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An important journey began over 25 years ago in a cold, windy, fascinatingly complex and diverse work environment.
That journey produced Hazard Recognition Plus™ (HRP), an effective energy-based hazard recognition process that is making a difference every day in industrial safety and incident prevention.
This hazard recognition journey began in 1995 with the development of HRP in the North Slope of Alaska’s Oilfield (The North Slope). The North Slope oilfields are made up of a combination of high technology, industrial might, and people with grit and determination working in a harsh environment to extract and produce hydrocarbons. Within that mix is the ever-present need to prevent harm to people, the environment, and the facilities and equipment that enable the opportunity for rewarding work.
ARCO, the pioneer oil company on The North Slope, initiated the first step of the HRP Journey with a five-year study of incidents that produced two important conclusions: 1) a significant reason why incidents occur is the lack of hazard recognition, and 2) a “gap” in hazard recognition competency existed because they assumed everyone could recognize a hazard and had not invested in effective hazard recognition education.
Have you ever faced the challenge of “why don’t people recognize hazards?” Ever asked the question “why did they do that?” when exploring outcomes and origins of a harmful event? The folks on the North Slope asked these same questions. The assumption that everyone could recognize a hazard was based on the common definition of a hazard which is “something that can cause harm.” Even with sophisticated and well-intentioned safety systems, procedures, programs, and requirements in place, harmful incidents continued to occur because of this assumption. The bottom-line reality was that for some reason people failed to recognize the hazards involved with the task or recognized them too late to make a preventive difference.
Why is this so important? In order to prevent harmful events, it is fundamentally necessary to have solid hazard recognition skills. Otherwise, whatever type and level of “risk assessment” or management of risk we undertake is potentially inadequate to prevent harm. Making a difference every day requires good job planning to predict future events – especially those that can cause harm.
Think about front-line workers who are about to open or close a hazardous material process valve, strike an arc, conduct a heavy lift over live process lines, erect a scaffold, initiate a first break, pull heavy wires through an old overhead cable tray, reach into a commercial scale bread mixer, start up a machine and countless more. To plan and execute smooth work, free from harmful events, people must recognize the real and present hazards – from both occupational and process risks. Put simply, people cannot manage what they do not recognize.
What does HRP and energy-based hazard recognition do for us that other approaches miss? Let’s look at what created this thought process to gain insights to its value. ARCO requested a simple, systematic, worker-oriented, and reliable hazard recognition thought process that could be used in all jobs and support existing health, safety, and environmental initiatives. It had to be useful for process operators, maintenance workers, technicians, craft workers, drillers, pipeline operators, cooks, janitors, engineers, and all the other jobs in their world. Most of all, ARCO did not want another paper-driven program. The company wanted a mental thought process that could help people plan, prepare, and perform work in routine and non-routine jobs.
HRP was designed with science, engineering, and art in mind. Research produced three important publications that paved the way for HRP: 1) “On the Escape of Tigers” (Haddon 1970); the Management Oversight and Risk Tree, referred to as MORT (Johnson 1973); and 3) “Barrier Analysis” (Trost and Nertney 1985).
“On the Escape of Tigers” provided the science as a guiding principle from Dr. Haddon’s energy release theory. The HRP Energy Octagon with eight energy categories was created in 1995 to provide a simple mental prompting mechanism for workers to find relevant energy in the task, system, and environment for a given job. The universal nature of the HRP Energy Octagon is that all people in all industries and in all types of jobs work with the same eight energy categories. Keeping it simple was important. A major oil and gas company VP of Production on the U.S. Gulf Coast once said of HRP “it is so simple it’s profound.”
Gate SA-1 of the MORT risk tree and insights from Barrier Analysis provided the engineering with a clear model of how incidents occurred. From this a new definition of a hazard was derived and established the framework for the development of HRP. That new definition is “a hazard is the potential for an uncontrolled release of, or unwanted contact with, an energy source that can result in harm to people, environment, assets or a company’s reputation.”
Gate SA-1 also inspired the architecture for a logical incident prevention job planning process contained in 5 HRP Thought Process questions.
Question 1 – What is the job?
Question 2 – What energy is involved?
Question 3 – Where is the energy going?
Question 4 – How will we manage the energy for a safe job?
Question 5 – What are the specific Stop-the-Job Triggers?
During HRP training and coaching sessions each question is explored in depth to help workers integrate these with job planning, job safety analysis (JSA), permit to work, control of work, safe operating and maintenance procedures, and other important workflow management systems.
Barrier Analysis further explained how energy was transferred or transformed in harm-producing events and in conjunction with the logic of Gate SA-1 led to HRP’s simplified hierarchy of controls which are Eliminate, Control, and Protect. These worker-oriented energy management techniques are depicted in the middle of the HRP Energy Octagon.
The third part of HRP’s design used “art” by tapping human imagination to predict outcomes combined with improved communication. HRP is an exploratory thought process that encourages people to think, ask questions, explore possibilities, debate, and share information about hazards at all levels of an organization. The robust HRP alignment, highly interactive on-site and online training, coaching, and communication processes derived from this design are an integral part of its success in the workplace.
Since the mid-1990s, HRP has grown in use with more than 27,000 people in over 20 countries trained directly through HRP Foundation Classes and HRP Coach, Trainer and Leadership/Alignment Workshops. Translated into more than 18 languages, the HRP Foundation Class has reached people without the hurdle of a language barrier. Industries served include specialty chemical and petrochemical manufacturing, oil and gas drilling, production, refining, pipeline, gas processing, and related service companies as well as glass, pulp & paper mill, carbon black, cement, plastic, rubber, pharmaceutical manufacturing, food product manufacturing, railroad, and merchant maritime operations. With the multiplier effect of Certified Client HRP Coaches and Trainers, HRP has reached more than 100,000 people across the globe. As the first worker-oriented energy-based hazard recognition thought process, HRP is a “universal language” of hazards and transcends industries, languages, cultures and jobs.
For a snapshot of how HRP has performed in incident prevention and advancement of safety, take a look at the American Chemical Industry’s 2021 Responsible Care Initiative Award received by Ascend Performance Materials for its alignment and integration of the HRP Thought Process.
Comments from countless workers, managers, supervisors, and HSE personnel around the world have expressed confidence in HRP’s ability to make a difference every day. One of the most salient comments made over and over through nearly three decades of implementation is “I wish we had HRP sooner because it would have prevented a serious incident that happened not long ago.” And a CEO explained HRP this way “I find HRP to be culture-changing leadership wrapped around a hazard recognition process.”
The HRP journey continues to grow and improve as part of the energy-based hazard recognition era in safety and incident prevention. Some of you reading this article have experienced HRP first-hand and applied it in your workplace. We thank you for the opportunity to serve you and help you develop your workforce hazard recognition competence in pursuit of sustainable incident prevention.
After many years steering HRP, Decision Point Associates, Inc. is proud to share that HSE Global has acquired Hazard Recognition Plus™ and will be guiding its implementation around the world for years to come. HSE Global focuses on Safety Leadership, Communication, and Critical Risk Controls. We are committed to helping people, organizations, communities, and industries to make positive choices. We build skills, capabilities, systems, and processes required for leaders, organizations, and communities to make a difference every day. Our values define our drive and desire to support our partners, think outside the box, challenge leaders to shift from good to great and always think sustainably.
Please reach out to us to learn more about how you can close the hazard recognition competency gap and improve your organization’s sustainability at hseglobal.com.
If you will be attending the 2022 Texas/Louisiana EHS Seminar and Industry Trade Show at Moody Gardens in Galveston, TX – June 6-9, 2022 please be sure to visit HSE Global at Booth #417 in the Exhibit Hall and join us for two presentations:
“Safety Origami – A Mind Puzzle for the 21st Century”
June 7 at 8:15 AM (Track F – Leadership: Professional Development)
Michael Fleming, MBA, CSP / Founder of the Hazard Recognition Plus™ Process
Strategic Partner – HSE Global
“Beyond Words: The Power of Nonverbal Communication”
June 8 at 8:15 AM (Track C – Human Factors)
Alison Rico, MA, MCP, Operations Manager, HSE Global
If you will be attending the BCSP Global Learning Summit (online) May 10-12, 2022 be sure to catch the following presentations:
“The Science and Design of Safety Performance” – May 10 at 5PM EST
Michael Fleming, MBA, CSP / Founder of the Hazard Recognition Process ™ | Strategic Partner – HSE Global
Edgar Papke, True Alignment Creator, Author, Teacher
“Safety Origami – A Mind Puzzle for the 21st Century” – May 11 at 3 PM EST
Michael Fleming, MBA, CSP / Strategic Partner – HSE Global
