Technician Program
No one knows Equitrans’ assets and procedures better than our employees that work in the field every day. To leverage their knowledge, we recently developed a voluntary program called the Field Safety Technician Group or FST Group. The FST Group is composed of field employees, known as Field Safety Technicians (FSTs), who act as liaisons between field employees and management to coordinate equipment upgrades, enhance safety, and bolster our safety culture. With the FST Group, our aim is to create a work environment where employees feel comfortable making safety suggestions, and requesting equipment upgrades and additional trainings. Our FSTs interview field employees on a quarterly basis, asking what can be done to improve safety at their sites and what trainings the employees feel would be beneficial. We also hold quarterly FST Group meetings where all FSTs come prepared to report on the information Sthey have gathered throughout the quarter. Our teams develop action items based upon the FST interviews with the goal to complete the items prior to the next quarterly meeting. When possible, we scale these items across the company.
One great example of this process occurred at our MOJO Compressor Station. During a quarterly FST interview, an employee suggested to an FST that lighting should be added to the site. The site at that time had no active lighting and the employee had to occasionally use his vehicle’s head lights to illuminate the area. At the following quarterly FST meeting, the FST Group agreed to purchase solar-powered lights for the compressor station, which were subsequently installed.