07-11-2016 BPU RPT 09 - Laserfiche WebLink

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W A T E R E N E R G Y L i s � � RIVERSIDE PUBLIC UTILITIES V�11111111111111 III,& Board Memorandum P U B L I C U T I L I T I E S BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES DATE: JULY 11, 2016 ITEM NO: 9 SUBJECT: ORGANIZATIONAL SAFETY HIGHLIGHTS — MAY 2016 RPU's goal when it comes to employee safety is simple: zero employee injuries. Our values of teamwork, integrity, professionalism, and safety support that goal. By providing tools, training and programs throughout the year, RPU strives to ensure our employees have the necessary knowledge, skills and support to work safely. Creating a safety culture at RPU begins and ends with the 600 plus employees who provide safe and reliable water and electric service to our customers. RPU employees do this every day, which is why our employees often have the best ideas for how to work more safely. In 2015 following an extended period without a permanent full -time safety professional in the organization, RPU adopted a utility -wide safety coordinator approach to staffing our safety program. Five staff from the department were assigned as safety coordinators within their respective divisions. While these assignments have been successful in creating a more engaged safety culture and has been well accepted by staff, it has yet to fully translate positively on our safety outcomes. We are preparing again to search for a permanent safety professional in the third quarter of this year. Measurinq Performance Staff has identified four key lagging metrics to assess progress on safety performance: our OSHA Recordable Rate, Lost Workday Case Rate, Motor Vehicle Incident Rate, and Claims Cost Paid Rate (these metrics are defined below). Going forward, we will review these metrics regularly with our joint safety committees to develop objectives to improve our performance as measured by these metrics. Development of leading metrics, such as training hours, frequency of "tailboard" meetings, and safety audits will require us to create uniform processes and recording across the department. That work will be undertaken in the coming months and reflected in future reports as the data becomes available. Measured against the industry and progress toward our overarching goal, safety results last year were mixed. We reduced the OSHA Recordable Rate by nearly 25 percent, our Lost Workday Case Rate by 33 percent and our Motor Vehicle Incident Rate by more than 26 percent. Total number of Lost Workdays in 2015 was down compared to 2013, but higher than 2014. While generally positive when compared to our prior performance, our OSHA Recordable Rate exceeds that of our peer utilities. Staff has elected not to use the more common Days Away and Restricted (DART) metric at this time as we do not have a consistent methodology for recording restricted or light -duty work hours within the organization. A systematic review of this practice is underway and new standards for reporting will be rolled out with the start of the fiscal year.