In the process industry, everyone understands the importance of reporting incidents and near misses. But many managers often wonder whether all incidents and near misses are actually being reported. What are the reasons why employees do not always report everything and what can be done about it?

If all incidents and near misses are reported, everyone can learn lessons and help prevent repetition. This is something everyone agrees about, and yet still incidents and near misses go unreported. The operators and maintenance employees we meet on projects give various reasons for this. One of these is that they are busy and find it difficult to make a report.

Operators write a report in the shift book and then need to get another form to register the incident. There is yet another form for near misses. It is also often unclear whether it concerns an incident, a near miss or a breakdown.

Another reason people often give for not reporting incidents is the lack of any feedback. If you do not receive feedback about your report, it does not encourage you to report any future incidents. You do not know if your report has been followed up and this makes you wonder whether HSE reports (and safety) are really important to management at all.

The visible importance attached by management to safety is another reason why people choose to report incidents or near misses – or not. If employees often feel unsafe, because they have to work in unsafe environments or if unsafe processes are tolerated, this does not encourage them to give priority to identifying and reporting incidents. There are also still some companies where the management sees the reporting of incidents as an opportunity to punish employees. This can lead to employees making sure that incidents stay more or less hidden.

A final example of a reason why employees do not report incidents and near misses relates to employees’ responsibility in terms of HSE. If employees do not have responsibility for HSE that is clearly formulated and an integrated part of day-to-day operations, they are unlikely to give priority to HSE issues.

Solutions
If operators, for example, know that they are ultimately responsible for safety in their plant and if they have a daily responsibility in the work permit/isolation process or in safety observations, HSE becomes part of everyday activities and reporting incidents and near misses becomes part of an automatic process: HSE is then a key part of their work. If the management makes efforts to combat the feeling of a lack of safety (by tackling dangerous situations, such as working at heights), everyone involved can see that management takes safety seriously.

Other measures that the management can take include:

• making a clear distinction between incidents, near misses and breakdowns;
• providing a solid basis, founded on trust: making it clear that reports will not be a reason for punishment but about learning lessons and preventing repetition.
• making the right tools available. As a final example, the management can take action to reduce the amount of work involved in recording HSE reports. More integrated IT tools can ensure that:
• operators can easily transfer reports of incidents and near misses from the shift book to the incident report forms;
• lines of communication become shorter and not only the HSE coordinator but also other people involved know immediately what has happened and what they need to do;
• the reporter receives immediate feedback;
• only one action list is used (rather than various different ones), which everyone involved can use to see what they need to do for production/maintenance and for following up on incidents.

Let us know if you would like to take action in order to further streamline the incident reporting process within your plant.

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