1. Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Irene Waldron & Reina Varela
Meter Reading Business Analysts
April 2013
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2. Revised New Hire Training
Agenda
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives through the years…
2006
Dog Focus Began
Dog focus expanded
2010
Revised New Hire Training
2011
Grassroots
2012
Grassroots II
2013
Sharing Stories

3. Meter Reading Challenges
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Meter Reading Challenges
Back in 2007 during an average month an FPL Meter Reader:
Walks over 250 miles, taking over 500,000 steps
Drives over 550 miles
Reads over 8,600 meters
Faces over 1,000 dogs, 200 of them “bad”
All while maintaining world class accuracy
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4. Meter Reading accounted for 15 of the 17 dog related injuries
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Employees in Meter Reading were getting seriously injured due to dogs. From January to December 2007, 30% of the Customer Service OSHA injuries were dog-related
Irene: Back in of the 17
Meter Reading accounted for 15 of the 17 dog related injuries
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5. Many factors contributed to the high number of injuries
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
The Findings
Some of the potential causes of the dog injuries were related to inadequate:
Meter Reader PPE (does not carry or properly use)
Attire
Dog bite protection
Training
Employee does not do a thorough hazard assessment
Employee contacts customer but customer still lets dog out by mistake
Customer doesn't know /remember when their meter is being read
Many factors contributed to the high number of injuries
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6. The Start of a Change… Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Several Initiatives were put into place
Jan 2008 the safety council started to share best practices, conduct internal benchmarking and leverage communications
January 2008 FPL began conducting Detailed Incident Analysis Reports (DIAR).
January 2008 Customer Service business unit was the first in FPL to adopt an injury-free philosophy

7. Initiatives~continued
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Initiatives~continued
January 2008, a new safety communications plan was implemented in January 2008.
The safety communications plan included a monthly Safety Meeting In A Box to reinforce safe behavior and often includes tips for dealing with bad dogs.
A new safety recognition plan was implemented in June 2008 and a new safety discipline policy in April 2009.
Analysis showed that 7 of 9 or 78% of the injured employees did not violate a policy or rule. This prompted FPL to change the current policy
Implemented long pants attire policy changes in July 2008.

8. Initiatives ~ continued
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Initiatives ~ continued
Implemented dog behavior computer based training (CBT) in all offices, added assessment and made the training mandatory annually in March 2008.
OC spray implemented for Meter Reading August 2009 via live training/meetings
We needed customer engagement on “bad dog” noted accounts.
Concluded training and on boarding is critical for employees with less than 1 year of service.
Analysis showed that 89% of employees did not have time to use PPE meaning PPE was not accessible to employee in time to prevent injury.

9. Proprietary & Confidential Information
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
We implemented the strategic imperatives and many dog bite countermeasures
Black Belt project completed
Change in dog policy
New dog safety training & assessment
OC Spray Deployment
Customer letters
Training changes
Call ahead program changes
Safety Council change
Injury-free philosophy
New Safety Communications
New discipline policy
New safety recognition
Dog policy change
FPL.com customer video
“Bad Dog” Pilot
New attire policy
Irene: Back in of the 17
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10. Grassroots Safety Plan
Grassroots- Safety Initiative
Grassroots Safety Plan
Put a simple challenge on the table at the district level
Empower our employees to come up with a plan on how they can keep themselves and each member of that district safe and accident free for three months
Have them create a plan and share it with the lead team – 1 page presentation, 15 minutes or less
All current safety rules/policies still apply - this is more along the lines of behavior, teamwork, etc (how do they look out for each other)
Solicit grassroots safety plans - if the employees develop it, they own it and are more motivated to do it
Provide some time for them to get their plans together and then start the clock
At the end of the 3 month period the success stories are published on the internal web
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11. Individual Photo Contest - All Meter Readers
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Grassroots II
Individual Photo Contest - All Meter Readers
Keeping the eyes moving and looking for hazards while reading
Using their phone’s camera to take a photo of hazards that are interesting or unique or difficult to see.
Non-dog related
Submitting the Photo’s
Photos are submitted with a short description of the hazard
Once every 2 weeks the best hazard photo
Will be used to create a Hazard Assessment training poster
Would be featured on the Meter Reading website

12. The Next Evolution in Safety
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
The Next Evolution in Safety
A Safety Culture is built when employees are empowered and encouraged to share what they have learned from their experiences. Observations, near misses, injuries and vehicle incidents are all experiences we learn from. When one person learns from an experience we have a safer employee… When all of us learn from one person’s experience we build a culture.

13. Sharing Stories~ continued
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Sharing Stories~ continued
What we do
Have informal conversations just like meter readers do each day in and out of the field
What kind of stories do we share?
Positive Stories: Stories we get from your Near Miss reports, from Safety Observations, from your Grassroots Projects… any story with a positive message we can all benefit from.
Learning Stories:Stories from injuries or vehicle incidents. We’ll share all Serious Injuries and all Preventable Vehicle Incidents – and we may share some First Aid Injuries and Non-preventable Vehicle Incidents if there is something important to be learned from it.
How do we share our stories?
Conference calls and video stories told by our employees

14. Sharing Stories~ continued
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Sharing Stories~ continued
Positive Stories
The supervisor and the employee or employees involved. If the call is based on a Grassroots Project the team may present. If it is based on a Near Miss the employee involved will describe what happened and what was learned from the event.
Learning Stories
The supervisor will ask the employee to describe what happened and what the employee learned from the event and what they will do differently in future. There will be no follow up questions asked and no questions will be asked over the phone.

15. Sharing Stories~ continued
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Sharing Stories~ continued
Why are we doing this?
To share events and stories across the organization.
To learn from these events to help prevent future injuries or vehicle incidents.
Meter Reading safety has evolved and this will build an even stronger safety culture by:
Talking openly about incidents
Helping others avoid similar incidents
Because we care about the safety and well-being of every one of our employees and even one injury or vehicle incident is one too many.

16. Continuing to Improve…
Meter Reading Safety Initiatives
Continuing to Improve…
12 Month Ending OSHA Rate
OSHA recordables per 200,000 man hours worked
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17. Proprietary & Confidential Information
The benefit… for EVERY employee to go home, to their friends and family in one piece- injury FREE
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