How Human Resources Can Affect Employee Safety
Sarah Edwards
Timeline of Disasters
1988 1989 2000 2005 2010
Piper Alpha Rig Fire
Location: North Sea, off ScotlandCompany: Occidental PetroleumDamages: $3.4 billionDeaths: 166Injuries: 62
Timeline of Disasters
1988 1989 2000 2005 2010
Phillips Disaster of 1989
Location: Pasadena, TXCompany: Phillips Petroleum Co.Damages: $1.4 billionDeaths: 23Injuries: 314
Timeline of Disasters
1988 1989 2000 2005 2010
Phillips Explosion of 2000
Location: Pasadena, TXCompany: Phillips Petroleum Co.Damages: Total unknownDeaths: 1Injuries: 71
Timeline of Disasters
1988 1989 2000 2005 2010
BP Refinery Explosion
Location: Texas City, TXCompany: BPDamages: $1.5 billionDeaths: 15Injuries: 170
Timeline of Disasters
1988 1989 2000 2005 2010
Deepwater Horizon Explosion
Location: Gulf of MexicoCompany: BPDamages: $40 - $60 billionDeaths: 11Injuries: 16
Occupational safety emphasized over process safety
Human Factors:• A combination of either individual errors or
organizational failures have been reported to cause as much as 80% of oil spills and marine accidents*
Commonalities Between Disasters
*An Assessment of the Role of Human Factors in Oil Spills from Vessels. Report to Prince William Sound RCAC, 2006.
SKILL-BASEDaction errors
checking errors
RULE-BASEDretrieval errors
transmission errors
KNOWLEDGE-BASED diagnostic errorsdecision errors
How Organizational Failure Can Lead to Individual Errors
HUMAN FACTORS
INDIVIDUAL FACTORScompetence
stressmotivation
GROUP FACTORSmanagementsupervision
crew
ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS company policies
company standardssystems and procedures
HUMAN ERRORS
Recommendations
Safety Cases• Produced by the operator of a facility to*:– Identify hazards and risks– Describe how the risks are controlled– Describe the safety management system in place to ensure
the controls are effectively and consistently applied
• Scrutinized by a competent and independent regulator
*Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA)
SafetyCase
SafetyManagement System (SMS)
Safety Case Report
Strategy
Resources
Aim
Objectives
Safety Case Production
Through Life Management
Scope
Targets
Acceptance
Review/Audit
Assessors
Safety Committee
Safety Manager
Auditors
System Description
SMS Description
Safety Assessment
Emergency Procedures
Hazard Log
Supporting Argument
Hazard Identification
Risk Assessment
Hazard Control
Structure of a Safety Case*
*Zotov, Dmitri (2007). Safety Cases: Beyond Safety Management Systems
Recommendations
Process Safety Management (PSM)National Emphasis Program: • Policies or procedures to reduce the workplace
hazards associated with the catastrophic release of highly hazardous chemicals at petroleum factories
OSHA: PSM-NEP. Directive # CPL-03-00-010
Recommendations
Communicating and Speaking Up1
• Survey conducted on Transocean crew members working on Deepwater Horizon days before explosion: 46% of crew members feared reprisals for reporting unsafe situations2
• Go through training with peers, supervisors, and subordinates to flatten the corporate hierarchy
1. Managerial Practices that Promote Speaking Up Constructively Among Front-Line Employees (2011). 2. Commission on BP Oil Spill, pg. 219
Worth the Cost?
Construction Disaster$0
$5,000,000,000
$10,000,000,000
$15,000,000,000
$20,000,000,000
$25,000,000,000
$30,000,000,000
$35,000,000,000
$40,000,000,000
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