Safety Culture Enhancement Project. Final Report. A Field Study on Approaches to Enhancement of Safety Culture

This report documents a study with the objective of enhancing safety culture in the Swedish nuclear power industry. A primary objective of this study was to ensure that the latest thinking on human factors principles was being recognised and applied by nuclear power operators as a means of ensuring optimal safety performance. The initial phase of the project was conducted as a pilot study, involving the senior management group at one Swedish nuclear power-producing site. The pilot study enabled the project methodology to be validated after which it was repeated at other Swedish nuclear power industry sites, providing a broad-ranging analysis of opportunities across the industry to enhance safety culture. The introduction to this report contains an overview of safety culture, explains the background to the project and sets out the project rationale and objectives. The methodology used for understanding and analysing the important safety culture issues at each nuclear power site is then described. This section begins with a summary of the processes used in the information gathering and data analysis stage. The six components of the Management Workshops conducted at each site are then described. These workshops used a series of presentations, interactive events and group exercises to: (a) provide feedback to site managers on the safety culture and safety leadership issues identified at their site, and (b) stimulate further safety thinking and provide 'take-away' information and leadership strategies that could be applied to promote safety culture improvements. Section 3, project Findings, contains the main observations and output from the project. These include: - a brief overview of aspects of the local industry operating context that impinge on safety culture; - a summary of strengths or positive attributes observed within the safety culture of the Swedish nuclear industry; - a set of identified opportunities for further improvement; - the aggregated results of the Safety Culture Perceptions Questionnaire conducted with site managers to access their opinions about the adequacy of the local safety culture; - a framework of safety-related competencies for managers, representing desirable actions for leading and promoting a positive safety culture; - results of an evaluation survey completed by participants at the conclusion of the Management Workshops to assess the utility of this activity. Section 4 of the report, Recommendations for Future Action, highlights nine proposed activities that could be undertaken to build on the outcomes from this project, to support the enhancement of safety culture within the Swedish nuclear industry in the longer term. Specifically, these recommendations propose actions to: 1. Introduce formal processes to ensure the ongoing development of safety related competencies amongst industry managers. 2. Strengthen the resources, contribution, value and profile of Man Technology Organisation (MTO) expertise within nuclear industry sites, in order to promote a better understanding of human performance issues, enhance error management and accident prevention capabilities. 3. Identify ways to embed existing positive safety culture attributes, in an environment of considerable workforce changes resulting from increasing use of contractors and (expected) retirements amongst an ageing industry employee population. 4. Standardise and improve aspects of incident and accident investigation processes and analysis methodologies currently used, to improve information sharing and optimise learning. 5. Implement harmonised MTO / human factors awareness training programs at appropriate levels for all nuclear industry personnel. 6. Formalise the application of applied teamwork training (as per the principles of Crew Resource Management training in aviation) for NPP Control Room Operators, Maintenance workers and other employees working in safety-critical teams. 7. Increase the use of simulation training to enhance non-technical team problem-solving and decision-making skills. 8. Continue to defend against complacency about safety performance. 9. Implement a process to provide regular quantitative measures of the industry safety culture, as a guide to future enhancement actions. The conclusion to this report confirms that, on the basis of information gathered and observations made during the project, the safety culture within the Swedish nuclear power industry is intrinsically and substantially positive. This is attributable in part to aspects of societal culture, the prevailing leadership style and professionalism of managers, and an inherent respect for safety amongst industry employees. Notwithstanding the predominance of positive safety culture indicators, a number of opportunities to embed and enhance aspects of safety culture were detected, and recommendations about these are provided. These include a reminder about the risk of complacency, a natural but potentially dangerous outcome in industries where safety performance as measured on standard indicators is customarily very good.