Safety Culture

by Gail Snyder

When a company has not only survived, but excelled for more than two centuries, that company is doing something right.  Not only lasting, but growing (and exponentially so), requires the ability to evolve with the times via a continual quest for improvement. This approach is the current that has energized Tucson Electric Power (TEP) since the late 1800s. Today, this principal subsidiary of UniSource Energy Corporation generates and transmits electricity to more than 400,000 customers in Southern Arizona.

By Gail Snyder

When Terry Nay joined Arizona’s Tucson Electric Power (TEP) several years ago as its corporate safety director, he already knew from firsthand experience how a behavior-based safety (BBS) process could be made to fail through improper implementation. So when several safety representatives at TEP expressed an interest in BBS, he not only knew what to do, but what not to do.

Our Spring 2011 newsletter highlighted Tucson Electric Power’s highly successful use of behavior-based safety. A principal subsidiary of UniSource Energy Corporation, TEP generates power for over 400,000 customers in Southern Arizona.

A user on one of the behavior-based safety (BBS) sections of Linkedin.com recently stated that he thought BBS was one of the “simpler” elements of an organization’s safety management system. Though I did not respond at the time, I considered that this comment was probably made by someone whose only experience with BBS was a STOP system, or one of the other relatively basic observation programs promoted by a number of organizations and practitioners.