Safety Performance
Our employees actively participate in company safety and health initiatives and have been recognized for their efforts. We’ve held new training workshops to share our company’s best practices and implemented employee-driven safety programs across the company.
A number of our facilities reached significant safety milestones in the last year. Ten of our facilities have achieved 30 or more years of service without a lost-time incident, four facilities have maintained perfect safety records since being put into operation, and we were recognized by the American Gas Association for our efforts to promote employee safety.
Behavior-based Safety
Our behavior-based safety pilot program is designed to reduce unsafe individual behaviors and prevent accidents. The program’s goal is to establish a safety culture where employees take responsibility for their actions and those of their fellow employees and contractors. Employees are taught to identify and choose safe behaviors over unsafe behaviors by following a process of observation, discussion and positive reinforcement.
The program is being piloted at selected sites within our three natural gas distribution companies. At the end of 2011, we will evaluate the pilots. If we find they were effective, we’ll roll out the program to include all areas of our distribution companies.
Expanded Employee Safety Efforts
Last year, we focused on improving employee vehicle safety and reducing preventable vehicle incidents. Our Oklahoma Natural Gas division conducted a 16-week, safe-driving pilot study involving 50 vehicles equipped with vehicle-mounted cameras to capture driving performance. Oklahoma Natural Gas has since quadrupled the number of vehicles in the program, and our Texas Gas Service division has now adopted a similar program. This program, along with expanded safe-driving training and the implementation of a companywide vehicle safety policy, is a part of our increased focus on employee safety.
During 2010, we invested $31 million to install approximately 290,000 automated meter-reading (AMR) devices in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. In 2011, we are investing another $25 million to increase the number of AMR devices in Oklahoma and Texas; 82,000 additional devices were installed in Oklahoma, now reaching more than half of Oklahoma Natural Gas Company’s 835,000 customers, and 81,000 devices will be installed in Texas by the end of 2011.
AMR technology provides quicker, more efficient and safer readings by limiting our employees’ exposure to dangerous elements outside of customers’ homes and decreasing the physical impact of the job. Since installing AMR devices, Oklahoma Natural Gas has experienced fewer muscle strains, sprains and dog-bite injuries among its meter readers.
Currently, 345,000 of Kansas Gas Service’s 632,000 customers and nearly 50,000 of Texas Gas Service’s 614,000 customers have AMR devices.
Safety Performance Metrics
The graphs at right represent our four-year Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) and Preventable Vehicle Incident Rate (PVIR) safety performance. Both safety measures are included in the criteria used to determine short-term cash incentive awards for our employees. Our boards of directors, executive management team and ESH Leadership Committee work together to set annual goals for company performance in each of these categories. |
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