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RP 1162 and RP 1173: Is compliance enough? 9 Apr 2021, 2:37 am
Taken together, the American Petroleum Institute’s Recommended Practices (RP) 1162 and RP 1173 address the need for effective industrywide protocols for keeping the public safe around natural gas infrastructure. They provide baseline guidance to pipeline operators for developing and implementing public awareness programs, and steer pipeline operators toward more proactive prevention of fatalities, property, and infrastructure damage.
To date, no similar guidance standards exist for power line safety public outreach. However, research shows that customers served by dual-commodity pipeline operators and electrical utilities expect safety education about both. Moreover, the public depends on utilities—whether electric or natural gas, to keep them safe—with or without regulatory mandates.
Compliance does not necessarily equate to effectiveness
The RPs specify minimum effectiveness standards, and leave the details to the individual pipeline operators. In actuality, an organization can check all the appropriate boxes and flawlessly execute, without producing the desired results.
For example, RP 1162 requires pipeline operators to direct excavators to sources of additional information about pipelines; RP 1173 does not. So, an operator, faithfully adhering to the baseline recommendations, might forego the opportunity to provide additional safety content that can close critical knowledge gaps and ultimately save lives.
In short, the guidelines are a necessary first step, but they’re not enough to adequately protect the public. Organizations that are truly committed to public safety know that their efforts have to go a step further to be truly effective.
Building the scaffolding to move beyond compliance
Forward-thinking utilities focus on the desired goals: eliminating fatalities, injuries, and property and infrastructure damage. This is not to say they can ignore RP requirements—quite the contrary. Because of their efforts to go above and beyond the standards, they typically enjoy exemplary regulatory and insurance audits, and can prove their efforts with robust documentation.
These organizations move beyond RP specifications to empower internal and external stakeholders, enabling them to protect themselves and other community members from harm caused by contact with energy infrastructure. They may vary considerably in terms of where they fall along the continuum of moving beyond compliance, but all share a common commitment to public safety and to reaching their next performance level.
Developing and sustaining effective public safety programs start from the inside out. This requires pipeline operators and utilities to conduct detailed planning, gain commitment from all organizational levels, provide adequate resources, and support consistent monitoring and improvement. It also requires company employees to exercise sound judgement, knowing that leadership will back their decisions to prioritize public safety over other organizational objectives.
Examples of “beyond compliance” actions include: proactive audits, enhanced research, supplemental and highly targeted communications, and channel development. This differs considerably from approaches used by many letter-of-the-law operators, which often emphasize conducting investigations and remedies focused on lagging indicators—not unlike expecting to arrive at the desired destination by watching the rear-view mirror!
It’s not just about checking the boxes
While the underlying causes of infrastructure damage may vary, stakeholder knowledge about how to detect and respond to gas and electrical emergencies is key to preventing an incident from turning into a catastrophe. Avoiding incidents in the first place is even better; energy providers who embrace a safety culture allow employees to feel empowered to put the brakes on situations they deem potentially dangerous.
With or without industry regulation, pipeline operators and utilities recognize that they have a responsibility to educate the public about living and working safely around energy infrastructure. Community safety—and good business—depends on it.
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Does Brand-Aligned Safety Messaging Really Enhance Your Image and Reputation? 13 Oct 2020, 3:54 pm
There’s no question that there is substantial benefit in engaging the public through basic safety education programs. These communications are the public’s main source—sometimes, the only source—of information about how to recognize, prevent, and respond safely to utility emergencies. These messages have proven to be effective in reducing the severity of incidents and averting potentially disastrous accidents.
But there’s more to the story. Beyond providing just “the basics,” when it comes to public safety awareness, utilities are increasingly recognizing that enhanced communication initiatives positively impact their image and reputation, as well as their bottom line.
Residential customers who know about the ways their local natural gas, electric, and water utilities protect the public express higher satisfaction than those who don’t know about their utilities’ safety-awareness efforts. The 2019 J.D. Power Utilities Satisfaction Outlook Survey shows that for residential gas customers, perception of the utility’s helpfulness in preparing for a safety issue drives a 121-point increase in customer satisfaction. Carl Lepper, Director of the Utility Practice at J.D. Power, reports, “Customers that recall receiving communications from their gas utility providers have a significantly higher satisfaction score.” He continues, “Specifically, if these providers are reaching out with information regarding reliability of natural gas delivery and important safety measures without seeming redundant or noisy, we have found those to be most effective.”[1]
This last point is worth highlighting. Unlike their observed reactions to singular-focused brand advertising, customers, regulators, and local public officials do not object to significant levels of safety communication. In other words, the public wants to hear from their utilities about safety. Audience members recognize that they personally benefit from learning about what their utilities are doing to keep their communities safe, and they don’t consider public safety messages a self-serving action on the part of utilities.
And while it’s no surprise that customers don’t like rate increases, they strongly support utility investments made to improve safety and reliability. In a study conducted by Hahn Public Research, 73% of customers found safety messaging to be an acceptable justification for utility rate increase.[2]
The Positive Impact of Brand Alignment and Personalization
Our own longitudinal research tracks the performance of natural gas, electric, and water utilities nationwide. The data confirms that when utility safety communications have been strategically brand-aligned, they enhance the utility’s reputation as a trusted and valued community partner. This helps to solidify public perceptions of the utility’s safety expertise and credibility, and helps further entrench utility safety behaviors among the at-risk public. It also fosters an ongoing dialogue that helps utilities better understand their stakeholders, and helps to build positive relationships with customers, contractors, community partners, regulators, and the investment community.
It’s not just about the quantity of information. The utilities that gain the most from their brand-aligned public safety outreach efforts rely on a customer-centric approach for every stakeholder group. Whether communicating with customers, community members living or working near utility infrastructure, at-risk workers, public officials, or emergency responders, the utility first needs to understand each segment’s needs and preferences. This will drive the strategic selection of messages, imagery, channels, and communication timing that will achieve the greatest impact.
Done right, the result is a “virtuous circle.” Once a utility has proven itself as an energy safety expert, the target audiences tend to look to the utility for more information. The company becomes the trusted, go-to source for accurate, timely advice, further establishing utility safety behaviors among the at-risk public and positively impacting relationships with customers, community stakeholders, and investors.
[1] Press release: Gas Utility Companies Tasked with Pushing Vital Safety Communications Effectively, J.D. Power and Associates, September 4, 2019.
[2] Rate Case Messaging: The Character/Competency Conundrum, Hahn Public Research, March 2016
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From Obligation to Opportunity: Engaging the Public in Natural Gas Safety 6 Aug 2020, 6:55 pm
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) requires pipeline owners and operators to educate key stakeholders about pipeline operations, damage prevention, and leak recognition and response. Do you think of it as an obligation or as an opportunity?
Natural gas utilities that strategically leverage their public safety education programs are also investing in a cost-effective operational safety initiative. They see it as more than simply a mandated communications function; it is an important part of utility asset protection, system integrity, and the safety, health, and security of communities/constituents they serve.
Effective public education contributes to damage prevention, leak recognition, and system security and integrity. When thoughtfully conceived and implemented, natural gas public safety engagement programs can drive desired behavior and are relatively fast and inexpensive to put in place. And while estimates vary considerably regarding how much the industry spends on public safety awareness and education, experts agree these expenditures are a drop in the bucket compared to capital investments and damage repairs.
The fact is, there is considerable operational value to be gained by integrating investments in pipeline public safety awareness and damage prevention education into a utility‘s infrastructure programs. Although these education programs often cost relatively little compared to capital projects, they can be implemented relatively quickly, provide the public with vital information to identify and avoid potentially dangerous situations, and protect pipeline infrastructure investments. In effect, a knowledgeable and engaged public serves as additional eyes and ears that can safely help utilities identify or avoid potentially hazardous situations.
There’s also another benefit: When utility safety communications have been properly brand-aligned, these programs enhance the reputation of the utility as a trusted and valued community partner. Research demonstrates that the public expects utilities to communicate safety information and that when utilities meet these expectations, both their public image and the perception of their value to the community are enhanced.
It pays to be strategic about getting the word out
The more communication someone recalls, the more likely the individual is to demonstrate knowledge of natural gas leak recognition as well as pipeline proximity. Regular communication is important, but success isn’t just a matter of quantity.
Because mandated public awareness initiatives provide a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to how these campaigns are executed, utilities can gain substantial value by delivering branded communication and strategically tailoring safety messaging, visuals, channels, frequency, and timing to better reach key target audiences.
It can also pay to look beyond the obvious. Targeting audiences not expressly identified in regulatory mandates can also deliver highly successful outcomes. Safety education programs aimed at school-age children and their teachers, for example, have been proven effective because students and their teachers are trusted information ambassadors for parents, guardians, and other family members.
The bottom line
True, it can be difficult to demonstrate the value of something that didn’t happen—a dig-in that didn’t occur, or an incident was avoided because the public knew the appropriate action to take. That said, the cost of accident avoidance can be negligible compared to the cost of infrastructure damage, or worse. Public safety is always a smart investment.
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Comprehensive Public SafetyEducation Benefits Us All 6 Aug 2020, 6:44 pm
What’s the most important feature of a successful public safety education program? There’s no question that public safety education and training saves lives. Whether you are a utility employee, public official, excavator, contractor, or community member, knowing what to do in an emergency can be the difference between an incident and a disaster.
Many utilities have a long history of investing in public safety communication, and they can be justifiably proud of their track record. When benchmark data demonstrates that nine out of ten members of the public know to evacuate immediately if they suspect a natural gas leak, it’s easy to sit back and say, “See, it’s working.”
But stakeholders are moving targets. People move in and out of homes; some become first-time homeowners. Contractors and first responders retire and may take their utility safety knowledge with them. And while it’s satisfying to know that most people know enough to evacuate at the first hint of a gas leak, how many know what to do to prevent a leak in the first place?
Utilities are operating in an increasingly challenging environment, in which expectations are higher than ever before. Utility accidents can easily become national news, with devastating financial consequences, and utility-related incidents are more heavily scrutinized by investors, the insurance industry, regulators, and local politicians.
In response, some utilities are embarking on continuous improvement programs to ensure ongoing, year-after-year progress. They’ve recognized that there’s much more to public safety education than simply notifying their customers about safety hazards.
Beyond the general public, there are other key stakeholders who need to be educated to keep the community safe. Contractors who dig as part of their work—such as residential and commercial construction workers, plumbers, and emergency personnel responding to gas emergencies—all play an important role. Educators and public officials can also make a significant difference when it comes to natural gas safety education.
Recommended Practice 1162, or RP 1162, by the American Petroleum Institute specifies public safety communication requirements and has been an important step forward. Industry experts, however, express concern over getting the public’s attention in a world of competing priorities and communication overload.
The answer—and the most important feature of any successful public safety education program—is engagement. Really and truly engaging your stakeholders with your safety message.
Research demonstrates that the more relevant the audience finds the message, the more likely they are to act upon it. Developing specific content, visuals, messages, and channels addressing the most pertinent issues faced by specific audience groups help to grab their attention, increase awareness, and change unsafe behaviors. This strategy is known as audience segmentation, and it helps ensure that various impacted groups get the necessary knowledge to prevent and handle natural gas emergencies.
For example, educating plumbers about cross bore hazards increases their knowledge about situations likely to arise on the job. Similarly, an important safety checkpoint for homeowners is receiving content reminding them to call before they build a fence, install an underground irrigation system, or embark on other projects requiring digging.
Even young school-age children can be very influential when it comes to public safety. In research conducted with elementary and middle school children, students not only learned how to avoid potential hazards themselves but also educated their family members. That’s long-term effectiveness!
Achieving success in a challenging environment
How can a rapidly changing industry keep an eye on the multiple variables involving public safety communication to create a sustainable and systemic approach? Fortunately, the path is well-marked. There are industry best practices for promoting public safety and damage prevention awareness. There are robust research tools that can assess the safety knowledge of various at-risk public segments. Research can also help to ensure that important safety messages not only reach the public through the channels they are most likely to value, and that they resonate with stakeholder groups.
Yesterday’s gold standard—strategic, comprehensive public safety campaigns—are now the norm, rather than a rarity in the industry. They are proven to make the public safer while improving a company’s reputation and financial health.
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Why a Positive Safety Culture Is a Game-Changer 5 Aug 2020, 8:26 pm
Google “organizational culture,” and you’ll see that it’s a hot topic these days, across every industry. CEOs and other top executives are recognizing that developing a strong, sustainable company culture is not only essential to an organization’s performance, it can deliver meaningful value in terms of recruiting and retaining the best employees, strengthening an organization’s brand identity, and earning the trust and ongoing support of customers and stakeholders.
A company may stand for many different things. But in the utilities industry, leading organizations all share one core value: safety.
How a company nurtures safety, both internally and externally, speaks volumes about its priorities and values. Organizations that commit to developing a strong and sustainable safety culture send a message about the importance of the health and well-being of their employees and the public. Third-party contractors, regulators, public officials, customers, shareholders, and the general public have greater trust and support for organizations that value and promote safety—with measurable positive impact on the bottom line. More importantly, a strong safety culture fosters internal and external behaviors that protect workers and those who live near and work around utility infrastructure.
Where does a safety culture come from?
Culture forms organically in organizations when people work together to achieve a common goal. It’s not just slogans and messaging—although targeted, appropriate messaging certainly plays an important role. Starting with top leadership, a strong safety culture develops when employees at all levels consistently embrace and demonstrate personal responsibility for their safety, as well as the safety of their colleagues and the public—on the clock and off.
How do you know if you have a safety culture? How do you measure it? It’s not always easy, but it can be done. Utilities that prioritize safety assess their culture by examining employee perceptions and beliefs. They also examine the effectiveness of the structural framework that exists to support and sustain the desired safety behaviors and results. These assessments often include audits of their selected metrics and performance, governance structure, methods and procedures, process adherence, policies, and incident drivers, to name a few. Similar principles and processes can, and should, apply to the utilities’ public safety efforts as well.
Higher expectations, bigger opportunities
Today, regulators, policy makers, insurers, and investors consider a company’s culture and safety commitment when evaluating utility capital investments, cost recovery, and perhaps more importantly, liability.
Beyond organizational safety, considerable attention is being given to how companies deliver public safety programs and engage their stakeholders. Customer expectations and scrutiny are intensifying, and stakeholders expect utilities and pipeline operators to be proactive and predictive in their approach to educating the public and avoiding accidents.
And then there are the Millennials. Born between 1981 and 1999, this group accounts for more than one-third of all workers, making them the largest generation represented in the U.S. labor force, according to Pew Research Center’s 2018 analysis of U.S. Census data. They are particularly passionate about joining and staying with organizations with strong, positive, community-oriented cultures. They prioritize working for companies dedicated to protecting the well-being of communities as well as their workforces and actively seek out employers who will invest in their personal growth and well-being. Millennials represent a significant opportunity to instill stronger safety cultures at utilities, as well as within third-party contractor organizations.
The takeaway
The evidence is clear: Creating and nurturing a strong safety culture is a key component of a utility’s long-term success. Extending that culture of safety to the communities they serve through effective public safety programs helps to save lives, prevent injuries, reduce service interruptions and infrastructure damage. It builds trust with customers and communities, and assures investors regulators—and potential employees—that the utility is a well-run company operating in the public interest.