Lost in Translation: Acknowledging Language Limitations in Process Safety

Process safety relies on effective communication between team members. With an increasing number of English language learners in the workforce, engineers and operators need to be aware of the potential challenges posed by miscommunication.

Communication is a vital aspect of process safety. Every element of process safety in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) process safety management (PSM) standard requires transferring information from one person to another (1). With the increase of globalization, it is no surprise that today’s workforce is becoming increasingly diverse, which has made it common to find teams composed of workers from a variety of different backgrounds throughout the chemical process industries (CPI). Therefore, process safety leaders and advocates must be aware of the challenges of working with an evolving workforce.

One of the current limitations is the diversity of language and the increase of English-language-learning (ELL) employees in the workforce. On a small scale, accommodating language diversity is an inherent part of improving process safety in a contemporary workforce. On a larger scale, language breakdowns are responsible for many major engineering disasters. People involved in process safety must learn from these mistakes to prevent similar communication breakdowns that could cause safety hazards.

This article discusses how language diversity within the workforce affects process safety, told from the perspective of a process safety engineer who learned English as a second language. Additionally, the article explores how becoming aware of this diversity and embracing these language differences can lead to more effective process safety implementation. Additional measures to reduce the language barriers in process safety communications are also discussed.

While a one-size-fits-all solution may not be available to overcome language barriers in process safety, acknowledging the issue and working to bridge communication gaps are the first steps...