Cultural change: EPC-UK’s STOP WORK AUTHORITY CARD builds the confidence to ‘call out’ concern
By Bob Woolley - Head of Safety, Health, Environment and Quality, Northern Europe
The safety culture at EPC-UK has evolved significantly over the past two decades, with the introduction of our visionary STOP WORK AUTHORITY CARD initiative and the effect it has had on our employees, customers, and values, cited as a particular triumph.
The concept behind the card
First introduced in 2017, the STOP WORK AUTHORITY CARD initiative was created as a practical tool to expand upon EPC-UK’s already exemplary safety record. Wishing to develop employees’ confidences but appreciating that not everyone feels self-assured enough to speak out about concerns, our Managing Director, Ben Williams, wanted to implement an initiative where employees would have his unquestioned endorsement to stop any unsafe act or condition witnessed, without pressure or reprisal or the need to make a verbal objection in front of team members. To achieve this, the physical act of producing a card was introduced, instantly equipping any individual with Ben’s backing to instruct an operation to stop, with immediate effect.
Every person within our team carries a card, and managers have the same right as anyone else to action the initiative: from our Drivers, Shotfirers and Plant Operators, to our office-based employees. During 2021, the cards were used a total of five times across our business operations, potentially preventing a work-related incident from occurring. Throughout 2022, the cards have been shown six times across various divisions, keenly demonstrating the increasing confidence EPC-UK’s employees are showing in implementing the policy, equipped with the managerial encouragement to do what they feel is right at the time.
Employee engagement with the STOP WORK AUTHORITY CARD initiative is proving to be a tremendous success across multiple levels, and increasingly throughout different sectors of our business. The marked improvements in our safety culture that have occurred since Ben took the reins at EPC-UK have been significant and continue to improve year-on-year. Our definitive move away from command-and-control processes, toward a collaborative culture where operations are performed more effectively as colleagues, has been truly evident.
Use of the STOP WORK AUTHORITY CARD in 2022 - examples
- Work was stopped when equipment weighing in excess of 100kg had to be manually carried up two flights of stairs. With no alternative method available at the time, the STOP WORK AUTHORITY CARD policy was activated.
- Overnight rain made access to a blast site unsafe for the Multiblend Truck. The STOP WORK AUTHORITY CARD policy was activated, and the shot postponed until the access was improved.
- Work was stopped when it became clear that a proposed method for unloading a shipping container was unsafe. The materials were taken off site and were later returned on a suitable vehicle.
- Two laboratory technicians used the STOP WORK AUTHORITY CARD policy when it became evident that an appropriate method of work was not in place for sampling acetic acid.
- The STOP WORK AUTHORITY CARD policy was used when an operator realised that a vehicle selected to store explosives on a compound at one of our sites could not be locked and there were no other suitable vehicles available.
SPIRIT values
The CARD is an effective illustration that perfectly reflects EPC-UK’s SPIRIT values of Safety, Passion, Integrity, Respect, Innovation and Teamwork in action and has helped to develop our working culture from one where managerial trust was considered implicit, to one where it’s confirmed as explicit.
Reflecting the Dupont© Bradley Curve ©
As such, our safety culture is progressing from revolving around individuals responding to their own reactive instincts, to driving towards the aspirational goal of becoming interdependent. Acknowledging the steps of being Dependent and Interdependent en-route, as the Dupont© Bradley Curve © illustrates, the CARD’s initiative physically proves the trust and integrity that forms part of the evolving working culture at EPC-UK, and the success of our SPIRIT values.
Reactive
- Safety by natural instinct
- Compliance in the goal
- Delegated to safety manager
- Lack of management involvement
Dependent
- Management commitment
- Condition of employment
- Fear/Discipline
- Rules/Procedures
- Supervisor control
- Emphasis & goal
- Value all people
- Training
Independent
- Personal knowledge
- commitment & standards
- Internalisation
- Personal value
- Care for others
- Practice & habits
- Individual recognition
Interdependent
- Help others to conform
- Being brother’s keeper
- Networking contributor
- Care for self
- Organisational pride
Demonstrating trust
By showing employees that they have the Managing Director’s trust and support to act on their own individual instincts we have set a standard in heightening safety and, consequently, limited the potential for accident occurrence.
Encouraging confidence
It’s by encouraging members of our team to express themselves and have the confidence to raise concerns regarding safety without fear of retribution, that we can together make this aspirational manoeuvre towards an interdependent safety culture possible. As a company, we’re enabling ‘Psychological Safety’ to thrive, with the increase in physical card presentations showing that employees have the confidence to speak up, rather than remain silent. Their supported actions are serving to create a more trustful working culture that’s setting the industry standard in terms of safety.
Trusting in our future
The safety initiative has had comprehensive approval from customers whose sites are supported by EPC-UK operatives. Furthermore, as we continue to see the successes of our scheme across the business, we’re looking at ways to introduce the concept on an international scale through an EPC Groupe STOP WORK AUTHORITY CARD programme, so each person on every EPC site across the world can have the confidence to ensure everyone goes home safely.
About EPC-UK
Commercial explosives and drilling & blasting specialist EPC-UK is a leading force within its sector, operating through five safety-driven divisions of explosives, drilling & blasting, fuel additives, energetics, and logistics.
Dedicated to customer service, we excel in progressing advanced digital and technological techniques to make the range of industries we serve future ready.
We provide total, technically advanced, solutions designed to fully support our customers’ blasting, rock-on-ground, consultancy, and training requirements. Taking our digitized capabilities further in the field, our EPC Metrics company, equipped with Vertex technologies, adds value for customers using the latest Fly, Monitor & Analyse capabilities to solve complex challenges and needs.
EPC-UK is galvanised by a core set of SPIRIT values. Our commitment to Safety, Passion, Integrity, Respect, Innovation and Teamwork unites us professionally and personally, encouraging a culture of “looking out for each other” across every level of our organisation.
As we work towards achieving Net Zero, those values, supported by our digitalized aptitudes, are equipping us to systematically decarbonise our own business for Scope 1 and 2 with the capabilities to meet critical Scope 3 challenges - enabling EPC-UK to perform as an industry leader with the desire to make a difference.
Discover more at epc-groupe.co.uk