FY2021 Outstanding Safety Culture Award Nominees & Awardees

FY 2021 DOE Individual Outstanding Safety Culture Award Recipient

Pamela K. Bailey 
Office of Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center (EMCBC)  
U.S. Department of Energy

Pamela Bailey has been a constant active volunteer supporting DOE’s safety culture improvement, specifically with the Communications Working Group and most recently as prior Chair of the Measuring Means and Methods Working Group (MMM WG).

Ms. Bailey's dedication as Chair of the MMM WG was pivotal to the successful submittal of the working group report. The working group’s report provided a critical framework in support of monitoring and measuring the health of safety culture for DOE and DOE contractor organizations.  Ms. Bailey's leadership of the working group’s evaluation of Department-wide source data, served to memorialize the WG's analysis and development of recommended safety culture monitoring tools to support the Department's safety culture monitoring by providing a process to link data sources commonly used by DOE organizations to DOE G 450.4-1C, Attachment 10, Safety Culture Focus Areas and Associated Attributes.  In 2021, Ms. Bailey led a team to develop the initial approach for DOE organizations to pilot and report results from proposed framework.    

In addition to the critical value to the DOE complex, Ms. Bailey's efforts also served to strengthen the DOE Environmental Management Nevada (EM NV) Program's understanding and application of Attachment 10, most importantly by demonstrating how to apply the attributes in real-time work activities.  Her work in this area is exhibited through her oversight of the contractor’s Radioactive Waste Acceptance Program and contractor Environmental Safety and Health (ES&H) programs. Ms. Bailey continuously promotes oversight of the behaviors outlined in Attachment 10 during facility evaluations of Waste Certification Programs across the DOE Complex.  In addition, behavioral attributes noted in Attachment 10 are often documented in her oversight reports. Ms. Bailey also oversees the development of safety culture Project Evaluation & Measurement Plan (PEMP) and other initiatives which, in part, have driven ongoing contractor safety culture monitoring and reporting to the EM NV Program. 

In 2021, under Ms. Bailey's leadership, the EM NV Program contractor cross-walked its Safety Leadership Emphasis Areas used during annual training, with Attachment 10.  This initiative led to the development and proposal of a collaborative Navarro/EM NV Safety Culture Vision that was adopted and is promulgated by Navarro and DOE EM NV management. The behavioral attributes of Attachment 10 are now incorporated in the contractor’s yearly Safety Leadership Program training, where Ms. Bailey engages in the open discussions during this training.  Her work has also been instrumental in the development of a reliable Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) analysis approach related to Attachment 10 attributes and the development of contractor and Federal safety culture surveys, with the results being used as additional data points to gage of the health of safety culture at the EM NV Program. 

Ms. Bailey's drive to instill understanding and sustained use of Attachment 10, including the application to real-world activities is recognized by the EM NV Program as exemplary and long-lasting. Her safety culture initiatives at EM NV Program and activities in support of the DOE complex are performed well above and beyond her other assigned duties and are successfully accomplished while maintaining exemplary responsiveness and support for all her work in support of the EM NV Program mission.
 

FY 2021 Contractor Individual Outstanding Safety Culture Award Recipient 

Michael D. Bessler 
Bechtel National Incorporated, LLC
Waste Treatment Plant
Waste Treatment Completion Contractor at the Hanford Site

Mr. Mike Bessler demonstrated strong safety leadership in his role as Waste Treatment Completion Company’s (WTCC) Safety Culture Manager and collaborated with the Safety Culture Improvement Team, the safety committees, the Waste Treatment Plant’s (WTP) manager of Nuclear Safety and Quality Culture (NSQC) (also called safety culture), and other colleagues across the WTP project to implement actions to sustain and improve the project’s safety culture.  

Throughout FY 2021, he had a distinguished list of accomplishments to support the implementation of safety culture with specific emphasis on the focus areas of leadership, employee/worker engagement, and organization learning.  

He led the effort to revise and launch a safety recognition program for Spot on Safety and Making a Difference, which included establishing a budget and ordering process, continued program announcements, and familiarization through communications with the workforce.  He encouraged senior management’s use of the safety recognition program by issuing laminated recognition cards for ease of use and timely issuance of awards, which resulted in more than 265 awards being issued.

Mr. Bessler also transitioned site safety teams to an operating facility configuration. The teams were aligned with site progression toward plant operation. He established Area Safety Teams (ASTs) for Operations, Laboratory, and Site Support Services personnel. The newly structured ASTs quickly integrated into team walkdowns, which resulted in several safety concerns being addressed and corrected on the spot.

In terms of Employee/Worker Engagement, Mike has a steadfast commitment to everyone’s safety and partners with other colleagues to implement safety culture improvement initiatives to strengthen safety culture. Mike teamed with others to accomplish the development and implementation of six site-wide safety campaigns (each about 45 days long), which resulted in interaction and reinforcement of safe behaviors with over 645 site personnel. Campaigns included Industrial Safety Awareness, Refuse to Fall, Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) and Me, Management Involvement, Take 2 for Safety, and Miscommunication (three-way communication emphasis).

He also created and maintained eight communication stations located throughout the site for convenience of posting important safety information to personnel without computer access or for employees who want to remain anonymous.

He continued development of the monthly communications for the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) and Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) in various project-related communication venues including the Waste Treatment Plant Pulse newsletter, the Waste Treatment Completion Contractor’s Safety VITals newsletter, the Zero Accident Council (ZAC) newsletter, and the reader boards at the jobsite.

Mr. Bessler also recognized the importance of organizational learning and developed processes to reinforce the value of reporting errors and problems, as well as effectively resolving problems in support of continuous improvement of safety culture. Additionally, Mike led or participated in assessments of the project’s safety culture.

One example included developing and implementing improvements to the Safety Concern Observation Report (SCOR), which is a process for employees to report concerns for review and resolution. He provided paper copies of the SCOR forms at the eight communication stations to make it easy for craft and in field personnel to report concerns. In FY 2021, 94 forms were submitted and resolved with feedback provided to employees.
Mr. Bessler also led and coordinated WTCC’s annual self-assessment of the DOE VPP elements. A site survey was developed and distributed to site personnel. Based on survey results and interviews with 553 craft/non-manual employees, the five core elements of VPP were found to be overall satisfactory, with limited areas for improvement.

Mike also volunteered to participate as a team member of the WTP Independent/External Assessment team conducted in July 2021. The assessment team was led by an external team member and included external reviewers and members from WTP and WTCC. The assessment used results from the project-wide safety culture survey, interviews, observations, and document reviews to evaluate the health of the project’s culture. The assessment concluded that most of the safety culture attributes had sustained or improved performance as compared to the previous evaluation period. Improvement opportunities were captured in the corrective action management program in support of continuous improvement.

While many members of the Vit Plant team worked together on these accomplishments, Mike’s leadership and passion for safety culture improvement is recognized, appreciated, and was instrumental in ‘making it happen’.   

 

FY 2021 Team Outstanding Safety Culture Award Recipients 

Paducah Take Two Team

In 2021, Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership (FRNP) united a team representing individuals from safety and occupational medicine, communications, and United Steel Workers (USW) Local 550 Safety Representatives. The team’s first task was to develop and implement a strategic communication plan to teach workers to “take two” minutes to ensure they have the tools and knowledge needed to do their jobs safely. 

As part of the campaign, the team produced a “Take Two for the Family” video highlighting coworkers sharing the reasons they take two for safety.  Throughout the year, the team distributed promotional items, such as t-shirts, magnets, and posters, to reinforce the Take Two principles and to remind workers for whom they work safe.  

• Team Members included:
• Chris Austin
• Darla Bowen
• Billy Bob Clark
• Robert Fulton
• Jason Hodgson
• Patricia Holland
• Dylan Nichols
• Darryl Pea
• Brian Rodgers
• Gloria Talley
• Jessica Vasseur