Atmos Energy 2012 Annual Report Download - page 6

Through a mix of classroom training, hands-on
experience and peer coaching, Atmos Energy
employees learn to be vigilant about safety.
Much of the training occurs at the company’s
Charles K. Vaughan Center, an advanced
technical training and service facility in Plano,
Texas. e center features multimedia classrooms,
a high-tech gas Flow Lab and a simulated
community, complete with streets and buildings,
named Gas City.
“We blend lectures to give employees the
basics with hands-on exercises to let them prac-
tice what they learned in a safe situation,” said
Kelli Martin, Atmos Energy’s director of technical training.
Yet, as every Atmos Energy employee knows, learning
safe practices is only the beginning. e test is putting those
skills to work every day.
“Our employees study an essential skill called coaching
in the moment,” said Scott Powell, the company’s director of
safety, security and compliance. “It’s not a checko box or a
list that we keep. It’s a way of doing business.”
An estimated 2,700 employees have attended this train-
ing, and the company now has more than 130 coaching-in-
the-moment facilitators across the enterprise.
“Coaching in the moment means building a bridge—to
learn from each other,” Powell said.
“We learn to express appreciation to our co-workers when
they do things right, so that we feel comfortable giving each
other constructive feedback if we see how to handle a situation
in a better or safer way.”
Our vigilance
heightens safety
1
4ATMOS ENERGY 2012 SUMMARY ANNUAL REPORT
Arriving to turn on service for a family in
Columbus, Georgia, Senior Service
Technician David Struble set out a safety
cone in front of his company vehicle and
went to work. In the front yard, the parents
were with their son, 4, and daughter, 5,
talking to new neighbors.
“When I finished, I told the parents it
would be a while before the water got
hot,” Struble said. “I said ‘bye’ to the little
girl, picked up my cone and began walk-
ing the Safety Circle around the truck.”
On the passenger side, he found small
feet barely sticking out, “kicking like they
were swimming,” he said.
“The little boy was completely under
the truck and wasn’t making a sound. I
squatted down and asked, ‘What are
you doing, little man?’ He said, ‘My ball
is stuck.’ I helped him get the ball out,
brushed him off and walked him back to
his mom and dad.
“The safety cone and Safety Circle
sticker on the driver’s door of our trucks
remind us to always do a walk-around.”
As Struble drove off, he pondered
the incident. “It made me sick to my stom-
ach. Had I not walked the Safety Circle,
it could have been a catastrophe.”
Walk the Safety Circle