Practical Steps to Improving Process Safety/HSE Culture

Some companies wonder why they keep experiencing the same process safety problems. Others wonder why they seem to have plateaued in process safety performance. Culture has also been recognized as a contributor to major accidents; these have been termed organizational accidents.

Understanding and improving Culture is KEY. Culture is the individual and organizational ?DNA? that represents our tendency to want to do (1) the right thing in (2) the right way at (3) the right time, (4) ALL the time ? even when if no one is looking. The safety culture that exists in a plant or company is the result of all the actions - and inactions - in institutional/workforce memory. Many facilities use management systems to help control risks of hazardous processes. These management systems are operated by people ? people whose inherent attitudes about safety can affect the choices they make in operating these systems and, thus, the overall safety performance of the facility.

CCPS has created a framework for understanding, evaluating, and improving culture.

1. Establish process safety/HSE as a core value

2. Provide strong leadership

3. Establish and enforce high standards of performance

4. Formalize the process safety/HSE culture approach

5. Maintain a sense of vulnerability

6. Empower individuals to successfully fulfill their HSE responsibilities

7. Defer to expertise

8. Ensure open and effective communications

9. Establish a questioning/learning environment

10. Foster mutual trust

11. Provide timely response to process safety/HSE issues and concerns

12. Provide continuous monitoring of performance

We have created an analysis process for determining culture weaknesses by comparing workforce opinions gained via survey and interviews with HSE performance deficiencies. Once weaknesses are determined, culture improvements can be focused to generate the best, sustainable safety improvement.

This paper will present lessons learned from companies implementing process safety/HSE culture improvements involving the following steps: education, planning, workforce involvement, and providing remedies for culture weaknesses. Examples of how to correct several typical culture weaknesses will be presented.