Marathon Petroleum: The Journey To Elite

Dennis Mendenhall, safety manager at Marathon Petroleum explains the rigorous safety culture in the Terminals organisation Marathon Petroleum's Terminals organisation has recently achieved two consecutive years of record safety performance, as measured by the US government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable incident rate. How did the organisation do it? It stopped, reset and focused its culture. The Why Like many organisations emerging from the pandemic, Marathon Petroleum’s Terminals safety programmes faced challenges. Because of necessary health precautions, the organisation’s ability to hold in-person activities and build personal connections was limited. While safety performance was satisfactory, it wasn’t up to the organisation’s high safety expectations. It knew change was needed. The first step was to review and evaluate safety programmes and tools. Were they still effective? Did they still have a purpose? Mendenhall explains that the organisation realised its tools were fine, but they had become less effective for identifying, evaluating and mitigating workplace hazards. Modifications that the organisation had made during the...