What is one way you get better at something? Ask questions and really listen to the answers. That’s what we did this year to figure out how to make our safety culture better.

Back in the spring, GUC asked all employees to participate in an Organizational Cultural Diagnostic Instrument (OCDI) survey. The survey measures 11 aspects of our organization that influence safety performance to help us see how we have been doing as well as enable us to compare GUC to other utilities.

The first indication of how we are performing is in the participation rate. When GUC conducted the OCDI in 2012 and 2017, the participation rates were 84% and 89%. This time, we had 435 employees take the survey for a participation rate of 94%. 

Just like the participation rate, GUC showed improvement in all cultural aspects across all teams.

Some of the successes noted are:

1. GUC is among the top 20% of surveyed utilities.
2. GUC Team Members are increasingly talking to each other about safety concerns.   
3. Team Members are willing to discuss safety concerns with direct supervisor.   
4. We are improving consistency across departments through collaboration.   
5. We are more aware of Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIF) potential events due to better understanding of language and categorization of events.   
6. We are getting better at involving more people in meaningful conversations.   

The CSI Executive and Program Teams will use the survey data to help develop future plans to continue this progress towards a stronger safety culture. Still to come will be additions like routinely and formally reporting near misses/close calls; better understanding of non-physical hazards associated with fatigue, sense of urgency, distraction, etc.; effectively and quickly sharing information related to SIF potential; and better integrating Lighthouse in the governance structure and increasing its collaboration with Safe Align.

More details about the survey results will be shared at an All Employee Breakfast on November 8^th. If you have questions about or suggestions for the safety program, please talk with your CSI Department Team Leader or your supervisor. Together, we can manage exposures to make zero injuries a reality each day.

Department Safety Leaders:

Admin, Finance, HR, IT
Carrie Peed
Steve Hawley

Electric
Allen Lyles
Jacob Swink
Jeffrey Williams

Operations Support
Scott Brinson
Chris Evans

Gas
Glenn Crumpler 
Will Prescott
Carl Smith

Water Resources
Bryan Bland
Scott Farmer

WTP
Julius Patrick
Laura Evans
Stormi Amendt
Tripp Morgan
Ryan Gregory

WWTP
Jason Manning
Kevin Hardee
Jay Wetherington
Kyle Meeks