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Industrial Environments - Management Attitudes
I would like to get your opinions and points of view on how your department or system is viewed by upper and mid-level management. I work for a major electronics producer and we are constantly fighting with mid-level managers for the time required to train our volunteer members properly. Funding is also an ongoing challenge. Because we are seen as a "rarely used" or "Emergency Only" organization. It is difficult for us to relay the fact that we also participate in prevention and education. Expenses for our protective gear and tools of the trade are often difficult to justify.
Any Thoughts??
Any Thoughts??
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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Hi Lawrence,
I've been in your shoes a few times now, having been responsible for a few industrial ERT's (I'm hesitant to call them FireFighters as the only FFing they did was with Fire Extinguishers, however they were trained for Confined Space Rescue, High Angle Rescue, HAZMAT, etc).
I'm in a slightly different boat now- I've started up my own business providing Emergency Management consultancy, education and planning. Inlcuded with these services is the provision of labour hire in the way of Rescue Coordinators, FireWatchers, etc for industrial shutdowns.
Mnay, many large businesses over here are moving towards this type of contract provision for emergency services. It's often cheaper, less hassle,better service (Because it's our primary role), etc.
In terms of answering your questions, try and promote the business continuity perspective.
For example, if a major fire was to break out in a production area, what are the costs?
In terms of looking at costs, give them some food for thought in the following area-
* Lost production
* Lost revenue
* Lost technology
* Lost facilities
Then get them thinking about the HR issues-
* What do you do with the X number of staff that worked in that facility?
* How long will it take to rebuild the facilitity?
* How long will it take to validate and commission all the new technology and plant?
In terms of $, (Let's face it, it's all about dollarS) this is huge!
If there are 30 employees, being paid $600 per 40 hour week, that's $18,000.00 per week just in wages.
If the facility is going to take 6 months to rebuild,that's $432,000.00 just in wages.
Couple that with the rebuilding of the facility, let's say $1 million ball park.
We're already up to $1.4 million!
They then need to purchase and install the plant and technology- let's ball park as much as another $1 million.
What happens to sales during this time? Is there a back up plant that can pick up the work load?
As you can see, this very quickly adds up.
Now the fun bit (And hard!)- you need to sell the ERT team to management.
You need to prove to them that their $$ spent is worth while-
* All the team regularly turn up for training
* All the team regularly respond to alarms, etc
* The ERT need to be seen around the site- they need to visible
* The ERT members need to pro-active in promoting themselves and what they can offer, both in and out of uniform (I assume they're prodcution workers that respond to incidents?)
* Get involved in the risk management processes. Promote the issues faced by the responders when dealing with engineers, etc
* The ERT need to have all their pre-plans in place and rehearsed.
* The ERT need to look professional- uniforms complete and CLEAN!
Then start to sell the benefit of a properly equipped and trained ERT and talk their terminology - $$$$$$$ -
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To add a bit more to my reply- find a "champion" with Senior management and get them to back you and promote you (the team).
Obviously someone in senior management sees some benefit or why else would they allow an ERT to exist, be funded (as little as it may be!).
A sneior manager can also mentor you (your team) on ways to get other managers on board, or if worse comes to worse, then can soon set a mid level manager in their place!!!! -
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I'm on a roll here, so I'll keep going and give you some real life experience that I've been up against.
There's Company A and Company B that I deal with- I provide training services to their ERT.
Company A are a large international company that are going through some hard times in terms of revenue. They're looking at staff cut backs and moving jobs off shore to other countries that have cheaper labour. Whilst reviewing the business, they look at the ERT. The ERT for Company A are full time ERT members. They look after all the fire systems, first aid, etc.
Thinking that they could possibly save a dollar, Company A went out to the market looking for a compan ythat could provide everything and more that the ERT currently does. Not knowing where to look and truly understanding the role of the ERT, management coudln't find anything.
During all the restructures, the ERT are told about this. The members, understandably were not too happy with the situation.
instead of fighting for their job and proving to management that they can't operate properly without them, they dropped the ball.
GO to this site now, and you'll find an ERT that really don't give a s**t! They spend their days drinking coffee and surfing the net on the computers. Don't get me wrong, when an alarm goes off, they respond and they do an OK job. (Not outstanding- just OK).
This is a team that's demoralised, unmotivated and not doing a damn thing to help themselves.
If I was in management, I too would be looking to get rid of them....
Company B on the other hand, is a company that is also a large international organisation. They recognise the value of their ERT (All volunteers- the members come off the shop floor when the alarm goes off).
The ERT has proven time and time again that they are of value. The money they have saved (Refer back to my original reply) is enormous.
The ERT is the only people allow to cross a picket line during strike action on the site as they are recognsied by both other employees and management as providing assett protection for the longevity of the business.
They hav such a greta relationship with the town emergency services, that although under legislation the town departments can assume control and do what they want on site- they don't. they knwo that this ERT can handle even the biggest incident and will gladly support them.
This is an ERT that has an annual budget of over $600,000!!!!!! And it grows each year. Their training is top notch, their equipment is top notch, the plant protection equipment is great (and the not-so-great is slowly being replaced to the correct standards), etc.
Shall I go on?
ERT's have to prove their benefit (unfortunately), and you had better hope that when the alarm goes off for the big one, they can do it.....
If management can see that they can, then hopefully they'll also see the benefit in supporting them.... -
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Guess who again??!!
Here's a quick read that may be worth while- it discusses "Cost Benefit Analysis" and may be worth look at- http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_08.htm -
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Permalink Reply by Lawrence W on
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Thank You very much for your well thought out and valuable response. Just having read this, I will be taking some time to absorb and process this information and I will let you know how things progress.
We have re-organized our teams and increased our training requirements for our membership. We have also recently completed our Foundation document describing exactly where we are and where we want to be in the foreseeable future. This document has been presented to our upper management in order to increase their awareness of our responsibilities and to progress to a mutually beneficial future.
That being said, we are on a slow road. It is going to take time and cooperation to get the well trained volunteer brigade that we want to be. We have volunteers from many ranks. Mechanics, Tradesmen, Operators, Inspectors, Engineers and many more. They are trained as Industrial Fire Brigade Members. What this means is that they function much like a Firefighter, only with a 40 hour course as opposed to a full FFI course. Many of our volunteers are also Volunteer Firefighters in their communities and trained to that level of responsibility. So we have a very diverse group.
Our mid level managers oftentimes give people a hard time about a six hour a month commitment to training (beyond the 40 hour course for haz-mat and another 40 hours for fire brigade). I will be using many of your above suggestions for dealing with them.
Thank You again for your response and I hope to speak to you again... -
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No problem- feel free to bounce ideas and documentation across the other side of the world to me if you want some assistance. As I said earlier, I was part of a few different ERT's, then managed a couple and no run my own consulting and training business specifically servicing industry and more commonly, their ERT's....
be safe! -
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