A key part in managing the risks at an operating facility is ensuing that personnel are competent in their roles and understand how Process Safety Management (PSM) works in their organisation. Organisations such as the ISC (IChemE Safety Centre) have developed Competence Frameworks that map out process safety competency requirements for different roles. In reality, how many organisations deliver on this? Do front line staff get the same level of competence investment that management and engineering personnel get whilst they are the most exposed to potential events?
Process Safety training has been available in the market for over 20 years. There are numerous face-to-face training courses available that cater for different needs. They typically range from 1 to 5 days and the costs typically range from several hundred to thousands of dollars. Whilst much is gained in the interactions that occur between trainers and participants, the costs and logistics often are a significant barrier to developing the broader organisation's competence. Across the industry, we currently rely on developing process safety evangelists within our business as the key means of PSM delivery.
Safety Solutions has been running process safety training for over 15 years and sees these dynamics time and time again. With internal staff movements and constraints on training spend, we have seen many companies not materially move forward over several years. Often when the evangelist moves on to a new role, there is a significant step backwards. How do we broaden out the skill pool so that every person associated with an operation understands the basics and can more effectively contribute to PSM? This is what is needed to shift the culture.
To deliver on competence development for the business, the following training model is proposed. It is fundamentally based on foundation training that the whole company receives.
Key Points
Your company's leadership are the rudder that steers the direction of your boat. If there is no understanding of PSM at this level, there will be no desire to approach PSM issues. Put your leadership team through Process Safety Leadership training which is tailored to give them the understanding to allow the experts to drive initiatives forward.
The old metaphor of ensuring everyone is “singing from the same hymn sheet” is as relevant to process safety as it is to anything else. Process Safety comes with its own set of terminology and principles and ensuring that everybody understands where their role fits in is important. We are firm believers that if you teach people the bigger picture, they will see this and ensure that they aim to do what is required of them to make the whole plant a safer place. This principle can be applied from the person who is designing plant equipment, to the person operating it, to the person in HR recruiting the right staff.
There have been many articles written on the benefits of e-learning such as this one, 9 Benefits of eLearning for Students, and there is no need to reproduce it here. To see what we offer click the link here for an Introduction to Process Safety and if you would like a taste of what e-learning is like, we have module 1 of our process safety course from our e-learning portal available to try:
Try Process Safety E-Learning: Module 1
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| Check out our HAZOP PARTICIPANTS E-Learning course HERE! | Find out about our upcoming HAZOP LEADER Training Course HERE! | Find out about our INTRODUCTION TO PROCESS SAFETY E-Learning HERE |
One of the first questions asked at the start of a HAZOP is “Is everybody familiar with the HAZOP process?” if the answer is "no" then there is probably only about 5 min in the schedule to squeeze in an explanation of how a HAZOP works. One of the biggest reasons for a lack of contribution in a review is through not understanding the process and a realisation that you have been asked to attend as it is believed your contribution is valuable. There are two ways to get understanding: have staff attend reviews and be considered dead weight until they get confident or give them training so they can hit the ground running in their first meeting.
Safety Solutions has several courses to get staff hitting the ground running, with a mix of E-learning, face-to-face and online facilitated presentations:
Developing Process Safety experts among your team is important to ensure people are driven to be leaders of the standards that need to be maintained to ensure PSM is effective. An understanding of a broader range of topics is required as well as the ability to lead reviews. The development of facilitation skills is as important as the understanding of the topics themselves. Our HAZOP Leaders course focuses on developing these skills along with a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the process. Safety Solutions has a suite of high-level training courses to ensure a company can operate with the appropriate competency levels
So, if you think you have competency sorted, Safety Solutions has a comprehensive PSM Audit process that includes competency, let us as independent auditors look to find where the gaps in your system are. If you aren’t ready for that, document the quality of your PSM competence program yourself by downloading the checklist we use for our audits.