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Assignment Task

Task: Write a report
- Personal insights that you gained by completing and reviewing the four Critical Incident Logs.
It is important to keep a record of all incidents happening within the workspace or environment. Report incidents to managers of all departments for intervention. It is also important that nothing is left to chance. Thorough calculated measures must be followed to protect both the workers and the organization from injury and loss of profit respectively. The critical incident log is designed to keep track of all the organizational mishaps and keep track of the solutions provided. It is also important to get feedback from the employees themselves about how they felt about the incident management. It is also very important to never overlook continuous training and retraining of staff. Refresher courses should be provided to keep the workers abreast of the dangers of not keeping to standard operating procedures. (SOPs). Communication came out from one of the critical incident logs as an important feature of the process. It is important to communicate reports directly to the relevant manager to highlighting issues that need the manager’s immediate attention. The key to the process is to record those meetings and use the minutes as part of my portfolio of evidence during KPI assessment. It also came out from one of the incidences that over-reliance on technology without proper backup plans may be dangerous. If the technology fails there is a need for proper human interface. Technology does fail, so have a good back up system in place. The reputation of the mine was at stake and the relationship the mine has with the communities around its has to be protected at all times. The mine cannot afford to cause any form of harm to the community.

It came out clear that the recycling strategy that was established in ensuring that we reduce the amount of waste to landfill will yield good results. It is important to echo ones’ concerns to the management regarding the feedback on ones’ KPI’s rating. It opened an opportunity to discuss how best can we improve handling KPIs that we had no complete control over. The engineers needed to develop a system that serves as a backup in the case where there are overflows of discharges into the nearby community. Regular checks on the sewage system are critical as this may affect the health of the communities around the mines. The incident necessitated the inclusion of the technological mechanism to warn the engineering team of any malfunction in the dam. It is very important not to judge any incident at face value. It could appear as though someone is failing on their duties to see that the level is kept to normal but through the incidence, log one is able to recognize that the mishaps are no one’s wrongdoing.

It has become very apparent that all the incidents occur differently and at different locations and have to be treated differently. According to Mitchell (1997), a ”Critical Incident Stress Debriefing has three main objectives. They are 1) the mitigation of the impact of a traumatic incident, 2) the facilitation of the normal recovery processes and restoration of adaptive functions in psychologically healthy people who are distressed by an unusually disturbing event. 3) A CISD functions as a screening opportunity to identify group members who might benefit from additional support services or a referral for professional care.” According to Helland and Whitford there are two major issues that need to be on par and those are economic prosperity and the environment and this is to be balanced by law enforcers and regulators to bar the industries from polluting the environment.


When local industries pollute lawmakers and regulators must balance two primary concerns: economic prosperity and the environment.

- Specifically, focus on identifying patterns and noting what you have learned. Depending on the nature of the incident and how critical the incident is, it will facilitate the length of time it takes to resolve the incident. The shaft cage was fixed and became fully functional within two days period. The waste collection contractor supplied the waste skips as instructed. The surface Shaft Foreman did not agree to recruit additional temporary waste sorters sighting budget constraints, with no alternative plan in place. The pileup of waste was not the foreman’s priority. The main focus was to get the shaft back up and running forgetting that the breakdown had an impact on other issues like waste pilling up. The last incident involving the overflow of sewage discharge into the environment within the informal settlement next to the mine premises had to attended to promptly as it was involving pollution of hazardous nature into the community. The health of the nearby community is the priority of the mine as it is one of the promises not to harm the communities within their region of operation. The incident was given the high priority as this could also affect the license of the mine. On the incident relating to an acid spill, it was discovered that PPE was not dressed at the time of the incident. So coaching of employees on the importance of always wearing PPE. Our disagreement was when the Salvage yard manager wanted to take severe disciplinary actions against the employee without firstly capacitating them and coaching them on job safety requirements. This was one of the gaps identified as well. The mine management was more worried about the losing profit and being sued for injuries when this injury could be prevented.

It was also important to note the importance of continuous education and awareness drive on safety. It is important that the SHE manager focuses on reporting on a month to month basis the concerns raised to their attention. Where needs are the SHE manager will escalate in the case where he/she is unable to assist. The mine had to ensure that the safety of the people is prioritized on the last incidence relating to the overflow of sewage discharge into the environment. There were no mechanisms put in place to alert the engineering team of the dam levels in case there were breakdowns. There was no system monitoring the dam water levels getting too high so that they can send the breakdown team inspection. All the stakeholders involved were brought to speed with the developments relating to the incident until a solution was reached. All this was done in the interest of both the community and the mine. The health safety of the informal settlement community around the mine was highly protected. The engineering department promptly attended the malfunctioning of the pump and stop the overflow, and conducted an investigation on the cause of the breakdown. No disagreements were experienced, all efforts were put to ensure that the health and safety of our community are prioritized, a good stakeholder engagement system that the mine has through the CED manager came in handy where the community leader and the mine worked together to ensure that that incident is resolved amicably. It became apparent that the mine must continue disposing of waste in a responsible manner and continue emphasizing on sorting it and separating waste to different streams for recycling and for correct disposal. The literature revealed that critical incident reporting has not been fully exploited and there is room to explore its full potential. According to Smith and Mahajan (2009), there is still a lot yet to be realized when dealing with general ways of learning from incidents. The critical incident technique (CIT) was first described by Flanagan in 1954 to support the problem solving practical solution on the practical problems (FitzGerald et al, 2008). In his
literature Flanagan describes CIT as been made up of a combination of procedures for gathering direct observation of human interaction and behavior.

Reflect on what you thought was happening at the time and what you subsequently discovered was really happening.

There was a breakdown of the shaft cage and a cage is an elevator used to transport workers and materials in a deep shaft. The mine engineers prioritized the removal of employees from

the underground while the big cage is being fixed. This led to the accumulation of waste underground. The mine prioritized moving employees up and down the shaft using alternative means. In the other incident, there was one of the employees who was exposed to a minor acid spill which resulted in some skin burn. The issue of caution and precautions to prevent unnecessary injury was mainly not taken to heart by some employees. It became very clear that the majority of employees take safety measures for granted.

In one of the incidents was relating to water levels not being maintained. The water target is normally set at the beginning of every year, General Manager signs them off for rollout. However, the persons responsible for ensuring that these targets are met are Section Engineers. They are the ones using water for their areas of responsibility and have control over their sections, and to what extent water usage can be minimized. My role is to advise the mine on what head office targets are and on which measures can be taken to reduce water use. On a monthly basis, a report is presented, my role is to give an indication of the failure of engineers towards reducing water use is presented to the SHE Manager and General Manager. On the incident relating to sewage overflowing to the environment, the automated pumps normally stop pumping sewage discharge into the surface retention dams when they reach a certain level to avoid possible discharge to the environment. The pump experienced a breakdown and started malfunctioning which led to an increase in water levels in the dam and started overflowing into the environment.

It is important to register an incident log and have a critical analysis prior to making any unfounded conclusions. It is very important to avoid rushing to a conclusion without a proper incident analysis which helps in getting to the root cause of every incident that took place. It is also important that the KPI of subordinates is discussed with their supervisors for them to have knowledge of them. It is the responsibility of all managers to place the well-being of their employees first, before thinking of wanting to know what exactly happened. Anglo American mine value system is based on the value of “care and respect” and this is the driving force to first deal with the incident before pointing fingers. It is also very important that in reviewing the thought versus what actually transpires that we guard against bias. Data plays a vital role in supporting the decision-making process. The discovery of the facts is through the tool such as the critical incidence log. The understanding of the nature of the crisis makes setting goals to address the crisis very

Easy: According to Mitchell & Everly Jr (2000) the essence of intervening in the crisis is to assist those involved to return to normality.

- Discuss ways in which you think you can improve. It is very pertinent that every unit in the mine needs to communicate continuously on the dos and don’ts relating to the key performance area. The safety manager must continue issuing pamphlets bearing the safety measure around the mine, the waste office must emphasize more on reuse and recycle of waste materials. Continuous personal development is very vital in the form of training, using workshops and awareness campaigns. Continuous communication of environmental targets and deliverables during mid-term reviews may ease the pressure on management and staff alike. Over-reliance on technology without proper backup could yield unexpected results. Having a system that can track all meter readings at a control room and monitor the level of the dam is important. The exercise must not be left to chance. It is important to review performance targets and set attainable ones. The key message learned from the four incidents is that any incident experience brings new lessons learned. Organizations learn from different critical incidents experienced to improve and avoid loss of life and profits. All incidents are more of a wake-up call to assist the organization to strengthen its controls. The process is there in the mines but as to whether they are followed to the end is another issue. The incident log provides reasons why an incident occurs rather than attaching emotions to solve it is important to follow the sketch on the incident log.

 

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  • Posted on : December 06th, 2018
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