Safety is important here at GUC. It’s not only embedded in our mission statement, it’s also a core organizational value. In case you forgot, you can see the mission statement on the card you probably have with your GUC ID. It also has GUC’s vision and values. 

Earlier this year, we had stories in Spotlight about efforts to jumpstart our safety program (CSI: Corporate Safety Initiative) and detailed some changes that were based on employee focus groups that took place this past summer. One thing we did not mention, but that has been in the works, is the governance of the program. 

Simply put, governance is how a program is set up and run. The employee feedback we heard was that the program was not working the way it was set up. Employees said they felt like they were not being fully represented, solutions to exposures were getting bogged down in red tape, there was a lack of communication across the organization, and they rarely heard if their concerns and the exposures discovered during observations were being addressed. 

Using that feedback and with insight from our consultants on how to run a successful safety program, we are making changes to CSI’s governance. 

New CSI Structure 
The CSI structure has been reorganized and groups have been renamed and added: 

• CSI Executive Team (formerly the CSI Executive Sponsor Team)– will work at the strategic goal level; 
• CSI Program Team (formerly the CSI Steering Committee) – will work at the tactical, solution-oriented level; and
• CSI Department Teams (new) – will be the boots on the ground, so to speak. 

CSI Department Teams are new to CSI and include all employees. The structure of these teams will vary by department, and they will hold regular meetings about safety or dedicate a part of another regular meeting to safety. The operating departments have multiple teams, while the administrative departments are combined into one. Each group will be led by a representative on the CSI Program Team – a CSI Rep. This way, each employee has a supervisor and a CSI Rep to whom they can bring issues and concerns about exposures. CSI Reps will share information with the CSI Program Team, and then provide updates back to their Department Team. 

The CSI Program Team, which now has additional members (including the Lighthouse Facilitator) to ensure better employee representation, is empowered to come up with and carry out solutions to control exposures and reduce negative trends in our safety data. If they cannot find the funding for the solutions, then they will turn to the CSI Executive Team for assistance. The CSI Program Team will also report out to the CSI Executive Team AND the CSI Department Teams about issues, solutions, and progress.  

The CSI Executive Team is being expanded and will include a liaison to the Program Team. Team members are the General Manager / CEO; Assistant General Manager / Chief Administrative Officer; Chief Financial Officer; and the Directors of Electric, Gas, and Water Resources; Kevin Keyzer will serve as the liaison. This group will look at the safety data gathered through Job Safety Briefings (JSBs), Lighthouse Observations, and Safety Contacts for trends and issues. When they notice problems, they will notify the CSI Program Team who has now been empowered to come up with and carry out tactical solutions. 

How We’re All Empowered
All employees are empowered to identify exposures and concerns and control or fix them if they can. They should also let their CSI Rep know about any exposures and what’s been done to manage them. CSI Reps then report exposures to the CSI Program Team in case other departments may have these same exposures, in which case, strategies to control the exposures can be shared.  

These changes are designed to better define various safety roles and communication across GUC. They should also provide more opportunities for employees to communicate about exposures, make awareness of exposures in other departments easier, and provide updates to employees about what is coming from their thoughts and observations. 

The hope is that these changes will ultimately help make zero injuries a reality. 

Next month, we’ll talk about how the focus groups led to changes in what happens to the information gathered during Job Safety Briefings (JSBs), Lighthouse Observations, and Safety Contacts.