DEKRA Insight Introduces a New Approach for Assessing High Reliability Organization (HRO) Performance

Oxnard, CA ā€“ July 19, 2016 ā€“ DEKRA Insight, a global leader in safety at work, today announced the release of a set of measurable disciplines, the AIER scales, which address the historically ambiguous approach to evaluating high-reliability organization (HRO) performance. The scales measure cultural and leadership characteristics linked to consistently safe and reliable performance; the absence of which have been complicit in historical catastrophic events.
Since the 1980s, academics have worked to define the characteristics of the High-Reliability Organization (HRO): those organizations that stay safe despite operating in complex, high-risk environments, such as U.S. submarine groups, wildfire incident management teams, and nuclear plant operations.
ā€œDefining HRO performance has largely been an academic exercise rather than a practical one. Leaders have struggled to translate esoteric ā€˜habitsā€™ into practices that can be applied predicably and proactively to todayā€™s work environment,ā€ commented Mike Snyder, Vice President Organizational Process Safety.
The AIER scales consist of four operational disciplines that define a continuous system of behaviors focused on rigorous identification of deviations from normal operation, rapid resolution of these deviations at an early stage, while ensuring that organizational learning occurs.
Snyder continues, ā€œThe AIER scales support the technical and operational aspects of process safety, operational reliability, serious injury and fatality prevention, product quality and online time.ā€
The DEKRA Insight AIER scale model focuses on:
  • Anticipation ā€“ fostering systems and behaviors sensitive to ā€œweak signalsā€ indicative of increased risk.
  • Inquiry ā€“ effective use of information to analyze and plan mitigation of risks, while overcoming bias.
  • Execution ā€“ monitoring, reinforcing and verifying program execution.
  • Resilience ā€“ developing and exercising the ability to react in ways that prevent upset conditions from becoming catastrophic events.
To learn more about this model and execution details download ā€œ Building the High-Reliability Organization ā€. Additionally, DEKRA Insight released a companion eBook, ā€œ Organizational Process Safety: Taking Process Safety to the Next Level ,ā€ also available for download.
About DEKRA Insight
As the global leader in safety at work, DEKRA Insight is a consultant and partner with a passionate, scientific approach to transforming safety. Our clients mitigate risk to their employees, assets, and reputation in a quantifiable mannerā€”and in the process, enhance business performance.
DEKRA Insight has over 500 employees in 22 offices and 16 countries. We are a service unit of DEKRA S.E., a global leader in safety since 1925 with over 37,000 employees.