Collaborate Innovate Impact

Value of Operator CompetencyPortable Executive Summary

Proj

ect 1

111

Executive Summary

Research

Value of Operator Competency

Sallyanne Bartlett WaterQPlus Pty Ltd

Executive Summary – Water RA Project 1111

Executive Summary: 1111 Value of Operator Competency 2

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(Value of Operator Competency) Executive Summary Project #1111

Disclaimer

Executive Summary: 1111 Value of Operator Competency 3

Project name: Value of Operator Competency

This report details the findings of the Water Research Australia (WaterRA) project #1111 ‘Value of Operator Competency’. WaterQPlus Pty Ltd was engaged by WaterRA to undertake the project tasks and to report the findings.

What is the Value of Operator Competency Project, and why is it important?

The Value of Operator Competency project is a WaterRA member-funded initiative to communicate the value and benefits of an appropriately trained and competent frontline operator workforce. The ability of a frontline operator to capably and competently manage water quality safety risks is extremely important to public health and safety, and environmental outcomes. A frontline operator workforce without the right level of knowledge, skill and experience introduces a vulnerability to service delivery failure from human error. These failures compromise the ability of an organisation to meet customer and community expectations.

The project involved completing the following tasks:

• A literature review of documented water quality safety incidents, focusing on the level of frontline operator training and competency that contributed to the cause or assisted with intervention and recovery.

• A national survey to gain insight into how Australian water industry organisations currently provide operator training and competency.

• A review and comparison with other industry training and competency requirements, including the risks mitigated (why they do what they do—the reasons for the approach taken).

• Case study of the Seqwater Operations Development Program. What has been done and why, including the value/benefits gained by Seqwater.

• A review of international water industry practices, measures of effectiveness used and the risks mitigated.

• A review of how prepared the Australian water industry is for the future, particularly ensuring operator competency to work with new technology and to facilitate increasing automation.

The findings Literature review of documented water quality safety incidents

The literature review supports the need for a well-structured and dedicated approach to frontline operator training and competency. The examples from documented overseas water quality safety incidents demonstrate the significant consequences experienced by customers and communities when a water service delivery failure occurs. At the core of these water quality safety incidents are a multitude of contributing factors. One common factor is inappropriate training and competency provision, leading to competency deficiency and, ultimately, human error.

A study by Wu, et al. (2009) demonstrated just how significant the role human error plays in water quality safety incidents. This study reviewed 62 Hrudey and Hrudey (2004) cases and reported that 78% of the errors that occurred were human related. A lack of training and competency provision resides as a vulnerability within an organisation’s system, waiting for the right circumstances to present and test frontline operator competency. The literature review demonstrated that, when competency is tested and found to be deficient, human errors occur and compromise the management of water quality safety risks. Walkerton, North Battleford, Flint and Havelock North are high profile examples of overseas incidents where this has been the case.

The literature review highlighted that organisations that do not provide frontline operators with a diverse set of competencies might be more vulnerable to service delivery failures. The five operating principles listed below were used to demonstrate the diverse requirements of frontline operator competency.

The five operating principles include:

• operational culture,

• regulation and compliance,

• asset capability and operational performance,

• ‘know your system’ risk-based thinking, and

• operational response and emergency management.

Executive Summary

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These principles are important for meeting corporate risk objectives and in turn, customer and community expectations for public health and environmental protection, economic prosperity and general wellbeing. The literature review demonstrated that the level of frontline competency across these five operating principles contributes to water quality safety outcomes. The five operating principles provide a model to structure frontline operator learning and development opportunities. Leadership is central to the model as frontline operator competency is influenced by leadership from all levels of the water industry—regulators, organisational management, industry peak bodies and other stakeholders.

Review and comparison with other industry training and competency requirements

A review of the workforce competency management practices of four other industries; aviation (Licenced Aviation Maintenance Engineers (LAME)), nursing, electrical and engineering, highlighted the lack of regulatory obligations that apply to the Australian water industry regarding frontline operator competency (see Table above). These obligations include minimum competency standards that underpin roles and responsibilities, and a commitment to maintain and further develop employee

competency through continual professional development (CPD). For the other industries reviewed, the obligations are effectively managed by the relevant industry registration and licencing systems and drive a nationally-consistent approach for the provision of an appropriately trained and competent workforce.

Seqwater Operations Development Program case study

The case study from Seqwater highlighted that a consistent approach to developing and maintaining skills and knowledge is necessary to ensure an appropriately trained and competent water industry frontline operator workforce. The Seqwater Operations Development Program (ODP) is based on minimum competency standards that are aligned to roles and responsibilities. The importance of the ODP was highlighted during the 2011 and 2013 flood events. These events identified potential vulnerabilities in the depth of capability across Seqwater’s workforce when faced with a situation that places stress upon the water supply systems. The ODP assures Seqwater that frontline operators are adequately trained and the organisation has the capability to deal with such unexpected events. However, Australian water industry organisations currently have no such obligations to implement this type of approach or to achieve a nationally consistent training and competency framework.

Training and Competency Requirements Australian Water Industry Aviation -

LAME Nursing

Electrical (based on

requirements specified by

ESV)

Engineering (based on

requirements specified by

BPEQ)

Legislation defining a minimum competency standard NO YES YES YES YES

Mandatory benchmark for regulators to apply NO YES YES YES YES

Certification/licencing/registration scheme

YES - VoluntaryYES YES YES YES

Not Certified Certified ##

Mandatory qualification and experience NO YES YES YES YES YES

Privileges and restrictions NO YES YES YES YES YES

Renewal period NO YES YES YES YES YES

Continual professional development (CPD) NO YES YES YES Not Mandatory YES

Competency assessment/review or audit process NO YES YES YES YES YES

Reassessment to undertake higher risk or alternative duties NO YES YES YES YES YES

Industry training and competency comparison

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The national survey of frontline operator training and competency provision

The national survey results indicated that water organisations, on the whole, are adopting some form of minimum competency standard. Organisations do undertake a variety of initiatives to provide frontline operators with knowledge and awareness of water quality risk management. Equipment and instrument suppliers are heavily relied upon to assist organisations to update operator knowledge and skills when organisations are adopting new technologies. This highlights the important role suppliers play in fulfilling water industry training requirements.

The majority of organisations (greater than 90%) opt to manage frontline operator competency outside of the Water Industry Operators Certification Framework (WIOCF). In doing so, there is no guarantee a consistent or adequate approach is taken to ensure an appropriately trained and competent workforce. For organisations with self-imposed minimum competency standards, the content and quality of training provision is discretionary and may not address potential competency deficiencies residing within the workforce.

A comparison of the learning and development initiatives undertaken by organisations indicate the required CPD points for recertification may be met irrespective of the frontline operator training and competency approach adopted. The greater challenge for organisations may be to recognise learning opportunities and having access to correct tools and adequate support/resources to capture, record and store the learning initiatives as evidence of CPD.

Preparedness of the Australian water industry for competency

The WIOCF is the water industry best practice approach to frontline operator competency management. A certified operator has demonstrated the minimum requirements—an independently verified ‘fit for purpose’ skill set and the relevant on the job operational experience—to capably and competently manage a water supply system, along with an employer commitment to maintain and further develop competency. These features of the WIOCF are comparable to the registration and licencing systems used by other industries, and to international water industry certification and licencing systems. Despite offering greater assurance and recognition of an appropriately trained and competent workforce, the WIOCF remains a voluntary initiative, lacking the regulatory commitment to drive its adoption as a nationally consistent minimum skills standard.

Without overarching regulatory obligations, mandatory certification, or a defined minimum competency standard for

frontline operators, water industry regulators and organisations lack a benchmark to drive a nationally consistent approach. Ideally, a minimum competency standard would facilitate the evaluation of competency provision and drive performance improvement when deficiencies are identified.

The value of an appropriately trained and competent workforce

The other industries reviewed by this project, the Seqwater case study presented and the examples from international water quality incidents provided evidence of the value and benefits derived from an appropriately trained and competent workforce. These include:

• Assurance that the workforce is equipped with the required level of competency to fulfil roles and responsibilities, and is, therefore, well prepared to reliably deliver service obligations.

• A very high level of customer and community trust and confidence generated through the use of professional credentialing schemes that formally recognise the capability and competency of the workforce.

• Maintenance of service delivery standards now and for the future, particularly important considering the increasing complexity of water treatment technologies and automation.

• Portability of skills within the industry, enabling employees to move between employers and states/territories with minimal reskilling requirements - a robust supply of candidates with the capability to meet labour market needs.

• Increased staff confidence, engagement and innovation.

• Provision of an industry career pathway from entry-level roles through to career advancement.

The project demonstrates that value is derived from a well-structured approach to employee learning and development; where defined minimum competency standards underpin roles and responsibilities, along with a commitment to maintaining and further developing competency. A governance approach to employee training and competency, that is directly aligned to workplace requirements, provides the following benefits:

• A benchmark to assess the adequacy of employee training and competency.

• Ability to identify competency deficiencies and a basis to drive remedial action.

• A foundation to inform and build technical capacity, capability, and consistency across the industry.

• An industry credential as evidence of demonstrated basic minimum competency to capably perform duties.

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Conclusion

The project findings suggest several factors affect the ability of the Australian water industry to guarantee that every organisation will have an appropriately trained and competent workforce. Therefore, this poses a barrier to fully experiencing the value and benefits mentioned above. For industries with a high duty of care for public health and safety, and environmental protection, it is imperative to derive the full value and benefits identified. These benefits provide the basis for effective human error risk mitigation strategies.

Project Recommendations

1. As a priority, it is recommended that regulators review frontline operator training and competency provision at an organisational level, using a nationally recognised and defined minimum competency benchmark. The regulatory review should seek to understand: the adequacy and efficacy of training provision, the alignment of training to roles and responsibilities and the water quality risks managed, provision of a ‘fit for purpose’ skill set, application of competency across the five operating principles, along with quality of learning and development opportunities offered. The objective is to determine if competency deficiencies reside within the water industry frontline operator workforce.

2. It is recommended that a targeted communication campaign is undertaken to improve the current understanding of frontline operator competency requirements. The industry at all levels must understand what constitutes the appropriate knowledge, skills and experience required to fulfil specific roles. The consequence of failing to meet these requirements is a potentially significant service delivery risk to water organisations. Organisations require an improved understanding of the efficiencies, a nationally consistent approach provides, such as streamlining skills-set creation through the guidance set out in the WIOCF to demonstrate workforce capability and competency.

3. It is recommended that the Australian water industry consider a further study targeted at water quality safety incidents and near misses specific to the Australian context to better understand the contribution of frontline operator competency (human error factors) to the root cause of these events.

4. It is recommended that the Australian water industry consider regulatory changes to drive a nationally consistent governance approach to the provision of frontline operator training and competency; either via mandated operator certification under the WIOCF or by defined minimum competency standards for frontline operator roles. Improving competency consistency is a step toward a more robust approach to human-error management within the Australian water industry.

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