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