A Survey of Safety Culture DOE ISM Best Practices Workshop Lettie Chilson, West Valley Nuclear Services Company DOE ISM Best Practices Workshop Lettie Chilson, West Valley Nuclear Services Company September 13, 2006

Presentation Topics u Decision to conduct the survey u Development and logistics u Analysis u Sharing Results u Actions/Improvements u Lessons Learned

Why a Workforce Survey? u Safety Survey has been conducted every year since u Safety performance at WVNSCO was at record levels (TRC and Dart near 0, 4 million safe work hours) u Site metrics can’t measure attitudes/feelings u Being Safe and Feeling Safe are not the same.

Survey Development u Used ISM draft attributes that focused on behaviors, perceptions and feelings u 24 statements or questions u One yes/no question u Range 5 = Strongly agree 1 = Strongly Disagree u Senior management and represented labor reviewed the survey prior

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7 Logistics u All employees were given a copy by their supervisor u Each survey had a ticket to tear off for an incentive drawing u Individual survey responses were held in confidence

Analysis u Total Respondents: 173 of 334 u Percent: 51% u The following percentages of those responding are: —Hourly: 23% —Supervisors 7% —Exempt: 24% —Managers 5% —Non-Exempt 12% —Did not Identify 30% u The survey demographics aligned very closely (within 1% of each category) to actual company demographics

Analysis The average of all responses was slightly above 4 (4.01) which indicates that overall a positive safety culture exists at WVNSCO.

Analysis u Questions were reviewed by groupings. — The questions with the higher average response (>4) individual accountability understanding of safety program responsibilities. —This indicates that in general employees understand their role in safety and feel they positively contribute to making work safer. —The Questions with the lower overall averages (<4) related to the actions of others in accepting or valuing employee input communicating appropriate feedback. —Comments generally indicated employees understand their rights and want to contribute to effective safe work but feel their contributions are not always being considered by work planners or line management. —This was not unexpected and was consistent with other indicators and management observations.

Analysis u Generally curves follow each other u Management/Supervisors closely match u Hourly and non-exempt closely match u Focus on understanding and reducing the distance between the lines.

Individual Questions u Question #2 – Overall 3.71 —Workers are actively involved in identification, planning, and improvement of work and work practices for the project

Comments u All Comments were sorted by question and stripped of identifying information. u Examples of Comments from Question #2 Work seems to be occurring at a very fast pace. Program planning and review not given the time and attention needed Most jobs in my area are identified and a WIP written prior to operator involvement Engineers listen but do not always incorporate ideas of operators Not at the beginning and most certainly not prior to development of the WIP No Not included up front as much as should be Little if any involvement Paper is written to work then we review sometimes if it isn't impacting getting work done

Sharing Results u Results presented to employee based safety committees: —Safety Success Mutli-disciplined group with line supervisor as lead —Central Safety Senior Management and Union Leaders meet monthly with safety program managers —ISMS Annual Review

Actions / Improvements u Communication —Represented labor presence at 7:30 morning planning meeting —Increased communication of company issues and status of work/contract —Senior management emphasis daily on worker involvement and team accountability —Human Performance tools/techniques added to senior management and supervisor briefings

Action / Improvement u PPE —action was taken to ensure specific PPE comments were addressed Availability Site wide PPE policy u Tooling Availability Review u Results provided to Integrated Assessment Council for assessment planning u Weekly “Talking Points” issued to Supervisors to discuss with workers – address most critical issues including contract status, first aids, benefits, etc.

Lessons Learned u Workers provided input on survey questions —Wording —Number of questions u Baseline year should be established and improvement measured annually u Confidentiality is key u Incentives – Make safety/company related u Trust….135 incentive tickets returned

Conclusion u Survey can provide a good relative measure of safety culture u It’s not all about statistics….one comment can open a door of big improvement opportunity u Don’t be afraid…the answers represent feelings that can help open communication