High-energy control assessment and assessor calibration

Observe one crew doing one task on one day. List every high-energy hazard.

How the assessment works

  1. Pick a task and a crew. Observe the work as it is done, not as it is planned.
  2. Go round the Energy Wheel. List every hazard above the high-energy threshold.
  3. Check each one for a Direct Control. Timely, Tangible, Targeted, Strong, Forgiving. Present is a success. Absent is an exposure.
  4. Score. Each one either has a Direct Control or it does not. The score is the ratio. Successes divided by successes plus exposures.
  5. Talk about every exposure with the crew. There and then, as a learning conversation, not a finding.

The method measures control effectiveness on live work before anything happens. It sits alongside the Safety Classification and Learning model, which is used after an event.

65 to 75%of high-energy hazards had a Direct Control, even at industry-leading companies, in Hallowell's research.

The published method and its rulebook were developed by Dr Matthew Hallowell and evaluated by the Construction Safety Research Alliance. Its name is a trademark of the Colorado Construction Safety Laboratory. GeneXR teaches the method and calibrates assessors; it does not use that mark.

Why calibration matters

The score is only useful if two assessors looking at the same task give the same answer. In practice they do not, at first.

  1. One counts a spotter as a control.
  2. One scores a guardrail with a missing mid-rail as present.
  3. One misses the stored energy in a tensioned cable.

Calibration is the work of getting assessors to apply the rules the same way, so the number means something across sites and over time.

How GeneXR calibrates assessors

Workshop 4 of the programme. Assessors score four VR mini scenarios independently. The facilitator app shows every assessor's scores side by side. The group argues each difference back to the rules until they agree. Then they do it again. The output is a group of assessors whose scores you can compare, and a record of where they diverged.

  1. Four VR scenarios built for calibration, each with model answers
  2. Live comparison of scores across assessors on the facilitator screen
  3. A field sheet for assessments on site
  4. A short guide to running a 30-minute calibration huddle without us

What a programme looks like

  1. Train assessors through workshops 1 to 4. Run by us or by your own certified trainers under the licence.
  2. Set a cadence. A number of assessments per site per month.
  3. Report the score and the exposures upward. To design, planning and resourcing. Not to blame.
  4. Recalibrate quarterly.