Water Corporation Near Miss

In a recent incident in one of the largest water catchment / suppliers in Australia an Engineer responsible for water quality management almost poisoned 100,000 people in their network by overdosing the water supply with chemicals.   One of the key role aspects of  the position is managing the adequacy of the ‘verification of water quality’, which considers:
– whether the monitoring data are representative and reliable
– sampling procedures
– use of accredited labs
– performance in inter-laboratory proficiency testing (where applicable)
– Lab QA/QC procedures
Another key aspect of the Occupational Cognitive Index capacity is the monitoring and management of critical / control points and the management of incidents.

In this situation the engineer had managed this area of business as a trusted employee for 33 years and up until this particular incident the organisation had never considered the risk associated with a bad decision where the employee was effected by  a cognitive change not picked up through other reviews. We all have key employees that make high risk decisions for us every day.  In this situation the employee had extended his retirement plans and maintained his position as the organisation had suffered retention and attraction of new employees to this area.

As we see our workforce ageing and staff shortages increase in key areas its even more important than ever to ensure we regularly test the cognitive capacity of key people in key roles within an organisation.   To have an Occupational Cognitive Index Review completed across your Organisation contact us for a Confidential Discussion.

 

 

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