Integration of Non Technical Skills in a Competence based Safety Culture

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1 INFRASTRUCTURE MINING & METALS NUCLEAR, SECURITY & ENVIRONMENTAL OIL, GAS & CHEMICALS Integration of Non Technical Skills in a Competence based Safety Culture About Bechtel Bechtel is among the most respected engineering, project management, and construction companies in the world. We stand apart for our ability to get the job done right no matter how big, how complex, or how remote. Bechtel operates through four global business units that specialize in infrastructure; mining and metals; nuclear, security and environmental; and oil, gas, and chemicals. Since its founding in 1898, Bechtel has worked on more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents. Today, our 58,000 colleagues team with customers, partners, and suppliers on diverse projects in nearly 40 countries.

2 Integration of Non Technical Skills in a Competence based Safety Culture (a) Bechtel Corporation & Crossrail (b) Bechtel Corporation & Crossrail (c) Bechtel Corporation & Crossrail S., Bhamra (a), M., Georgaras (b), E., Paraschou (c) Article Information Abstract Keywords: Railway Industry Non-Technical Skills Safety Culture Competence Management System Integrated Approach Corresponding author: Siv Bhamra Tel.: +44(0) Fax.: sbhamra@bechtel.com Address: 11Pilgrim Street, London EC4V 6RN Purpose: This paper introduces the relevance of Non Technical Skills in railway industry training schemes for the purpose of improving business performance and safety standards. Method: Current rail industry trends introduce the notion of Non Technical Skills. The concept of Non Technical Skills is developed in relation with that of a safety culture and a competence based management system. Result: There is a considered view that NTS training is the missing link in order to satisfy the increasing need for skilled personnel and to ensure that business in conducted in the safest way possible. Discussion & Conclusion: Industry development progress and new technologies increase the demand for personnel that strive for expertise. In order to further solidify a competence based safety culture, training and operating companies should turn towards training less visible, soft skills like NTS with multiple benefits (financial, performance etc.) 1 Introduction situations. NTS are defined as cognitive, social and personal skills which alongside solid technical excellence can promote a safe and efficient railway industry. Over recent decades, rapid technological progress and innovations in various industries and in particular the railway business have resulted in increased demand for skilled workers, drivers, front-line staff and also managers. The definition of quality skilled personnel is changing rapidly with Non-Technical Skills (NTS) developing into a invaluable asset for every employee, especially front-line staff. Historically, the industry has shown high dependence on Technical Skills and most training schemes evolve around this type of competencies. Leveraging only technical skills can equip railways with well trained staff but unity between technical skills and NTS will create a powerful workforce able to respond to the continuously changing rail technology as well as further promote a solid safety culture. NTS are generic, life skills that are usually left out from formal railway training and education syllabus. Most skills are not job or work environment specific and can be applied on different cases, tasks or everyday life Technical skills are more specific; based on rules, procedures and defined work processes while NTS are more general and apply to a range of rules and most of the time complement technical skills. Common NTS that are important in the railway industry are situational awareness, conscientiousness, communication, decision making, teamwork, workload and self management. Possesing all or some of the aforementioned skills cannot happen at once. They are developed, controlled and maintained with frequent use and actual job experience. 2 Importance of Non-Technical Skills Recent research and information from the railway industry provides evidence that NTS can play a vital role in safe work performance. Companies which include NTS in their training schemes have accumulated various and significant benefits. From analyses of accidents and

3 safety incidents, based on behavioural management theory, we can conclude that NTS can be used to identify problems associated with the interface between trains and operators as well as help drivers and other staff to avoid, manage and mitigate potential risks, threats and errors. The integration of NTS training in any railway training scheme is considered important, in order to help individuals develop these skills that will allow them to perform their work in the safest way possible, to identify and manage risks that they or others face, mitigate and proactively manage potential threats and errors. NTS training should be in place not only for drivers but for other front-line staff as well as managers. Specifically, any organisation that wants to gain buy-in to NTS should convince managers of their value and importance. In their turn, managers will encourage employees to develop their NTS in order to further promote a safe work environment. NTS courses for employees and managers usually have the same content as the NTS that underpin relevant technical tasks are similar. Additionally, managers courses should include ways to request and receive feedback, measure effective performance and NTS implementation as well as means in which managers can instill confidence in their staff and support them continuously. All the above, are important considerations for effective training schemes and NTS integration in competence based safety cultures. 2.1 NTS relation to safety NTS training in the process of helping cement a solid safety culture should be seen as a profitable investment. The benefits can either appear as increased productivity and safer business performance or even be financial returns. NTS do not work alone but can provide support to technical skills and combinedly enhance procedures, tasks and other work related activities. NTS can promote a better understanding of job requirements, help identify potential threats and mitigate errors as they occur. Although train drivers and front-life staff receive extensive technical training, some situations and occurrences are novel, transient and cannot be predicted but with the development of NTS they can learn to respond more adequately to these type of risks. This skill is known as adaptive expertise. Employees are prone to human errors but learning and implementing NTS training into everyday work tasks will help them mitigate risks. For all these reasons NTS continuously should gain recognition and appreciation within the rail industry in promoting safety. The UK based Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) which was established back in 2003, after the rail inquiry that investigated the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, developed the Human Factors Database where from all errors identified 63% were human behaviour related. The other two categories identified were management and design errors. A revealing fact is that only 2% of the errors in the database are a result of an engineering/design error. This only reinforces the belief that human behaviour and management support play a vital role in either causing or preventing accidents and other dangerous situations. Human errors can be caused by poor attention, perception, memory or understanding, and errors caused by distractions or inapt situational awareness. NTS training can help fill in this gap, front-line staff with the correct mindset to evaluate potential dangers and enhanced confidence to address risks. 3 NTS Training in the Railway Industry The railway industry should endeavour to include NTS as an invaluable and integral part of their training schemes. Another important factor that needs to be pointed out is the way these trainings are developed. All safety critical industries, like the railway industry, should organise training courses that are in context and alignment with actual job requirements. For maximum benefits, NTS training should not be delivered in a sterilised and isolated environment but in a way that everything learned can feed back and support every day job tasks. Moreover, for NTS training to be effective, measurement and appraisal processes should also be developed with corresponding training for managers in order for them to be able to evaluate staff performance. Managers need to be able to recognise the skills and competencies they are evaluating and all staff to be aware of objectives measured and how these skills relate to their every day job activities. On the one hand, drivers and front-line staff need to be able to understand the risks of their role and how NTS can help and support technical tasks. Managers should utilise performance and behaviour indicators for NTS measurement and receive formal training in order to appraise employees objectively based on the aforementioned indicators. Raising staff s awareness of risks, threats and human limitations can be achieved in meetings, briefings and professional discussions relate back to NTS training. With integrated NTS appraisals in any competence management system the concept of a competence based safety culture can be solidified and instilled throughout the whole organisation. 3.1 An Integrated Approach to NTS Training The Railway Industry is one of the most safety critical industries and extensive training should continue in order for all staff to be able to execute their job in the safest possible way. NTS training should be an integral part of drivers and front-line staff s competence/professional development. Due to the nature of NTS, the best way to deliver the training seminars is both instructor-led courses and situation training by experienced mentors. Active participation and interaction between staff and the instructor but also amongst participants is vital to the success of the training. Group discussions, real-life scenarios and exercises are encouraged in order to promote a better understanding of the course material and importance of NTS in the safe execution of any role. Another important factor is that NTS cannot be trained separately from other technical skills. In order for drivers and front-line staff to perform their roles in a safe manner, they need knowledge, technical skills and NTS, and none

4 of these parameters can be omitted or be trained in isolation. This fact is more important for drivers, who need to be able to link technical skills and task with specific NTS. Additionally, as NTS training schemes improve furthermore risks/threat registers can be developed that would interlink risks with technical skills, knowledge and NTS. 3.2 NTS and the Competence based Safety Culture As mentioned above, NTS should be developed throughout the organisation; from the less experienced employees to most experienced ones; from the front-line staff to personnel in managerial roles. The notion of NTS should be instilled in the organisation s culture as a vital part of safe performance and execution of job-related tasks, and be reinforced in regular intervals. Consequently, in order for staff to be able to accept NTS - as a valuable addition to their professional developmentthey should correspond to specific competence assets or standards. The relation of these standards to job requirements and their tangible association to work related risks will help employees identify their importance and adopt, develop and exercise them as a means to enhanced job performance. Being able to link NTS to technical tasks and performance measurement criteria will facilitate the assimilation of NTS into any competence management system and competence based safety culture. Another important issue that needs to be evaluated in the endeavour to develop and integrate NTS into an organisation is the factors that facilitate a better learning environment and implementation process. At the outset, the instructor should preferably have similar work experience with the learners in order for him/her to be able to talk from personal experience and for them to be able to relate to him/her. Also, if the facilitator has adequate knowledge of the company s safety culture and competence management system, he/she can respond to queries on how the NTS training fits into all these. At this point, the manager s input is useful in order to highlight the importance of the NTS course and make clear that staff performance will be also be evaluated on their direct application of everything learned, in their line of work. Furthermore, there are some principles that every organisation, which attempts to integrate NTS into their competence based safety culture, need to understand in order to gain maximum value from the NTS training. Most importantly, organisations and course facilitators should appreciate and embrace human factors with all the advantages that follow. Drivers and all railway industry staff face risks and threats. NTS training invites organisations and their employees to acknowledge that risks and threats in their line of work is a common and inevitable circumstance. NTS training and knowledge can motivate them to acknowledge different cause for human errors than just inadequate technical training or lack of competence. Full appreciation of NTS can take the railway industry training one step further. Until a few years ago, the approach to training was technically focused, to follow rules and be in compliance with processes and procedures. NTS training is based on the conviction that no person is immune to errors and that even if they reach a high level of competence, their skills -technical or notare bound to plateau. NTS training comes to reinforce the idea that achieving expertise is a long-term process and not a one-off tick-box exercise. In order for drivers and front-line staff to be efficient and perform their job tasks safely, competence and NTS training should be regarded as a continuum. Finally, NTS are commonly treated and viewed as less visible or soft skills making it difficult for staff to understand their meaning or importance. In order to gain wide buy-in to NTS across all personnel (managers and staff) an organisation needs to show consistent commitment to the competence based safety culture. This commitment will make managers and staff more eager to invest and develop their NTS. With the company s support, they will gradually start to take initiative when it comes to their professional development. They will be more proactive while striving to exceed expectations and develop ownership of their skills and competencies. 4 Conclusion Technological progress and innovations in safety critical industries and most important in the railway business challenges companies to raise safety competencies on a progressive basis. Performance standards and procedures are becoming more demanding with safety being the most important factor. The historical dependance on technical skills and leveraging technical knowledge is being re-inforced with novel and innovating skills in training schemes. NTS are becoming a vital element in the process of propelling the railway industry into a new era. NTS alongside technical skills promote excellence, technical expertise and an efficient and safe railway industry. The challenge for the industry is to map specific NTS, like situational awareness, conscientiousness, decision making, self management etc., to potential risks and threats. In this way, the buy-in to NTS from the staff s side wil be achieved more easily. Integrating NTS within existing training schemes will acknowledge the importance of human factors in safe performace while embracing human vulnerability. It is an important task, requiring effort and commmitment throughout the organisation but one that will advance competence management and development into further enhancing Rail Safety Cultutre. References [1] Dekker, S. (2006), The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error, 2 nd ed., Ashgate Publishing Limited: Hampshire, UK [2] Flin, R., O Connor, P. and Crichton, M. (2008), Safety at the Sharp End: A Guide to Non-Technical Skills, Ashgate Publishing Limited: Hampshire, UK [3] T430: The Definition of VPF and the Impact of Societal Concerns, Railway Safety & Standards Board, RSSB 2006, UK. [4] Rail Safety and Standards Board 2012, Non- Technical Skills required in train driver role: Developing an integrated approach to NTS training and investment, (Rail Safety and Standards Board, London).

5 [5] Russell, A.J., Bailey, S. and Moore, A.C. (2013), The introduction of Non-Technical Skills into a train driver competence management system, in Rail Human Factors, Dadashi, N., Scott, A., Wilson, J. R. and Mills, A. (Eds), CRC Press, London. [6] Bonsall-Clarke, K. and Pugh, S. (2013), Nontechnical skills for rail: Development, piloting, evaluation and implementation of courses for front-line staff and managers, in Rail Human Factors, Dadashi, N., Scott, A., Wilson, J. R. and Mills, A. (Eds), CRC Press, London [7] RSSB (2009), An analysis of formal inquiries and investigations to identify human factors issues: Human factors review of railway incidents. [8] RSSB (2011), T718 Review of GB driver training and development of leading practice models for the industry. Phase 3: Summary Report. [9] RSSB (2012), Non-technical skills required in the train driver role: skills, behavioural markers and guidance notes (v2.0). [10] Office of Rail Regulation (2007). Developing and Maintaining Staff Competence. London: ORR.