Case Studies
Employee Involvement
ScottishPower recognises that the positive inclusion and involvement of employees in health and safety programmes can dramatically improve not only the end product but also the acceptance of any changes that may be brought.
There are a number of examples of employee involvement within ScottishPower but there is no better example than at PPM Energy's 484 MW Klamath Cogeneration Plant in the US. The following statements from the plant's Managing Director, Ray Martens and Mark Hutsell, the current Chairman of the Health and Safety Committee clearly indicate the benefits this has brought to the site.
Employee involvement and teamwork are cultural values in how the Klamath Cogeneration and Peaking plants operate, not just in health and safety, but in everything. When we began staffing the plant 6 years ago, one of the key priorities was establishing a health and safety program that all
the employees owned, and a Safety Committee that was employee driven. Said Ray Martens, plant Managing Director, "When we set up the program, we didn't want a safety program that sat on the shelf and then have the standard monthly safety meeting that everybody went to but where little got done. What we did was give everyone at the plant part of the program to both write and then to deliver training on that part of the program to all the other employees and management. What that accomplished was getting everyone engaged from day one in owning the program. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. The program gets reviewed by everyone every year, and the employees continue to provide the refresher training. Our program has been certified by Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division (OSHA) as being SHARP (Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Award) Certified and a significant component of that is employee involvement. We've been successful so far, with zero lost time accidents in over 5 years and only 2 accidents where the employees received stitches for cuts. I've worked at numerous other plants in my career and I believe this plant is the best of all, which is a major reason why we have had almost no turn over since we started to operate".
Mark Hutsell, current Health and Safety Committee Chairman and Plant Operator commented as well. "Klamath Energy is a great place to work. Management here gave employees the responsibility and appropriate authority to operate the plant, make good decisions, and absolutely to work safely. Not only can anyone shut down a job if they think it's unsafe, they are expected to. Its not us and them, everybody is involved in making decisions and things get done. Our Health and Safety Committee is a very open process, and a number of employees have rotated through as chairman. We've won awards and been recognized, but our motto continues to be "Everybody goes home safe", and I think our culture supports that not only for employees but everyone who comes on site. Everyone is also open to new ideas. One thing I've tried to do as chairman is improve plant awareness on health,
wellness, and the value of exercise. I send out information to all our employees, and I've received a lot of positive feedback on this. The plant has been very supportive of me doing this, and last year when we did our first health fair for employees, it was a big success".
