Abstract
Mining companies continue to struggle on two fronts to improve safety performance. The first front is in the area of Total Recordable Injuries where many injuries occur because of the low level of risk awareness of the employees involved. The second is workplace fatalities where both employees and supervision do not recognize that a certain activity could result in a Serious Injury or Fatality (SIF). Changing these outcomes requires a process that significantly shifts the safety culture to the independent or interdependent stages as shown on the dss+ Bradley Curve. We need to broaden people’s thinking to be more risk aware rather than just being satisfied with a “follow the rules” mentality as there is never a safety rule for every risk in an operation.
dss+ has developed a process called “Risk Aware Culture” that can drive risk awareness and improve the level of engagement of employees. An example of this is a cultural transformation that is underway at Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) they call “Courage to Care”. The approach utilizes a core team of front-line employees from each operating area who are trained on risk awareness and then proceed to map out the work process, identify risks, prioritize the risks and then develop mitigation strategies. Core team members lead discussions with their peers, asking for input on tasks, work methods, and perceptions of risk involved in these tasks and work methods. In the final step the core team members present their improvement strategies to leadership. This process identifies risks which the organization had not previously identified.
When employees focus on how work is actually performed, they find new hazards, and are able to accurately estimate the risk (frequency and severity) of a potential incident. This analysis can surface risk reduction opportunities by making tasks more efficient (cost), easier to perform, while increasing the availability of equipment. Another cultural theme identified was that employees value work completion, more than managing risk. The discussion of these risks provided leadership with an opportunity to reinforce that safety is more important than production.
The cultural journey for Leadership involves looking at how their role influences the culture. The change for Leadership is to take a supportive role rather than a leadership role in implementing the solutions. The improvements are led by the front line Core Team, and priorities are escalated with strong solutions developed using an analysis of current controls.
Risk Aware Culture Transformation can create the foundation for a more risk aware organization by engaging the workforce and the leadership in a common effort to reduce operational risk. This approach fosters trust, improved communication, and collaboration. The benefits extend beyond improving safety performance, beyond providing tools to manage risk and implementing short interval solutions. Front line employees developed capabilities to lead (by example), to identify and manage hazards and risk, to take ownership of managing risk, including being empowered to develop and implement solutions. Working in teams they create engagement, shared values, and organizational pride.