NSC Consulting

A renaissance in safety and health thinking is driven by a growing realization: Techniques that worked well over the years to reduce overall OSHA injury and illness rates have not had a similar impact on injuries and illnesses that cause the greatest loss and human suffering. Fatalities, life-threatening events, and life-altering injuries and illnesses continue at unacceptable levels. The ongoing loss is attributed to the insufficiency of current approaches and to several concepts that have underpinned our profession for decades that may actually be barriers to serious injury and illness prevention.

NSC consultants have been working with companies for more than a decade to identify more effective approaches to managing risk with high severity potential. FSI consulting offerings include:

● Identifying situations with a likelihood of resulting in fatality, serious injury or illness
● Finding better ways to set priorities for addressing those situations
● Developing hazard mitigation that determines levels of control and degree of protection
● Addressing the site/process issues that increase risk and undermine controls
● Evaluation of life-safety critical OSHA programs
● Field assessments of very high risk (VHR) work practices
● Contractor safety management program implementation
● Post-FSII incident - organizational assessments

Nothing is worse than experiencing a catastrophic event that involves serious injury or death. Aside from the unforgettable human toll, the business impacts from these events are often staggering. The good news is that they can be prevented, and if they do occur, their impact can be minimized. However, that requires a different approach from traditional safety.

There is growing recognition that catastrophic events frequently result from a different set of contributing factors than those related to personal safety. Consequently, a company or site may have low OSHA injury and illness rates, yet still be vulnerable to a catastrophic event.

NSC Consulting has experts on staff to help companies prevent catastrophic events. By taking an informed, systems-based approach, companies can increase the likelihood that the factors leading up to a catastrophic event can be identified and addressed.

When these events regrettably do happen, NSC can help companies minimize damage and leverage lessons learned to prevent recurrence. Responding to and learning from incidents are key characteristics of high-reliability organizations. That includes:

● Containing additional loss
● Minimizing disruption to ongoing operations
● Identifying the causes and contributing factors that led to the incident
● Developing learnings and measures to prevent reoccurrence

Many companies focus on personal safety without paying enough attention to elements of process safety that are not adequately in place or that may have degraded over time. As a result, while OSHA injury and illness rates have declined in recent years, the rates for fatal and serious cases have remained generally stable. NSC is equipped to help our clients recognize and address gaps in their process safety programs. Services include:

● Process hazard analysis
● PSM and RMP audit and compliance review
● PSM and RMP program development
● Training and implementation

Business growth, acquisitions, employee turnover and competing priorities often create situations where OSHA compliance is adversely impacted. Let us be your partner in compliance assurance. Services include:

● HSE compliance auditing
● Comprehensive assessments following fatalities, OSHA citations and legal complications
● Coordination with internal and external counsel to develop OSHA settlement agreements
● Action planning to transition from Severe Violator Enforcement Programs (SVEP)
● Program improvement and training to achieve excellence in critical OSHA programs
● Global regulatory standards support, including country profiles for the most common international business locations

Electronic Recordkeeping, enhanced penalties, public access to your injury and illness information — the case for mastering OSHA recordkeeping is stronger than ever. NSC is an HSE consultancy for OSHA recordkeeping training, auditing and program assessment. Among our recordkeeping and performance metrics service offerings:

● OSHA recordkeeping program assessments
● Recordkeeping audits
● OSHA recordkeeping training - intermediate and advanced
● Evaluation of employee medical facilities
● Alternative metrics and leading indicators training

Prevention efforts historically have been centered on the interaction between the hazard, the controls and the employee who has been injured or made ill. Emphasis has been on compliance and on holding workers accountable for their actions. Corrective actions have traditionally focused on “fixing” the injured/ill employee who “messed up,” largely through retraining or by applying more administrative controls. Deficiencies in that approach have led to a growing belief that a new paradigm for preventing incidents is needed.

The new paradigm involves a richer understanding of how work actually gets done, consideration of the context in which employees must cope with hazards and assessment of an organization’s capacity to deal with risk. Human and organizational performance (HOP) factors can be identified and addressed (e.g., cultural characteristics, management system gaps, process conditions, etc.) that often undermine defenses and elevate the risk. Much has been written on this emerging body of thought. The challenge is in finding ways to integrate the concepts into ongoing operations. HOP consulting services include:

● HOP workshops: HOP concepts
● Applying HOP concepts in safety programs and investigations
● Leadership and manager workshops

Audits are important to ensure the success of your HSE initiatives. They provide an overall evaluation of the current state of your programs and identify potential HSE issues before they become a problem. They measure areas where sites may be struggling to maintain compliance due to resource issues or limited knowledge. Regulatory compliance issues identified by audits can be corrected prior to interaction by regulatory agencies, and they provide a unique learning opportunity for those involved.

NSC can provide assistance in the completion of compliance audits, management system audits or a custom combination. Services include:

● Serving as an audit team member in audits lead by company staff
● Assistance in the development of corrective actions
● Assistance in the tracking of findings to closure
● Completion of HSE perception surveys
● ISO 45001, ANSI Z10 and VPP implementations
● Management System Assessments (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSMS)
● EHS auditor certification training

The one constant these days is change. Companies continue to experience significant organizational change through mergers and acquisitions, divestitures or the need to achieve efficiencies through cost-cutting, streamlining and organizational alignment with new growth strategies.

Even companies with superior and stable HSE functions are being impacted. When these events happen our clients often need guidance and technical support to arrive at the optimum HSE organizational design, staffing requirements, resource and funding allocation, integration planning, and making the business case to executive leadership.

Our consultants have years of experience helping companies address organizational issues and navigate change. In addition to experienced consultants with M&A and organizational development backgrounds, we have a large pool of sophisticated and successful companies to draw from if benchmarking services are needed.

● Analysis of existing organization
● Organizational design to support compliance obligations and risk profile
● Integration with business strategy
● Professional development of safety professionals and succession planning
● Developing a roadmap for long-term safety improvement
● Focus areas for serious injury and fatality prevention
● Programs and communications strategies to engage leadership, employees and stakeholders