Safety alerts: Heavy industry vs security industry.
Steven Harris
Managing Director | HSSE | Risk | Strategy | Brand | Influence | Leadership | Performance | Key Note Speaker | Published Author | University Lecturer (part time) |
The way that safety alerts usually flow in heavy industry:
When a company shares an unplanned event, the information cleared for public release will contain a short description and a few diagrams. It should also include 'lessons learned' that have salient soundbites from the investigation findings.
There is often an internal requirement to produce a timebound 'flash' alert within 24-hours. What this produces is valuable, but cannot be said to be anything more than a 'best guess' analysis until it is corroborated with the investigation findings.
The generic alert (not the flash) will be sent to an industry body for distribution. This group will usually either publish on their website or complete a direct mail shot to their member directory. This will then land with the member focal points.
The member focal point is usually a safety advisor who will be left to decide to a) send to relevant person(s) b) include within a bulletin c) post on the intranet or d) disregard. Once this is done, they will move on towards more pressing matters.
Context: Red Teams
A method that is widely used to test readiness in security circles is red teaming. A red team is a 'friendly' force who will prepare a specific attack against a target so that, rather than test a range of vulnerabilities, they war game a specific scenario.
The team will use credible intelligence and an iteration of a probability yardstick to ensure their attack scenarios are realistic, relevant & reasonably foreseeable threats. This process is taken seriously, but can be great fun at the same time.
The way that safety alerts generally flow in the security* industry:
One of the sources of credible intelligence come from companies who specialize in identifying and documenting attacks. This information is collated and sent out in much the same way as a safety alert would arrive with a large organisation.
The person receiving the information must be able to filter it and decide if it bears any operational relevance. Due to the critical role of the information to keep client and team safe, this job lies with the leader and is rarely delegated.
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Different leaders will process the information in different ways, depending on their training and task. They generally relay all the relevant threat information in a morning brief, in much the same way as might be done at a pre-shift meeting.
The difference is that, regardless of who receives that information, the very best teams are programmed to dynamically red team and ask "why can't that happen to us". If the answer is anything but highly unlikely, they will generate solutions.
* This information specifically relates to the SOPs of close protection teams.
The main differences between the two industries:
When lives are at stake in the security industry, credible intelligence will only be handled by a team leader. When lives are at stake in heavy industry, credible intelligence is often delegated to be handled by an administrative focal point.
In the security industry, strong leadership ensures credible intelligence is read by an audience who challenges "why can't that happen to us". In heavy industry, the leadership allows an alert to be read by an audience who say "glad it wasn't us".
Are you complicit in those differences?
If you are a safety leader that has an operationally inexperienced focal point handling your safety alerts then you are not leading. It is your responsibility to make the time during your working day to review the credible threat intelligence that shows the risk to the people in your charge, more so it that involves MAH.
Also, if you are the person sending or receiving those alerts and you find that you have started to normalize their content then stop and think. The value of the alert should not be underestimated. If you want to speak to people who have ignored critical safety information then you can usually find hospital visiting times online.
HSEQ Manager | HSE Manager | Sustainability Manager. An accomplished individual in HSEQ management and an efficient leader, possessing a H&S and Risk Management MSc and passionate about value adding sustainable practices
1 年It’s sad to say that in many of the places I have worked this is the case, however the quality of the information being shared also drives this administrative behaviour. In the security sector the quality of the information has a few sources which then needs to be digested and translated which requires expertise. In heavy industry many companies as you say try to relaease info early which in many cases is factually incorrect or when the investigation has been completed try cover all bases and give vague information that adds no value. When this is the case the more experienced members of the team don’t get value from the information and pass it on. From my studies into learning we need to get past the lawyers and fear of litigation to not only provide specific information but also targeted. This may mean mulitiple learning bulletins from the same event for different people. The bulletins also need that challenge people and develop their learning and understanding of similar processes within their own organisations so that changes can be made to processes and the organisation. Simply sharing an event does not constitute learning or instil permanent change to prevent recurrence.