enables operational learnings can be evaluated by each unit. “The prompt investigation report is followed up by a root cause evaluation,” Landis explains.

If he were able to eliminate one risk that has the potential to cause safety problems, what would it be? Landis doesn’t hesitate. He points to the design of the electricity grid itself. “Lineworkers routinely perform complex tasks on energised equipment, often while working in close proximity to moving traffic – an environment that presents some of the industry's most significant safety challenges.

“If there is one thing I would change, it would be the design of the system. I would engineer out the need for energised work and reduce our employees' exposure to roadway hazards.”

The pressure to do jobs quickly might come a close second, say experts. Grant of DEKRA points out that time pressure discourages conscious, deliberate actions. “When we are under pressure to get something done, our brain shuts down our slow thinking. Pressure will minimise your brain’s ability to do that, making you act unconsciously or out of habit.”

DEKRA chief client officer Jim Spigener points out that it’s easy for employees to get locked into an attitude of, “I do this every day, this one little thing won’t matter’.” The brain, he says, is “naturally going to find the easiest way to do something”.

“But there are tools we can use to keep the brain in slow thinking mode, so I am deliberate, I am conscious.

“That way we don’t end up saying, ‘we knew what we had to do, we had the stuff we needed – we just didn’t do it on this occasion’.”