Methodology

Assessing the Current State of Safety Culture at Berkeley Lab In October/November 2010, Laboratory Director Paul Alivisatos invited all Berkeley Lab staff and affiliates (formerly known as “guests”) to complete an anonymous survey assessing Safety Culture at LBNL. More than 1,900 employees and affiliates responded to the survey, a remarkable response rate and a testament to our workers’ level of commitment to make Berkeley Lab a better and safer place to work.

DuPont Safety Systems, an outside consulting firm, administered the survey and analyzed the results, benchmarking LBNL’s response against similar organizations that have taken the survey. The assessment and benchmarking process has provided a detailed understanding of where Berkeley Lab’s Safety Culture stands relative to similar organizations and has provided a starting point for continuous improvement in this area.

In 2011, members of the Safety Culture Improvement team met with individual divisions/departments to review their survey results. The Divisions explored their safety improvement opportunities and identified specific actions to take on a local level in response to the survey results. In addition, LBNL is identifying overarching themes and institutional strategies to further build and strengthen our collective safety culture. Click here to view survey results.

Berkeley Lab has a strong, carefully defined, documented vision of Safety Culture. This vision, aligned with organizational goals and approved by senior management, is clearly communicated to staff. A clear communication allows employees and managers to share a vision and align work to a common goal – improving Safety Culture at Berkeley Lab. The following characteristics are part of the Safety Culture vision for LBNL.

1. Worker Involvement: Employees have involvement and input on safety issues. They are involved in developing and implementing safety initiatives.

2. Management Recognition for Safety Achievements: Employees are recognized when they achieve safety performance that is noteworthy.

3. Management Commitment to Safety: Senior managers use their authority to enable and empower workers to behave in safer ways.

4. Personal Accountability: Employees are accountable for their own well-being. Supervisors also realize that they are responsible for the safety performance of their subordinates

5. Coworker Support: Employees are instructed in how to give and receive constructive feedback from their coworkers.

6. Off-the-job Safety: A program is in place to provide employees with safety information and guidance for activities performed when off the job.

7. Organizational Commitment: Both managers and rank-and-file employees are committed to the well-being of all employees and to the organization as a whole.

The Strategic Plan for Safety Culture Improvement at LBNL defines and documents:

• The goals for implementing and sustaining Safety Culture improvements approved by LBNL senior management.

• The charter for a work group to promote and drive the strategies in this plan.

• The framework for integrating the concepts of Safety Culture improvement into ES&H plans and documents at the institutional and division level.

• Access and review this plan to learn more about the methods we will use to improve Safety Culture.

The Strategic Plan for Safety Culture Continual Improvement at LBNL has four implementation strategies:

1. Engage senior management to:

• Define the vision for Safety Culture at LBNL

• Increase the visibility of recognizing safety accomplishments

• Perform the role of SCI spokesperson to stakeholders: employees, DOE, public

2. Coordinate division-level Safety Culture Initiatives to:

• Share Lessons Learned

• Identify high-performance safety cultures

• Provide guidance for implementing initiatives

3. Coordinate institutional-level Safety Culture Initiatives by:

• Identifying Lab-wide SCI opportunities

• Selecting and coordinating implementation of those improvements

• Tracking and monitoring implementation and effectiveness of the improvements

4. Communications and outreach:

• Establish systems for conducting SCI communications (presentations, TABL articles, maintenance of Web site, etc.)

• Design, expand, enhance SCI Web site

• Schedule and publish TABL articles

• Schedule SCI Update presentations

Additional information can be found in the Strategic Plan for Safety Culture Continual Improvement at LBNL

To ensure that Safety Culture improvements are sustained and to identify future areas for improvement:

1. The Strategic Plan for Safety Culture Improvement at Berkeley Lab will be reviewed and revised as needed each year.

2. Berkeley Lab staff will be re-surveyed at five-year intervals to assess the effectiveness of Safety Culture strategies and make adjustments as necessary