NIST Safety Update

Welcome

Richard Kayser

Chief Safety Officer, NIST

Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology

June 14, 2017
Report regularly to VCAT on NIST’s safety improvement efforts.

PROGRAM 

DEVELOPMENT

AND DEPLOYMENT 

2017 SAFETY 

CLIMATE 

ASSESSMENT

INCIDENT 

REPORTING AND 

INVESTIGATION

AGENDA
Continual Safety Improvement

Drivers

3

VCAT and VCAT 

Subcommittee 

Recommendations

Safety Climate 

Assessments

Incident Reporting 

and Investigation

Enhanced 

Workplace 

Inspections

Management and

Staff Observations 

1

2 4 5

3
2014 NIST Safety Climate Assessment Planned Actions

01 EMPLOYEE RIGHTS

AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Improve communication to employees 

of their safety rights and responsibilities.

02 UNSAFE CONDITIONS 

AND PRACTICES

Provide guidance on addressing 

unsafe conditions and practices.

03 INCIDENT REPORTING & 

LESSONS LEARNED

Implement improved incident reporting 

processes and mechanisms for sharing 

lessons learned.

04 SAFETY TRAINING

Improve the quality of 

safety training.

05 MANAGEMENT OBSERVATIONS

Incorporate discussions of safety culture 

issues into management observations.

06 PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

Re-emphasize the importance of 

employees receiving safety 

performance feedback during 

performance appraisals. 

4
2017 Safety Climate Assessment Goals 5

Identify actionable safety opportunities 

for improvement for supervisors and 

different NIST work environments.

Identify/uncover key ingredients (policies, 

procedures, practices) in NIST organizations 

with strong positive safety cultures.

Create templates for success that can 

be shared and applied across NIST.
2017 Safety Climate Assessment

Assessment Areas

6

 Workplace Culture

 Communication

 Workplace Practices

 Resources

 Incident Reporting & Investigation

 Hazard Reviews

 Safety Training

 Safety Programs

 Free Form Questions

 Supervisor Questions
2017 Safety Climate Assessment

Timeline

7

Stakeholder 

Reviews 

Complete

Pilot 

Ends

Open 

Survey

Close 

Survey

Publish

Report

JUL

31

JUL

1

Decisions by

NIST Director AUG

SEP

NOV

DEC

JAN

Recommend

Actions to NIST Director
Incident Reporting and Investigation

2014 Safety Climate Assessment Findings

8

A large majority of respondents agreed that 

reporting incidents helps improve safety at NIST. 1

Less than half of respondents use incident 2 reports for lessons learned.

Apparent disconnect between perceived 3 value and practical application. 
Program Improvements

Requires OSHE to 

facilitate incidenttrend and lessons 

learned development

Improves emphasis on 

near miss reporting by 

splitting it out from 

incident reporting

Streamlines reporting 

process for simple 

events

Clarifies difference 

between events 

and unsafe conditions 

and practices

Improves templates to 

strengthen incident 

and incident 

investigation reports

Requires NIST 

supervisors to act on 

relevant lessons 

learned

1

2

3

4

5

6

9
MANAGEMENT & 

STAFF OBSERVATIONS

NIST Safety Minutes

Sharing lessons learned across NIST 

INTERNAL AND 

EXTERNAL INCIDENTS

WORKPLACE 

INSPECTION DATA

CRITICAL-THINKING 

EXERCISES

VIDEO STORYTELLING

PEER-TO-PEER 

CONVERSATIONS, 

GOOD CATCHES

Strongly Motivated Engaging Content

10
Program Development and Deployment 11

Extensive engagement of:

 NIST Management

 Executive Safety Committee

 Safety Advisory Committee

 Safety Representatives

 NIST Subject Matter Experts

PROGRAM = DIRECTIVE + TOOLS + EXPERTISE OPEN AND TRANSPARENT PROCESS

EXAMPLES

2017 Safety Climate 

Assessment

Incident Reporting and 

Investigation Program 

Improvements

1

2
DISCUSSION