(98b) Building Competency in Internal PHA Leaders - Lessons Learned in 40 Years of Doing so

Process safety is a deep topic and requires the involvement of nearly ALL staff at a site. But, how do you make sure your staff are up to the task? And how do you judge the competency of subcontractors or third party experts? This paper describes the basics of building competencies in one of the process safety activities that require expert levels of competency: PHA LEADERSHIP. The paper shows how many companies, beginning with Olin Chemicals and others in the 1970s through hundreds of companies today have planned for the progression to full competency of PHA Leaders and Scribes. The paper describes step by step what is required for each level of competency. One focus of the paper is that competency cannot be “specified” (at least not completely); competency must instead be judged by those who are already competent in that skill or role.