Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 33 (2015) 151e158

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Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jlp

Competency requirements for process hazard analysis (PHA) teams

Paul Baybutt*
Primatech Inc., Columbus, OH, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 22 April 2014
Received in revised form
24 October 2014
Accepted 29 November 2014
Available online 2 December 2014

Process hazard analysis (PHA) is a cornerstone of process safety management programs. The quality of
the PHA performed directly affects the level of risk tolerated for a process. The lower the quality of a PHA,
the more likely higher risk will be tolerated. There are few requirements for PHA team members in the
U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's process safety management regulations. More
detailed requirements for participation in a PHA are desirable.
A competency management program should be used to ensure PHA practitioners and teams are
appropriately qualied. Criteria for selecting PHA team leaders, or facilitators, and other team members
are key to such a program and are described in this paper. The criteria cover both technical and personal
attributes. Application of the criteria is described and team performance metrics, which can be used to
correlate performance with the assessment of competency to validate the criteria and methods used, are
discussed.
Owing to the importance of the role played by team leaders, certication of their competency is
desirable. Criteria for certication are described and their application is discussed.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Process hazard analysis
Process safety management
PHA quality
PHA team qualications
PHA certication

1. Introduction
Process hazard analysis (PHA) is used to identify hazard scenarios that can have adverse impacts on such receptors as people,
property and the environment so that a determination can be
made as to whether or not the level of risk posed by a process is
tolerable (CCPS, 2008; Baybutt, 2013a). If not, recommendations
can be made for appropriate risk reduction measures. PHA is a
foundation element of process safety management (PSM) programs. PHA studies are conducted by teams of people. Consequently, they are subject to various possible human failures
inuenced by human factors (Baybutt, 2003; Baybutt, 2013b). In
particular, the qualications, experience, and personal characteristics of participants play a critical role in the quality of PHA
studies. Teams with members who are poorly qualied, possess
inadequate experience, or have undesirable personal characteristics will produce poor quality studies in which scenarios may be
missed or described inadequately, and scenario risks may be estimated incorrectly. Such PHA faults can lead to higher risk being
accepted than should be tolerated. Consequently, individuals who

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: paulb@primatech.com.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2014.11.023
0950-4230/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

possess the appropriate competencies to perform their role as a

member of a PHA team should be selected by screening them
against suitable criteria. Not only is the competency of individuals
important but also the competency of individuals acting as a team
is critical to the success of PHA. This paper suggests appropriate
criteria for selecting PHA participants and teams and describes
how they can be applied.
Selection of PHA team members should be governed by a
competency management program. Each aspect of a competency
management program is described in this paper. Of course, successful performance of PHA is the desired outcome so performance
metrics are discussed to help determine the degree of success in
applying selection criteria to PHA participants.
Team leaders or facilitators guide PHA teams in applying the
chosen PHA method. Consequently, they play a critical role in PHA
and should be subject to certication requirements. Criteria for
certication are described and their application is discussed.
2. Regulatory requirements for PHA teams
Regulations around the world have established few requirements for PHA participants. For example, the process safety
management (PSM) standard of the U.S. Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) requires only that (OSHA, 1992):

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P. Baybutt / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 33 (2015) 151e158

 The PHA shall be performed by a team with expertise in engineering and process operations.
 The team shall include at least one employee who has experience and knowledge specic to the process being evaluated.
 One member of the team must be knowledgeable in the specic
process hazard analysis methodology being used.
Clearly, these are minimal requirements and more detailed requirements are desirable owing to the critical role that people play
in PHA.
In the preamble to the PSM standard, OSHA states (OSHA, 1992):
 In order to conduct an effective, comprehensive PHA, it is
imperative that the analysis be performed by competent persons, knowledgeable in engineering and process operations.
 Those persons be familiar with the process being evaluated.
 A team approach is the best because no one person will possess
all of the knowledge and experience necessary to perform an
effective PHA and when more than one person is performing the
analysis, different disciplines, opinions, and perspectives will be
represented and additional knowledge and expertise will be
contributed to the analysis.
 Some companies include an individual on the team who does
not have any prior experience with the particular process being
analyzed to help insure that a fresh view of the process is integrated into the analysis.
 Employees and other experts may be brought onto the team on a
temporary basis to contribute their specialized knowledge.

other members have acquired a level of understanding that enables

them to effectively use the chosen PHA method.
Thus, OSHA recognizes that PHA participants should be qualied
and competent to participate in studies, in both their technical
capabilities and personal characteristics, although the PSM standard does not specically require the screening of participants
against such criteria.
3. Competency of personnel and teams
Competency of personnel is dened as the ability of personnel
to perform tasks according to expectations (Baybutt, 2007). Competency implies appropriate qualications, training, skills, tness
for duty, knowledge and understanding, experience, behavior, attitudes and physical and mental capabilities (see Fig. 1) as well as
the ability to perform tasks according to dened performance
standards (see Fig. 2).
Not only must PHA team members be competent individually,
but also the team of which they are a part must function competently. Of course, the ability of the team to perform PHA
constructively and cooperatively depends on the interactions of the
team members, which in turn is a function of the personal attributes of team members, including their personalities, backgrounds,
behaviors and attitudes. Thus, team competency can be controlled
by appropriate selection of team members, taking into account not
only their competency as an individual but also how their personal
characteristics may inuence the performance of the team.
4. Competency management program

In another publication, OSHA stated that (OSHA, 1994):

 The team leader needs to be fully knowledgeable in the proper
implementation of the PHA methodology to be used.
 The team leader should be impartial in the evaluation.
 The team leader needs to be able to manage the team and the
PHA study.
 The other full or part-time team members need to provide the
team with expertise in areas such as process technology; process design; operating procedures and practices; alarms;
emergency procedures; instrumentation; maintenance procedures, both routine and nonroutine tasks, including how the
tasks are authorized; procurement of parts and supplies; safety
and health; and any other relevant subjects.
 The ideal team will have an intimate knowledge of the standards, codes, specications, and regulations applicable to the
process being studied.
 The selected team members need to be compatible.
 The team needs to be able to work together while benetting
from the expertise of others on the team or outside the team to
resolve issues and to forge a consensus on the ndings of the
study and recommendations.
 Some team members may only be a part of the team for a limited
time.
These criteria go beyond those specied in the PSM standard
and begin to identify important selection criteria for PHA
participants.
The PSM standard does not specify formal training requirements, such as attending short courses, for PHA team members. However, in a letter of clarication (OSHA, 2001), OSHA stated
that if an OSHA representative needs to determine whether or not a
team member or the facilitator is knowledgeable in the chosen PHA
method, the representative may choose to review training records
(formal, non-formal, on-the-job training, etc.) and interview team
members to collect information to determine if the team leader or

The competency of PHA team members and teams should be

addressed using a competency management program that covers
these topics:














Responsibilities
Competency requirements
Team composition
Selection criteria for teams and team members
Development of competencies
Assessment of competency
Documentation of competency
Maintaining competency
Reassessing competency
Monitoring competency
Dening and using performance metrics
Certication of practitioners
Continuous improvement
Each topic is now described.
Qualifications
Training

Experience

Skills

Behavior

Fitness for duty

Attitudes

Knowledge and
understanding

Physical and mental

capabilities

Fig. 1. Elements of competency for individuals.

P. Baybutt / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 33 (2015) 151e158

153

 Specialty team members

Possess technical expertise in a particular area and attend
only certain sessions where their expertise is needed. Typical
specialty team members are shown in Table 1.

 Other personnel
Competency

Performance standards

Acceptable performance

Fig. 2. Competency management.

4.1. Responsibilities
Company management is responsible for the selection of
team leaders and ensuring that they are appropriately qualied.
Usually, the manager responsible for a PHA study, or the team
leader assigned to a study, selects the other team members. They
should advise each other and jointly approve the other team
members.

4.2. Competency requirements

Competencies should be dened for the various types of PHA
team members together with assessment criteria. They should be
realistic and appropriate for the tasks to be performed. The levels of
competency required should match the complexity of the process
being studied and the PHA method used. Various tools can be used
to identify competency requirements including task analysis and
skill and knowledge inventories.
4.3. Team composition
Different types of team members require different types of
competencies, although there is overlap in those required. This
section describes the various roles that must be played by PHA
participants. They include:
 Leader/facilitator
Prepares and organizes the study, guides the team in the use of
the chosen PHA technique, manages the team and the study, and
prepares a study report.
 Scribe/technical secretary
Records PHA sessions and may prepare the study report under
the guidance of the team leader. Experienced team leaders may act
as their own scribe.
 Technical team members
Brainstorm the identication of hazard scenarios. Identify
initiating events, intermediate events, consequences, safeguards,
and enablers. Perform risk ranking and may identify recommendations for risk reduction measures. There are two types of team
members:
 Core team members
Participate in the study on a full-time basis. Their involvement
is critical to the success of the study. They help to achieve
consistency across study sessions. They may need to be present
to satisfy regulatory requirements. Typical core team members
are shown in Table 1.

May be representatives from vendors of self-contained processes, such as skid-mounted units, and licensed technology; contractors who perform activities such as maintenance; the design
company responsible for a new process; or the engineering company that will construct a new process. They provide information
on equipment design, maintenance, operation, etc. that may not be
known by company personnel.
 Interpreter
PHA studies may be conducted by teams who are unable to
communicate in a common language or cannot do so well enough
to perform the study properly. Thus, the role of an interpreter is to
enable team members to communicate effectively.
 Site coordinator
Acts as a liaison between the team and the process facility. Helps
to ensure that adequate facilities, such as a meeting room, are
provided and that other team needs are met. Not a participating
member of the PHA team.
4.4. Selection criteria for teams and team members
Different types of team members require different types of
competencies, although there is some overlap in requirements.
Overall team or group competency is also important. Therefore,
selection criteria are needed for both individual team members and
teams. Each type of team member should be selected based on
technical qualications and personal characteristics, or attributes,
that are appropriate for each type of team member. It is useful to
dene both critical and recommended attributes because ideal
team members are unlikely to be found in the real world.
4.4.1. Team selection
This section provides some suggested overall criteria that should
be met by PHA teams. PHA teams necessarily must be multidisciplinary. Team members are needed who together can

Table 1
Typical core and specialty PHA team members.
Core team members

Specialty team members

Design engineer

Instrumentation/electrical
engineer
Mechanical engineer
Programmer

Process engineer
Operator (cover inside and outside activities).
More than one may be needed
Maintenance technician or engineer. More than
one may be needed
Controls engineer
Safety engineer

Inspection/materials
engineer
Research scientist/chemist
Environmental engineer/
regulatory specialist
Quality assurance/quality
control specialist
Human factors specialist
Industrial hygienist
Industrial engineer
Emergency responder

Note: There can be some overlap between core and specialty team members.

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P. Baybutt / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 33 (2015) 151e158

provide the information needed to dene the design intent

completely for a process including how it is operated, controlled
and maintained. Suggested technical disciplines are shown in
Table 2. More than one person from the same technical discipline
may be needed, e.g. operators, to reect different levels of experience, ways of performing their jobs, attitudes, etc. Team members
may cover more than one technical area if their expertise allows.
Team dynamics are very important for an effective and efcient
study and they are determined by the selection of team members.
Suggested criteria that should be met by PHA team members as a
group are:
 Collectively possess the knowledge and skill necessary to
identify hazard scenarios for the process.
 Be compatible and able to work together effectively.
 Be able to reach a consensus on PHA worksheet entries.
 Comply, individually and collectively, with applicable regulatory, industry and/or company requirements.
A team should not consist entirely of people who know the
process as groupthink can be a problem (Baybutt, 2013b). It is a
good idea to have an independent senior engineer to challenge
assumptions that otherwise would be made by the team and to
contribute knowledge that may not be possessed by the team. This
role can be played by an independent experienced team leader.
It is not unusual for people to be included on a team for training
purposes to gain process knowledge and PHA experience. Other
people may be included for other purposes, such as a union shop
steward as an observer. Such people should not be relied upon as
full team members and must not interfere with achieving the study
objectives.
4.4.2. Team member selection
This section provides suggested criteria for each type of PHA
team member. There are various positive and negative attributes
for team members that inuence their effectiveness as a team
member. The criteria for positive attributes cover both technical
qualications and personal characteristics of participants which are
divided into critical and recommended categories. The criteria also
include negative attributes.
4.4.2.1. Leader/facilitator. Team leaders must have a thorough
technical understanding of PHA and excellent facilitation skills.
Suggested positive technical and personal attributes for team
leaders are provided in Table 3. Negative attributes are provided in

Table 2
Suggested technical disciplines for a PHA team.
 Design engineering
- Knowledge of how the process is intended to operate
- Knowledge of applicable standards, codes, specications and regulations
 Process engineering
- Understanding of the process science and technology
- Ability to judge the adequacy of existing safeguards
 Process controls engineer
- Knowledge of the process instrumentation, controls, alarms and interlocks
 Operations and maintenance
- Hands on operating and maintenance experience
- Knowledge of how the process responds to upsets
 Safety engineering
- Knowledge of process hazards, safety systems, relevant company policies
 Other
- Specialty technical areas
- PHA facilitation and recording
- Quality control
- Etc.

Table 4. The team leader does not need to be a technical expert on

the process under study and, arguably, should not be, as they would
undoubtedly have mindsets about the process that could inhibit
their independence in facilitating the study.
4.4.2.2. Scribe/technical secretary. Scribes must be able to understand and accurately record the team discussions without interfering with the process of conducting the PHA. Suggested positive
technical and personal attributes for scribes are provided in Table 5.
Negative attributes are provided in Table 6. Young engineers are
often selected as scribes. They should not be someone whose input
to the PHA is critical.
4.4.2.3. Technical team members. Team members must possess
technical knowledge in some aspect of the process, be able to
contribute that knowledge to the PHA team, and be capable of
participating in the identication of hazard scenarios for the process. Suggested positive technical and personal attributes for
technical team members are provided in Table 7. Negative attributes are provided in Table 8. They apply to both core and specialty
team members.
4.4.2.4. Other personnel. Their technical and personal attributes are
similar to core and specialty team members.
4.4.2.5. Interpreter. Interpreters may provide interpretation
simultaneously, or on an as-needed basis. Owing to the effort
involved, more than one interpreter may be needed. Interpreters
need a high level of technical ability and need to know technical
terms in the languages used. They must have high stamina owing to
the intellectual effort involved and the durations of PHA sessions.

Table 3
Positive attributes for PHA team leaders.
Technical
Critical
Technical education
Formal training in PHA and leadership/
facilitation skills
Knowledge of and expertise in the PHA
method to be used
Knowledge of regulatory, industry and
company requirements for PHA
Understands processes and their
operation quickly
Reads engineering drawings and
understands other process
documentation easily
Motivational/interpersonal skills
Communications skills

Personal
Impartial in the evaluation
Organized
Seeks consensus
High stamina
Able to focus on multiple items
simultaneously
Respected by the team

Friendly and cooperative

Strong personality to control the team
and drive the study but not
overbearing

People and project management skills

Recommended
Experience as a team member
Patient
No day-to-day responsibilities for the Able to read people
process being studied, e.g. the team
leader should not be the process
engineer or the designer for the
process
Not an expert on the process under
Diplomatic
study
Imaginative
Quick thinking
Gently authoritative
Able to help team members see
matters in a new light

P. Baybutt / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 33 (2015) 151e158

Table 4
Negative attributes for PHA team leaders.









Wants to participate in brainstorming

Poor listener
Insensitive to team members
Projects sense of superiority
Rushes the team
Rushes to judgment
Biased
Opposite of positive attributes

4.4.2.6. Site coordinator. Requirements for site coordinators are

straightforward. They need to be available for the duration of the
study and should be well-connected within the company so as to be
able to procure whatever may be needed by the team. They should
be helpful and responsive to the team.
4.4.3. Practical considerations in selecting team members
There may be only one choice of person for a particular role on
the team, e.g. the process engineer. To the extent that the person
does not meet the selection criteria, usually in their personal attributes, the team leader needs to be ready to deal with any issues
that may arise (Baybutt, 2013b).
Often, the pool of core and specialty team members is limited,
thus preventing the selection of an ideal team and compromises
likely will be needed. Of course, the availability of personnel also
must be taken into account. The division of competencies into
critical and recommended categories assists in making
compromises.
4.5. Development of competencies
PHA participants must possess both technical and personal
competencies. The ability to perform tasks competently can be
developed through training and experience. Competency for performing a task is often developed through initial training followed
by coaching and supervision by experienced personnel combined
with periodic refresher training. Thus, PHA team leaders can gain
competency in the technical requirements of the position through
attendance at suitable short courses, on-the-job mentoring by
more experienced PHA team leaders, and refresher training. Typically, technical team members develop their technical competency
through job experience. Scribes and interpreters gain their technical competency through training and practice.
Competencies in personal attributes largely are inherent to the
person and may be difcult to change, particularly in team members whose participation in PHA studies is a small part of their
overall job responsibilities. Team leaders who lead studies
frequently may be motivated to modify their personal attributes, at
least insofar as they are perceived by other team members during a
study. However, some behaviors are easier to change than others,
for example, a team leader may be able to teach themselves to be a
better listener but they may have difculty overcoming a tendency
to be impatient.

155

In some elds of endeavor, aptitude tests and psychometric

personality tests are used to assess individual competencies,
particularly those relating to personal characteristics. However,
they are not yet employed routinely in selecting PHA participants.
Behavioral observation and personality typing can be employed
and are desirable for prospective team leaders. However, such
methods may discourage participation in PHA studies by prospective technical team members. Reliance may need to be placed on
prior knowledge of and experience with their personal
competencies.
The assessment of competency should be correlated with subsequent task performance to validate the method used. The
assessment requires the use of metrics to gauge the performance of
teams and participants. They are described in a later section. Assessors should themselves be competent in assessing competency
as well as credible, consistent, and independent.
4.7. Documentation of competency
Companies should formally designate personnel as meeting
required competencies through documentation. Some participants,
such as team leaders, should be certied or accredited by external
organizations owing to the importance of the role they play during
a PHA study.
4.8. Maintaining competency
Maintenance of competency by PHA participants should include
refresher or on-going training provided at a frequency based on the
anticipated deterioration in competency. The provision of PHA
procedures and requirements is also an important part of helping to
ensure tasks are performed consistently and correctly. Other forms
of assistance, such as supervision, coaching and job aids, should be
provided, as appropriate.
4.9. Reassessing competency
Competencies should be re-assessed periodically, such as
through re-examination and observation of performance by a
qualied assessor. Actual performance may be reviewed, or other
forms of assessments, such as demonstrations, may be used. The
frequency of reassessment should be based on the frequency of task
performance and the anticipated decay rate for competencies.
There must be suitable responses in the event of substandard
performance, for example, improvement in training, personnel
selection, etc. Reassessment also should be performed to qualify an
individual to return to a designated role on a PHA team after the
elapse of a signicant time period.
4.10. Monitoring competency
Competency levels should be tracked over time in order to
determine if systemic problems develop in the competency management program and to permit continuous improvement. Such
tracking is facilitated by the use of performance metrics which can
be used to help gauge the effectiveness of PHA performance.

4.6. Assessment of competency

4.11. Dening and using performance metrics
Competency should be assessed before personnel are allowed to
participate in a PHA study. Methods used should be appropriate,
valid and reliable. Technical competencies and some personal
competencies, such as leadership skills, can be assessed by verbal or
written tests, demonstrations, and observation of task performance. Other personal competencies, such as the ability to read
people, can be more difcult to assess.

The purpose of ensuring the competency of PHA participants

and teams is to help ensure that PHA studies are performed
effectively and efciently. In particular, they should identify hazard
scenarios as thoroughly and completely as possible. Thus, metrics
for team performance are more meaningful than metrics for the
performance of individual team members.

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P. Baybutt / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 33 (2015) 151e158

Table 5
Positive attributes for scribes.

Table 8
Negative attributes for PHA team members.

Technical

Personal

Critical
Technically-oriented

Able to establish a good working

relationship with the team leader
Understand the PHA process
Responsiveness to the team leader
Expertise with the means used to record Attention to detail
PHA sessions, typically software on a
computer
Good typing, spelling and grammar skills
Recommended
Familiarity with terms and acronyms used Capable of being a helper for the
team leader, not just a recorder
Knowledge of processes
Good listener

Table 6
Negative attributes for scribes.








Challenges the team leader for control of the team

Makes worksheet entries before the team has reached a consensus
Plays with recording software
Jumps around the worksheet unnecessarily
Participates in the study at the expense of recording it
Does not know or understand guidelines for worksheet entries
Opposite of desirable attributes

Table 7
Positive attributes for PHA team members.
Technical
Critical
Knowledge of and expertise in some
aspect of the process
Work with the process to be studied
Knowledge of codes, standards,
regulations and other requirements
that apply to their area of expertise
Able to read engineering drawings and
understand other process
documentation

Personal
Creative
Good memory
Willing to participate

Willing to listen to others

Able to communicate technical issues

in their area(s) of expertise to other
team members
Able to express themselves clearly
Open-minded
Unbiased
Willing to tolerate a detailed and
thorough study
Committed to time required
Recommended
Knowledge and experience with the
PHA method to be used

Sense of ownership and responsibility

for the process to help ensure their
commitment and motivation for the
study
Logical
Alert
Patient
Able to concentrate
Focused
Not afraid to express their opinion
Not intimidated by working in group
made up of different disciplines
Pays attention
Comes to the point quickly

Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing if all credible scenarios have been identied in a study. Some people may argue that
the occurrence of an actual incident that is not identied in a PHA
study is an indicator that the study was not performed as well as
possible. However, catastrophic incidents, which are the type of
most concern in PHA, occur infrequently and not often enough to

 Talkative
 Over-enthusiastic







Argumentative
Sarcastic
Dominant
Arrogant
Skeptical
Wants to control the
study

 Will not let go of an issue

 Wants to go beyond the dened scope and objectives
for the study
 Promotes a personal agenda
 Poor attendance/punctuality
 Uses offensive language
 Brings other work to sessions
 Opposite of desirable attributes

provide sufcient data to validate effective performance, the details

of real-world incidents often are far more complex than can be
identied by PHA, and it is highly unlikely that any PHA study will
identify all possible scenarios owing to the difculty of doing so.
Hence, the unidentied incident rate is not a good measure of the
quality of a PHA study.
Possible metrics to judge the quality of a PHA, and indirectly the
effectiveness of a competency management program for PHA
teams, include:
 The average amount of time taken to identify a hazard scenario.
Values that are signicantly lower or higher than the norm for a
particular company and type of process may indicate issues with
the competency of the participants. Of course, such determinations must be made in the context of each study.
 The ratio of the number of hazard scenarios identied to the size
and complexity of the process using a suitable measure such as
capital cost, or an index representing the number and size of
each piece of equipment present. Signicant deviations from
this ratio may indicate issues with the competency of team
members. Of course, the measure used for size and complexity
of the process must be meaningful and consistent across
processes.
 Number and type of departures from PHA guidelines governing
the study. They can be identied by peer review.
 Number and type of ndings from periodic audits. Audits may
identify omissions and deciencies in PHA studies.
 Number and type of ndings from audits of teams during the
performance of a PHA study, although the results are subjective
and qualitative in nature and necessarily are based on a sampling of the PHA sessions actually conducted during a study.
Metrics for the performance of individual team members are
more difcult to specify. Direct observation of team members in
action is required by an observer who is an expert PHA practitioner.
Checklists of desired attributes can be used to score performances
of individuals but the approach suffers from the subjective and
qualitative nature of the results as for performance audits of the
team as a whole. Also, the presence of an observer may inuence
the behavior of the PHA participants. When the need for corrective
action is identied, it may be straightforward, for example, an instruction to a team member to be punctual, or it may be difcult, for
example, the need for a team member to avoid being
argumentative.
All of these metrics require the application of expert judgment
to determine how meaningful they are in the context of a particular
PHA study. Such assessments are in their infancy and need further
development.
4.12. Certication of practitioners
Often, companies assume the competency of team leaders based
on the adequacy of their experience or training, possession of

P. Baybutt / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 33 (2015) 151e158

certain qualications, or the availability of a procedure for them to

follow. Not only may these assumptions be invalid but also they are
insufcient to qualify a person to facilitate the performance of PHA
studies where people's lives are at stake. Sometimes PHA team
leaders are qualied on poor grounds, for example, they have read a
book on PHA, been a member or scribe for a study, or attended a
short course. Maybe they are just a team member who volunteers
to lead a team in the absence of anyone else willing to do so. These
may be useful attributes for a PHA team leader but they are not
nearly sufcient to qualify a person to lead a study.
Owing to the importance of the role played by team leaders,
formal certication of their competency against a set of dened
criteria is desirable. Certication at different levels should be
possible. Novice practitioners without actual experience facilitating
a PHA need to be capable of certication at a low level so they can
begin facilitating simple studies. Once they have actual PHA leadership experience, they can move to higher certication levels after
meeting criteria appropriate to each level. Companies should
restrict the type of study facilitated according to the certication
level of the leader.
Certication criteria should include:

157

Successful completion of a written examination that meets

prevailing standards for tests of competency should be required.
University engineering degrees alone do not provide the level of
knowledge or the skills to act as PHA team leaders. Consequently,
attendance at continuing education courses is necessary for all
prospective team leaders.
Certication should be provided and administered by an independent third party using a dened set of publicly-available standards and certication criteria so that there is transparency in the
process.

4.13. Continuous improvement

Competency management programs should be subject to
continuous improvement. Performance metrics for PHA studies
should be monitored and ways sought not only to achieve tolerable
levels of performance but also to improve performance steadily
over time.

5. Conclusions
 Academic qualications
A technical degree in a relevant discipline, or equivalent, will
demonstrate that the individual has the needed intellectual capacity and basic technical knowledge. Independent conrmation
that the individual has earned the claimed qualications is
essential.
 Experience
Relevant on-the-job work experience provides a background
and knowledge that is useful for a team leader. Conrmation of the
claimed work experience by peers and/or supervisors should be
required.
 Facilitation skills
For higher certication levels, feedback on the performance of
the team leader in managing the team should be sought from team
members. Team members providing feedback should owe no allegiance or obligation to the team leader to help ensure objectivity in
the feedback provided.
 Work products
For higher certication levels, examples of PHA studies facilitated by the individual can be utilized to demonstrate competency.
Expert PHA practitioners should review the work products against
the PHA guidelines that were used to produce them to determine
their validity.
 Training
Team leaders should have successfully completed appropriate
training courses recently.
 Professional references
References should attest to the academic qualications, experience, work products and professional ethics of the individual.
 Examination

PHA studies play a critical role in process safety programs. They

must be performed by competent practitioners. Both the competency of individual team members and the entire PHA team are
important. Participants and teams should be screened against
appropriate criteria to demonstrate their competency as part of a
competency management program.
There are few formal regulatory requirements for team members. Of course, PHA teams must comply with those requirements
that do exist but more detailed requirements are desirable owing to
the importance of PHA.
Competencies for PHA team members can be categorized as
technical and personal. Technical competencies include education,
experience, skills, and training. Personal competencies address
behavior, attitudes, etc. Competencies can be classied as critical
and recommended to assist in selecting team members in the real
world where ideal team members likely will not exist. Competencies were dened using this categorization and classication
scheme for the key participants in a PHA study, specically, team
leaders, scribes and technical team members.
Technical competencies can be developed through training,
coaching, mentoring, supervision by experienced personnel, job
experience and practice. Competencies in personal attributes
largely are inherent to the person and may be difcult to change.
However, team leaders who facilitate studies frequently may be
motivated to try and modify their personal attributes.
Competency assessment is an essential aspect of competency
management and involves such approaches as verbal or written
tests, demonstrations, observation of task performance, behavioral
observation, personality typing, and prior knowledge of behaviors.
Assessing technical competencies usually is easier than assessing
personal competencies.
Competencies should be maintained, for example, through
refresher or on-going training, and re-assessed periodically, for
example, through examinations. Competency management programs should be subject to continuous improvement, for
example, by monitoring performance metrics for PHA studies.
Metrics should be used for both individual and team
performance.
Owing to the critical role played by team leaders, they should be
certied formally using criteria that address academic qualications, experience, facilitation skills, work products, training, professional references, and examination.

158

P. Baybutt / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 33 (2015) 151e158

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Baybutt, P., 2007. Competence management (Chapter 29). Human Factors
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