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1. A Survey of Safety Culture DOE ISM Best Practices Workshop
Lettie Chilson,
West Valley Nuclear Services Company
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3. 18807 3 Why a Workforce Survey? Safety Survey has been conducted every year since 1995.
Safety performance at WVNSCO was at record levels (TRC and Dart near 0, 4 million safe work hours)
Site metrics can’t measure attitudes/feelings
Being Safe and Feeling Safe are not the same.
4. 18807 4 Survey Development Used ISM draft attributes that focused on behaviors, perceptions and feelings
24 statements or questions
One yes/no question
Range 5 = Strongly agree 1 = Strongly Disagree
Senior management and represented labor reviewed the survey prior
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7. 18807 7 Logistics All employees were given a copy by their supervisor
Each survey had a ticket to tear off for an incentive drawing
Individual survey responses were held in confidence
8. 18807 8 Analysis Total Respondents: 173 of 334
Percent: 51%
The following percentages of those responding are:
Hourly: 23%
Supervisors 7%
Exempt: 24%
Managers 5%
Non-Exempt 12%
Did not Identify 30%
The survey demographics aligned very closely (within 1% of each category) to actual company demographics
9. 18807 9 Analysis
10. 18807 10 Analysis Questions were reviewed by groupings.
The questions with the higher average response (>4)
individual accountability
understanding of safety program responsibilities.
This indicates that in general employees understand their role in safety and feel they positively contribute to making work safer.
The Questions with the lower overall averages (<4)
related to the actions of others in accepting or valuing employee input
communicating appropriate feedback.
Comments generally indicated employees understand their rights and want to contribute to effective safe work but feel their contributions are not always being considered by work planners or line management.
This was not unexpected and was consistent with other indicators and management observations.
11. 18807 11 Analysis Generally curves follow each other
Management/Supervisors closely match
Hourly and non-exempt closely match
Focus on understanding and reducing the distance between the lines.
12. 18807 12 Individual Questions Question #2 – Overall 3.71
Workers are actively involved in identification, planning, and improvement of work and work practices for the project
13. 18807 13 Comments All Comments were sorted by question and stripped of identifying information.
Examples of Comments from Question #2
14. 18807 14 Sharing Results Results presented to employee based safety committees:
Safety Success
Mutli-disciplined group with line supervisor as lead
Central Safety
Senior Management and Union Leaders meet monthly with safety program managers
ISMS Annual Review
15. 18807 15 Actions / Improvements Communication
Represented labor presence at 7:30 morning planning meeting
Increased communication of company issues and status of work/contract
Senior management emphasis daily on worker involvement and team accountability
Human Performance tools/techniques added to senior management and supervisor briefings
16. 18807 16 Action / Improvement PPE
action was taken to ensure specific PPE comments were addressed
Availability
Site wide PPE policy
Tooling Availability Review
Results provided to Integrated Assessment Council for assessment planning
Weekly “Talking Points” issued to Supervisors to discuss with workers – address most critical issues including contract status, first aids, benefits, etc.
17. 18807 17 Lessons Learned Workers provided input on survey questions
Wording
Number of questions
Baseline year should be established and improvement measured annually
Confidentiality is key
Incentives – Make safety/company related
Trust….135 incentive tickets returned
18. 18807 18 Conclusion Survey can provide a good relative measure of safety culture
It’s not all about statistics….one comment can open a door of big improvement opportunity
Don’t be afraid…the answers represent feelings that can help open communication