Identifying electrical safety needs, implementing improvement, and measuring results

The management of an operating and maintenance contractor for a large government-owned facility recognized that, despite having an overall good safety program, the number of electrical safety incidents at the facility was on the increase. The severity of these incidents had also been increasing, as indicated by a serious shock and burn injury to a young, but trained and qualified, employee. Management decided that a serious effort was needed to significantly reduce (and, ideally, eliminate) electrical safety-related incidents. This paper describes comprehensive management/employee involvement in identifying the real problem areas, implementing improvement, and continually measuring performance. Although this effort was undertaken at a large facility with many people involved, the paper provides ideas that can be considered on both a large and small scale for those companies where similar electrical safety concerns exist.