Nora Buchholz, Safety Manager for Western Energy at The Rosebud Mine, near Colstrip, Montana, is a true Safety Champion. Implementing the Values Based Safety Process at a large surface coal mine has proven to be both incredibly challenging and rewarding for Nora. The mine operates 24-hours a day, with four rotating shifts of employees.
by Jerry Pounds
In his blog “New Positive Reinforcement Strategies”, Jerry writes:
If you don’t have people skills, if you are a manager or supervisor who is perfectionistic, impatient, and thinks that employees should do what they are paid to do without any need for motivation or positive reinforcement, then you are among the 75% of managers who feel the same way. But, don’t feel that you are doomed to be at odds with all the management development initiatives and consultants that ask you to positively reinforce your employees for improvement, extra effort or outstanding achievement.
Mary Lee and Licia Lee are both Administrative Assistants at Devon Energy Gas Services in Bridgeport, Texas. Mary and Licia have both been integral in the development, continued maintenance, and improvement of the organization’s Values-Based Safety Process™ (VBSP) called S.A.F.E. (Safe Actions For Employees).
by Terry McSween
A few months ago, I was surprised to hear that Chevron was moving away from behavior-based safety. I found this difficult to understand. With empirical studies supporting behavioral safety, why was the company abandoning this evidence-based practice?
Then I came across an article in the Journal of SH&E Research describing a recent study done within Chevron that reported no significant relationship between the frequency of behavioral observations and safety incident rates (Agraz-Boenek, Groves, & Haight 2007). I thought perhaps this study would shed some light on Chevron’s recent decision.