These workers are engaged in high-risk activities on a daily basis, but WESKEM has an excellent safety record. How does a company which is focused on hands-on hazardous and radioactive waste management, with all of the related industrial hazards, achieve an OSHA recordable incident rate (number of accidents per 200,000 work-hours) of just 1.3 and a lost workday case (measured in days away from work) rate of only 0.5, when the industry standard is much higher?

According to WESKEM President John Krueger, the company has constructed a safety program that achieves results by using four "building blocks." They are rigorous work control, safety performance trending and sharing lessons learned, an incentive program that rewards safe performance, and worker responsibility. The mortar that binds these blocks together is communication, trust, and leadership.

WESKEM's safety program is based on the principles of DOE's Integrated Safety Management program. Rigorous work planning and control is the cornerstone of WESKEM's ISM system. Routine, relatively low-hazard work performed by WESKEM is governed by procedures. Non-routine work is performed in accordance with work packages that include an identification and mitigation of related hazards, and identify constraints and work controls that ensure mitigating actions are implemented. Higher hazard work requires detailed planning that is often governed by nuclear facility safety rules. For all levels of work planning, including routine procedure review and production, WESKEM requires that workers and subject matter experts be engaged in developing work processes, identifying hazards and mitigating controls, and providing feedback.

At the beginning of the work day, WESKEM workers hold plans of the day meetings where they ask seven questions about safety.

"The questions help ensure that the team fully understands the scope of work and related hazards, maintains a focus on safety, and is completely ready to perform the work safely," said WESKEM Safety and Health Program Director Todd Potts.

At the end of the day, there is a meeting to get feedback about the day's work, information that will be used in the plan of the day meeting the next morning. These meetings are conducted every day on every WESKEM project.

In addition to the plans of the day meetings, WESKEM shares lessons learned with all employees through a written, formal lessons-learned program, and more informally at monthly Safety Pause meetings. The Safety Pause meeting is utilized to present a specific safety topic (January's meeting focused on lifting heavy objects safely), to share the previous month's incidents and monthly safety performance, and to provide all employees with a forum for discussing any safety-related issues.

Because WESKEM is committed to achieving a zero-incident goal, all incidents (regardless of whether they are OSHA-recordable) are tracked and trended. Close calls and even minor first aid incidents on the job are investigated to determine if workers need additional training, additional controls need to be established, or communication needs to be improved. By tracking trends in incidents and close calls, Potts and other safety managers are able to implement actions that may prevent a more serious accident or injury.

WESKEM rewards workers who work safely using a financial incentive program with two elements. First, WESKEM's safety incentive program is an account that has been established for each worker, including bargaining employees; for every month that goes by without an OSHA recordable incident, $20 is deposited in the account. If there is an OSHA recordable incident during the month, workers lose $40 from their account. Whenever the account balance reaches $60, each employee that contributed to the safe work gets a check.

The second, larger element is WESKEM's Performance Incentive Program (which also applies to all WESKEM employees), a form of profit-sharing that is based on standard business goals, including two safety metrics: OSHA recordable incidents and lost workdays. These two goals serve as "killer metrics." If WESKEM's safety performance falls below a minimum performance standard (set to be more aggressive than customer expectations), the entire bonus program can be cancelled for the year.

One of the most important successes of WESKEM's safety program is the ability of their workers to recognize a changed condition and to exercise leadership when something looks wrong. Line managers have learned to take worker input seriously, both during the planning phase of a project and during execution, and WESKEM's highly experienced workforce is very effective at planning and executing work safely.

Every WESKEM employee is issued a "Stop Work" authorization card and is encouraged to use it when necessary. The Stop Work authority card emphasizes employees' right and responsibility to report unsafe conditions, interrupt work, or stop work without fear of reprisal.

WESKEM is proud of its workers who have many years of experience working with hazardous materials in a risky environment. WESKEM workers share trust and credibility, according to Krueger, and they have the confidence to make WESKEM's safety program work.

"Safety has always been a part of our culture," he added, "but it helps to work in an environment where your customer takes safety just as seriously."