According to Richard Bass, Kuraray America EVAL (ethylene vinyl alcohol) HSE manager with Kuraray, it is unlikely, if not impossible, to achieve operational excellence without focusing on safety.
In 2022, Kuraray launched its First Impressions Safety Analysis to get a better look at its safety leadership and culture development.
"We wanted to see where we were, not because we thought we were bad, but we wanted to see where we could go," Bass said.
The First Impressions Safety Analysis revealed one particular concept that Bass characterized as "a hard truth" that is likely true for industry across the board.
"Seventy percent of what we do in everything comes from your management and your supervisors," Bass said. "People like that are the ones who have the biggest effect on the engagement of your employees. Every employee."
Bass pointed to four focus areas that the analysis isolated for improvement. The first was to develop an interactive training course for all employees to become aware of and implement individual safety leadership behaviors. The second point of focus was to improve Kuraray’s learning management system.
Improving safety leadership, culture development
Richard Bass, Kuraray America EVAL, HSE manager
The First Impressions Safety Analysis also identified the need to equip the team with effective tactics and strategies to improve employee engagement, accountability and culture. Finally, the analysis results indicated the importance of developing a system to approve and track workarounds.
"Workarounds — we all have them," Bass said. "How many times have you walked by a pump out in the field and it’s gassing off, so somebody puts a water hose on it? Putting the cool water on that pump will make it quit gassing off so it can continue to work. But if you continue to allow workarounds, they can lead to other things."
Bass noted that being a safety leader means taking proactive and intentional actions to promote a culture of safety within an organization. He further explained that eight key characteristics emerge when leaders and workers all exhibit safety leadership. Those characteristics include setting positive examples, effective communication, empowering others, promoting a reporting culture, continuous improvement, active engagement, recognition and reinforcement.
"Safety leaders go beyond merely following safety protocols; they actively inspire and influence others to prioritize and engage in safe behaviors," he said.
The First Impressions Safety Analysis, conducted among "just about everybody at our entire site, and that included engineering, maintenance and operations," Bass said, found that 59% of the people polled did not feel they had a direct involvement in safety.
"Who’s involved in safety? Who’s responsible for safety? We talk about that all the time. It’s staggering that 59% of the people did not feel they had a direct involvement in safety," Bass concluded.
"When people tell you that they don’t feel like they have a direct involvement in safety, we need to find out why and we need to teach them why they do."
Another challenge to operational excellence, Bass said, is the reality of multiple generations working together, necessitating ongoing strategy to determine how best to improve the safety culture.
"A lot of your leadership is probably going to be a big mix of Gen X and baby boomers," Bass said. "There are a lot more Millennials and Gen Z’ers than some of our managers even thought."
The First Impressions Safety Analysis showed that 52% of onsite workers were Millennials or Gen Z.
"That tells you it’s not ‘when they’re coming’ — they are already here," Bass said. "There’s a lot of people in key positions, and everybody works differently."
