(52aj) Building a Risk-Conscious Organization through Creative and Inclusive Competency Development in Process Safety Management

PSM Implementation has key pillars such as Leadership Commitment, Understanding and Managing Risk and Learning from Experience. The effectiveness of understanding and managing risk pillar depends on the competency of the personnel who are able to understand and apply the process safety concepts. A few of the key aspects of the term competency would include People’s ability to learn and apply knowledge in areas such as the hazards of the chemicals, risk involved in nonroutine tasks, meticulous inspection, testing and maintenance for critical equipment etc.

There are a few myths and fallacies about competency development:

1. Competency development is nothing but Training
2. Competency development is required for only frontline personnel
3. Competency development is an adhoc / check box exercise

In the Indian context, Process Safety competency development is still in embryonic stage and is often limited to training. The crucial aspects in competency development are identifying and defining the competency levels for different layers / roles in the organisation starting from Leadership at the highest rung to Contract workers at the base of the ladder. Every one of them directly impacts process safety performance and needs competencies specific to their respective roles. Maintaining and sustaining the competency during role transition / attrition and addressing the competency requirement during organisation change/Business change are important aspects that need an agile response to changing dynamics.

This paper attempts to outline challenges existing in the organisation with respect to competency development. These are identified through technical as well as culture surveys. Various approaches in competency development are customised depending on the findings of the surveys. Integrating competency requirement at the recruiting stage itself, different modes of competency development such as Certify and Operate concept for Process Safety Elements such as PHA, Work Permit System, Management of change, Asset integrity, Experiential Learning & Gamification methodologies for the contract workers – these are some of the initiatives that ensure competency building.

This paper also highlights the role of process safety leaders in competency development. They need to drive a as holistic approach from recruitment, across the entire spectrum of Line Management, and down to the contract workforce who can be the weak link in the whole process due to various challenges. Our approach has specific focus towards developing competency for the contract personnel through Contractor Incubation Centers and making contract owners as partners of the journey.

Contractor Incubation Centre is an exclusive initiative which gives an identity to the contract workforce as an essential and important segment of the overall human resource of the organisation. It shows the commitment of the management to develop Contractors’ Process safety competencies on par with the other operating personnel. This mechanism motivates the contractors to feel included and valued as contributors in the overall PSM Program. It helps to customise the training needs based on the competency requirement the different contract roles played by the individuals and adopt a certification matrix to formally certify abilities to carry out various high risk activities. It focuses on holistic engagement of Contract personnel based on the organisation requirement in terms of skill, knowledge and behavioural aspects

It engages with contract owners as pare of leadership development within the contract safety management in process safety. It appraises the contractors’ performance with respect to Safety, highlights violations and motivates good performance by contract workers. The Training needs have been imparted through gamification methodology - The gamification helps to engage with contractors, to inspire and collaborate. This will helps to overcome the challenges such as language barrier, attention span, lack of confidence to be involved in conventional formal learning process etc, Gamification method of training creates fun environment which leads to more involvement and effective learning by contract workers

This paper also highlights the above with an implementation case study. It shows how it is beneficial to make the organisation realise that competency development helps the organization make better risk related decisions and increases the likelihood that individuals will take proper action in a challenging situation.