The management of Bilfinger North America has challenged its businesses to design and implement safety ideas and improvements that focus on the objective of going "beyond zero." Rising to the challenge, Bilfinger Salamis Inc. (USA) has launched an initiative in 2020 called Human Performance, which aligns with Bilfinger North America Safety Council's drive for continuous improvement.
Bilfinger Salamis is one of the fastest- growing businesses within Bilfinger North America, quadrupling its size and revenue since 2016, which means quadruple the employee population and quadruple the exposure to risk. To ensure continued class-leading HSE performance, Bilfinger Salamis focuses on "beyond zero." Therefore, the adoption and implementation of Human Performance is a milestone and major step-change in its approach to safety through the introduction of Human Performance principles, modes, concepts and tools.
Phil Finley, president and CEO of Bilfinger Salamis, shared that this initiative, adopted from aviation and military sources, aims to make it harder to get things wrong and easier to get them right by recognizing and understanding humans are fallible and make mistakes; "to err is human," especially in predictably error-likely situations. The design of safeguards and verification processes makes it more difficult to fail and minimizes the consequences in the event of failure. Drawing on all learning opportunities and instilling the concept of "pre-accident investigation" are other key aspects of this initiative, because how management reacts to mistakes is hugely significant and fundamental in building a learning culture that embraces all opportunities for improvement.
Finley said implementing this initiative has been a significant and lengthy journey that is the culmination of over 18 months of research and industry consultation centering around five fundamental principles: 1. People are fallible; 2. Error-likely situations are predictable, manageable and preventable; 3. Individual behavior is influenced by organizational processes and values; 4. Higher levels of performance are achieved through positive reinforcement; and 5. Negative events can be avoided through thorough understanding of reasons for previous mistakes.
The Bilfinger Salamis implementation plan includes awareness, understanding and management buy-in; roll out of training materials, modification/creation of safeguard and verification forms; and continuous education.
This system is supported by the following training modules: 1. Performance Modes, 2. Anatomy of the Event, 3. Effects of Leadership on the Goal, 4. Importance of Reporting and 5. Managing Controls.
"Just like individuals who by the time they reach 50 years of age typically have the body they deserve, an organization also typically gets the safety performance it deserves," Finley suggested.
The Bilfinger Salamis team is pleased to share more information and awareness/ training materials, etc., with anyone who is interested in learning more.
Bilfinger Salamis is entering its 14th year lost-time-incident free and its fifth year recordable-incident free. Human Performance is its next step-change on the journey to go "beyond zero."
For more information, visit www.bilfinger.com or call (337) 289-0092.
