Blueprint for developing a culture of safety--Part One: a report from the Federated Rural Electric Insurance Exchange.

Whenever an accident or injury occurs, the immediate reaction is to figure out what happened. A report is completed with all the details--date, location, circumstances, who was involved, any injuries. So you have all the necessary information to pinpoint the cause. But not really. Most accident reports give a snapshot of what happened in that moment and on that day, offering only a glimpse of the big picture. They don't identify all the actions, decisions and--let's be honest--mistakes that may have taken place long before the mishap, but certainly contributed to the creation of an unsafe situation. Unfortunately, that kind of organization-wide soul searching often takes place only after a very serious accident has caused critical injuries or loss of life.

Developing a Strategy for a Culture of Safety

Ask any employee at your cooperative if he or she supports effective safety practices and the answer will undoubtedly be "Yes." Because regardless of job duties, people believe having a safe work environment is important, for them and the communities they serve. The challenge is how to help your employees--whether they're billing clerks or linemen, newly hired or long-time veterans--bring the idea of safe work practices into everything they do, every single day. Developing a strategy to achieve a true Culture of Safety is no different than planning to reach any business objective. You need to evaluate your current programs and needs, set measurable goals, determine priorities, allocate resources and develop a timeline.

For the past several years, Federated has promoted the Culture of Safety to our members, publishing three papers on how to foster a safe working environment at electric cooperatives. And we're pleased so many of our members are using and adapting the information for their own organizations. This program combines the content of the first three publications with new information we've gathered from members, plus actionable strategies for promoting a Culture of Safety within your own cooperative.

You have a safety committee and a safety manual; you do safety training for your employees and safety education programs for members. But how do you begin to assess the effectiveness of these tools and what else should you be doing?

Start with the Rural Electric Safety Accreditation Program (RESAP) Program

RESAP isn't merely a process to go through every three years; it's a comprehensive source of information you can use to decide where you excel and areas that need improvement. If you've recently completed your RESAP accreditation, go over your observation form with a fine-toothed comb.

* In which areas did your cooperative score well? Evaluate the programs or policies in place for those areas to see if you can modify them to work in areas that need improvement.

* Try to pinpoint the reason for lower scores in other areas. Is it a personnel issue, training deficiency, poor communication, or a lack of policy documentation?

Use the RESAP observation form on an ongoing basis to conduct your own hands-on evaluation. It doesn't have to be as rigorous as the RESAP procedure. But be sure you can answer each of the questions based on what is actually taking place on a day-to-day basis--not what should be happening.

Conduct a Company-wide Safety Survey

The RESAP evaluation shows what is happening with regard to safety at your cooperative. Discovering your employees' attitudes toward safety may tell you why it's happening. The focus of the survey should be on how employees view safety in their own jobs, and their perceptions of the attitudes of their peers, supervisors and managers. You also should include contractors, if you make substantial use of their services.

Make sure you ask questions in a way that helps participants think beyond generalities. For example, "Do you feel your supervisor supports company safety policies?" is much less specific than "Do you feel empowered to say 'no' if you're asked to do something you believe is unsafe?" You also can find out whether your employees are aware of safety policies and if they think they're enforced fairly. The survey can be conducted via one of the many online survey services, which can provide you with templates of employee surveys. You also can hire a third-party to handle the writing and tabulation.

However if you choose to do your own survey, make sure your employees understand why you're doing it and that it's completely anonymous.

Look for Trends

Are your RESAP scores trending up or down? How about your OSHA recordable Incident Rate or your Workers' Compensation Experience Rating? Even small changes in these long-term measures can point to the success--or failure--of your safety efforts to date. If your numbers aren't going in the direction you want them to, it means you need to do something now.

Decide where you want to be. Safety is measurable. Your RESAP scores, OSHA and Workers' Compensation data are proof of that. The challenge is to use that information, plus your understanding of your cooperative's strengths and weaknesses to formulate measurable goals and track your progress in developing a Culture of Safety.

Decide what needs to be measured based on your evaluation. Don't limit yourself to the obvious, such as reducing accidents or days lost due injuries on the job. Your goals within a Culture of Safety should also include reducing the situations that result in accidents and days lost. So you'll also want to capture information on near misses, progress toward eliminating potential hazards, such as dangerous tree removal and right-of-way maintenance. You also can set goals for the positive, proactive things your cooperative does to reduce accidents--the number of employees who've completed specific kinds of training, safety information requests from your members, changes in safety procedures suggested by employees. With these measurements, you can gauge your progress toward increasing awareness of safety.

Set up your data sources. Safety committee reports, board reports and other existing documents may already capture the information you'll need to document your progress. You may be able to modify existing reports to record additional data by adding a column to a spreadsheet or a data field. Make sure employees, supervisors and managers understand the importance of collecting the information. They all undoubtedly already have enough paperwork to do, plus they need to know your objective is to improve the working environment and not to point fingers or assign blame.

Set a timeframe for achieving each goal with specific interim checkpoints monthly or quarterly--to help you stay on track. Be realistic, but don't be afraid to be somewhat aggressive. And be sure every department and every employee have parts to play in reaching your goals. Your aim is to create awareness and change behavior. Your goals should clearly demonstrate that safety isn't just the concern of your safety director, field personnel and engineers. It's everyone's responsibility.

Decide how you will pay for it. Being a member-owned organization poses special challenges--you must balance the challenge of providing reliable, affordable power with making sure every feasible safety measure is taken. While everyone--board members, employees and cooperative members--may agree that safety is a priority, budgeting for additional safety expenditures in the midst of rising energy costs is challenging.

Evaluate the impact of each goal and set priorities. Separate the "must achieve" from the "good to reach" goals. Then determine which of your most important goals have the highest visibility--i.e., which ones are most likely to resonate with employees, board members and your coop members--and fund those goals first. You're not substituting flash for substance, but simply starting your push for a Culture of Safety by investing in programs your constituents are most likely to understand and rally behind.

Wherever possible, estimate an ROI for safety and safety-related expenditures. There are ancillary benefits to nearly every safety program and safety-related expenditure. For example, increases in right-of-way maintenance can improve customer service and reduce the damage from major storms. Because of how it's calculated, your Workers' Compensation Experience Rating is influenced more by small frequent losses than by a few larger, less frequent ones. So you may be able to draw a correlation between budgeting for additional skills training or incentive programs that can prevent injuries and the cost of your insurance premiums.

Everyone knows safety pays. But proving it with numbers can make it easier to get the funding you need ... and that puts you on a smoother path to developing your cooperative's Culture of Safety.

Creating a Structure to Support a Culture of Safety

The organizational framework that sustains a Culture of Safety involves everyone--from board members and executives to field and office personnel. It's not just something the safety committee discusses once a month or what engineers and line workers think about as they plan or start a project. It's everyone's responsibility, and part of every job description.

At the director level:

* Make safety reports part of your monthly meeting agenda. The report should include any accidents, near-misses and year-to-date figures compared to previous year to highlight trends. It should also address any safety issues raised by your statewide organization and major changes to work procedures that may affect members.

* Be sure to include any safety and service ramifications in budget proposals for items such as equipment replacement and repair, right-of-way maintenance, tree trimming and tree replacement programs. Don't take it for granted that your board members will realize that removing dangerous trees can reduce your exposure to liability. Or that being more aggressive with right-of-way maintenance can reduce outages during storms.

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