Utilities will not be successful if they think that they can discipline their way to a culture of safety, said John Haarlow, CEO and General Manager of Washington State’s Snohomish County PUD, on June 10.
In addition, the level of morale is directly proportional to safety culture, Haarlow said at APPA’s National Conference in New Orleans.
He participated in a session at the conference, “Improving Leadership to Drive a Culture of Safety and Commitment,” along with David Libby, Partner, Krause Bell Group.
In his presentation, Haarlow underscored the need for public power utilities to create an environment where lineworkers, and really everyone, proactively share near misses in the field that could result in injuries or worse and “doing it where it’s not punitive – it’s encouraged.”
Haarlow noted that at Snohomish County PUD, “we do an all-day safety leadership training” with foremen or soon-to-be foremen and lead journeymen. “It is just talking through what is really going on and their responsibility as they embark on that foreman role or leadership role and what that responsibility looks like.”
He then detailed “some of the things that we do to assess our current safety culture.” One of those areas is trust, which Haarlow said is “absolutely foundational.”
Employees must believe that utility leadership feels “that their health and safety and well-being” is the most important thing.
Morale is another marker in the overall assessment. “I absolutely believe that the level of morale is directly proportional to the safety culture and as well as overall performance – all aspects. If people are feeling that we’re investing in them and that we trust and believe in them, and that they want to be able to contribute to the mission of the organization in a positive way – the sky’s the limit on how well we can do.”
He said, “People will do amazing things when they feel a strong sense of ownership and accountability for looking out for, and taking care of each other, and serving our customers."
Haarlow also noted that Snohomish County PUD offers amnesty to workers who are willing to say, “Hey, I messed up and we’re going to talk about that and we can share that learning so that you can help prevent an issue or scenario for somebody else – putting them in harm’s way – absolutely, let’s reward that, let’s recognize that.”
Haarlow also warned against “spiking the football” when it comes to safety culture because “as soon as you think you’re good enough, as soon as you think you’ve arrived, you can let your guard down and become complacent to all the risks and hazards associated with the type of work our folks perform. You have to recalibrate and refocus, and even elevate your attention to identifying, assessing, and mitigating the risks and hazards. I’ll ask folks – do you think anybody working today is taking a risk or shortcut, and/or is doing something that could put them or someone else in harm’s way?”
He said that most times the response is “a quick yes because they know exactly who they’re thinking about that may be a little rogue, right? Or thrives on adrenaline. It takes everybody, but it is especially important for foremen and leads to call those behaviors out. That is a leader’s responsibility – that’s what you signed up for when you stepped into your leadership role.”
“Believe me, you don’t ever want to go have a conversation with a fellow worker’s wife, significant other, son, daughter….and tell them that the person you were responsible to look out for, isn’t coming home,” said Haarlow.
In addition, the PUD has implemented stop work authority. “If something doesn’t feel right, doesn’t smell right, doesn’t look right, you have the ability – you are fully empowered to shut that job down, call a timeout, and talk about it, figure out what we’re going to do to mitigate that risk or hazard, and to do the job safely.”
At a later point, during the Q&A portion of the session, he said that “You will never discipline your way to a safety culture.”
A best-in-class safety culture starts to happen “when the folks closest to the work are the ones holding each other accountable to ensuring everyone, everyday goes home safely to their loved ones. And I admittedly believe that leadership, starting at the top, starting with the CEO, have the responsibility and the obligation to create that type of safety culture.”
Jamie Chitester, CEO of Missouri public power utility Kennett Board of Public Works, who attended the session, noted that at one of the utility’s Christmas parties “we snuck around and got the families” of lineworkers “to do signs and recorded a video that said come home we need you and we played that and you’d see…burly men crying at our Christmas party because they think they’re bulletproof, but when they see that, they see their family member…that got to them.”
