Page 26 - CARILEC CE Industry Journal_Oct_2019

The 9 Key Elements of

Safety Excellence

- Ronald J. Schenk, CUSP, President, ISPC

SAFETY AS A CORPORATE
STRATEGY Exhibit 1 -
Top Reasons for Safety given
Safety, in the Electric Utility Industry, has come a long by CEO’s of Electric Utilities
way in the past couple of decades. We’ve always
wanted our folks to not get hurt doing their job, but it’s 1 Employee Health / Moral
only been recently that the Industry has recognized a Obligation
broader responsibility for safety in the workplace and 2 Legal / Compliance
has begun to do something about it. Requirements
3 Cost Effectiveness
In a canvass of electric utility CEO’s, six top reasons 4 Worker Productivity
were given as to why they felt that safety was good 5 Employer of Choice
business and why safety has become part of a strategy 6 Customer / Public
for success (see Exhibit 1.) Several things may be Expectations
gleaned from this ranking.
The number one reason for supporting safety in the
workplace was the correct one: employee health and
moral obligation. The Board Room has finally left Exhibit 2 -
behind the rationale that ‘when someone gets hurt, it’s The 9 Elements of Safety
their own d____ fault – they should be more careful.’ Excellence
When someone gets hurt on the job, many people have
failed, including those in the Board Room. 1 Management Commitment
& Leadership
The second reason listed is an interesting one, too: 2 Roles, Responsibilities and
‘because we have to.’ Management is accepting they Accountabilities
have no choice in whether they provide a safe work 3 Employee Participation
place, or not. They must. 4 Communications

5 Behavioral Skills
The remaining responses were expected, but the fact 6 Hazard Recognition &
that ‘Public Expectations’ made the list at all, is telling. Control
It is less and less acceptable for workers to get hurt on 7 Education & Training
the job today. The Public are less inclined to overlook 8 Incident Investigation &
accidents and more inclined to see them as a failure of Analysis
management. 9 Performance Evaluation &
Measurements
Truly, we are heading in the right direction, however as
most of you know, ‘Zero Injuries’ is still an allusive goal
for most of us. Within our Consulting Practice at ISPC,
we’ve compiled a list of 9 key elements that appear to be
part of every successful safety program (see Exhibit 2).

24 CE INDUSTRY Journal