Rosatom Technical Academy

Administration and conduct of

briefings at NPP

© Rosatom Tech
 Training Objectives

Terminal Training Objective:

To explain administration and conduct of briefings at NPP.

Enabling Training Objectives:

1. List the objectives of briefings conducted for NPP personnel.
2. Expound on the types of briefings.
3. List the competences required to conduct briefings.

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 Objectives of Briefings

BRIEFING IS A FORM OF:

 maintaining the employees’ qualification;

 NPP personnel management to impart to the staff the
content of basic requirements for safe performance,
operation of equipment, observation of occupational safety
regulations, nuclear, engineering and fire safety regulations in
the course of personnel performance.

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 Purpose of Briefings

The content of briefing is determined by the features of the work to

be performed by the employees. Briefings are widely used in various
areas of human activities and at all the phases of production process

to:

 prevent human performance errors;

 reinforce the skills and habits;
 prevent malfunction of equipment, damage of materials and to
observe occupational safety regulations.

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 Goals of Briefings

The main goals of briefings are as follows:

 improve the knowledge of regulations and

procedures in the working environment;
 check personnel orientation at the workplace;
 informing and training the staff on safe and
acident-free working techniques;
 investigation of emergency status of
equipment, fires, violations of occupational
and fire safety regulations and production
and labor discipline.

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 Types of Briefings

BRIEFING

Introductory (basic)

At the workplace

Initial Unscheduled

Refresher Targeted

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 Introductory Briefing
Introductory briefings shall be attended by all individuals accepted for
employment at the plant and secondees of external organizations performing the job
in the assigned area, students of educational institutions of specified levels coming
over for training at the workplace and other individuals involved in plant production
activities.

It consists of two major parts: occupational safety

briefing and fire safety briefing.

Records on the conduct of introductory briefing are

made in the orientation briefing logbook, signed by the
attendees and the expert conducting the briefing, with
the date of the briefing.

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 Initial Briefing at the Workplace

Initial briefing at the workplace

is conducted for:

 all individuals accepted for employment;

 employees reassigned from one NPP division to another;
 secondees;
 temporary workers;
 students coming to NPP for training at the workplace;
 employees performing a novel job;
 other individuals performing the job at NPP site.

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 Refresher Briefing

Refresher briefing is to be undergone by all plant

employees regardless their qualification, background and
the nature of their job. Refresher briefings are conducted
individually or for a group of employees attending the
single-type equipment within the common workplace.

The plant operating personnel and personnel dealing

with maintenance and commissioning activities refresher
training should be conducted every quarter. The
remaining personnel shall attend briefings on
Occupational Safety, Main Regulations for Nuclear Power
Plant Operation, Radiation Safety Regulations, Nuclear
Safety Codes and Standards are conducted every six
months and fire safety briefing – each quarter.

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 Unscheduled Briefing
UNSHEDULED BRIEFING IS
CONDUCTED:
when new or revised codes
and standards, procedures,
including occupational safety,
fire safety, radiation safety,
nuclear safety, industrial
safety regulations are made
effective, including the
changes thereto
© Rosatom Tech
in case of process
modifications, replacement
or modernization of
equipment, appliances and
tools, the original raw
material, materials and other
factors affecting occupational
and operational safety and
fire-protection status of the
facility
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 Unscheduled Briefing 1/2
UNSHEDULED BRIEFING IS CONDUCTED:

in case of violation of safety codes and standards and procedures

1 which could have resulted or resulted in failure of the plant or
equipment operation, injuries, overexposure, explosion, fire or
poisoning etc.

2 interruptions in work:
 NPP operating personnel - for more
than 14 calendar days
 NPP personnel to whom
complementary (more stringent) safety
requirement are imposed - for more
than 30 calendar days
 the remaining NPP personnel - for more
than 60 calendar days

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 Unscheduled Briefing 2/2
UNSHEDULED BRIEFING IS CONDUCTED :

3 on the request of the operating organization and national regulatory

authorities

in response to directive and information documents issued by the

4 plant management (orders, directives, minutes of the meetings
chaired by NPP Director or a Chief Engineer)

5 establishing the fact of unsatisfactory knowledge of fire safety

requirements by the plant employees

unsatisfactory results of employee’s performance during emergency

6 exercises (appointed by the exercise supervisor and is conducted by
the immediate employee’s supervisor prior to the repeated exercise)

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 Targeted Briefing 1/2

TARGETED BRIEFING IS CONDUCTED PRIOR TO:

radiation-hazardous, nuclear-hazardous, gas dangerous,

welding and other fire-hazardous works

activities related to elimination of consequences of

accidents, disasters and catastrophes

works that do not require order or an order-permit

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 Targeted Briefing 2/2

TARGETED BRIEFING IS CONDUCTED PRIOR TO:

works related to complex manipulations, if the programmes

specify the need for the briefing conducted to the plant
personnel

single works that are not related to direct duties of the

personnel (such as handling, tidying-up, single works outside
the facility, a shop, etc.)

plant tours

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 Briefing Procedure

INTRODUCTORY BRIEFING IS
CONDUCTED BY:

 Occupational safety department

expert - on occupational safety
 Fire safety department expert -
on fire safety.

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 Briefing Procedure 1/2

Initial, refresher and unscheduled briefings are

conducted by:

 NPP Director – to the plant management directly reporting to the

NPP Director
 Chief Engineer - to the plant management directly reporting to the
Chief Engineer
 Chief Accountant – to the heads of accounting department
 Deputies to Director, Chief Inspector, Deputy Chief Engineers - to
the heads of subdivisions directly reporting to them. Deputy Chief
Engineer for Operations, besides – to NPP Shift Supervisors, Unit
Shift Supervisors;

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 Briefing Procedure 2/2

Initial, refresher and unscheduled briefings are

conducted by: :

 Heads of divisions – to shift supervisors of the relevant divisions,

secondees, temporary workers, employees of subcontracting
organizations, students coming over to the plant for production or
training at the workplace;
 Shift supervisors of the divisions – to the subordinate shift
personnel;
 Other personnel categories – the immediate supervisor.

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 Briefing Procedure

Targeted briefings are conducted by:

 Prior to work – immediate work supervisor, trained and tested for

the knowledge required for the assigned work in accordance with
the established procedure;
 Prior to employee’s secondment – head of division;
 Prior to plant tour – employee of Public Relations Department
responsible for the tour;
 Prior to sports events (hiking, sports competitions etc.) at NPP –
plant employee responsible for such an event.

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 Documenting Procedure for Briefings

INTRODUCTORY BRIEFING IS REGISTERED:

In registration logbook for introductory

Occupational
briefings and in the checklist of NPP staffing
safety office when people are employed

In registration logbook for orientation fire

Fire safety
safety briefings.

Initial, refresher, unscheduled briefings are registered in the logbook for

briefings at the workplace

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 Documenting Procedure for Briefings

 Employees performing the works under the work permit (order) – in

the corresponding lines, tables of the work permit (order), registration
logbooks for the works under work permits/orders, daily (shift)
assignments logbooks;
 Prior to supervision activities of erection works on process systems
and equipment — on blank sheet of a targeted briefing;
 Prior to plant tour — in the logbook of targeted briefing;
 Prior to sports and other events at the plant —in the logbook of
targeted briefing;
 In other cases — in briefing at the workplace registration logbook.

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 Briefing Methods

Verbal Visual Hands-on

Oral presentation Demonstration of visual Performance of

(description, explanation) aids operations, integrated
works
Demonstration of job
Interview, discussion Simulators
techniques

Independent work of Independent observation Involvement in process

trainees with technical of trainees control
documentation and
references

Written instruction

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 Effectiveness of Information Memorization during
Instruction or Briefing

LEVELS OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS LEVELS OF TRAINEES’ INVOLVEMENT

MEMORIZED BY THE INSTRUCTED

10 % OF WHAT THEY READ READ

ORAL
20 % OF WHAT THEY HEAR HEAR
SEE IN A POSTER,
30 % OF WHAT THEY SEE IN THE PICTURE OR

PASSIVE
SCHIME

WATCH EDUCATIONAL MOVIE

50 % OF WHAT THEY
SEE AND HEAR SEE AT THE MOCKUP VISUAL
AT THE SAME TIME
OBSEVE DEMONSTRATION

SEE SOMEBODY’S WORK

70 % OF WHAT THEY
TELL THEMSELVES PARTICIPATE IN DISCUSSION
INVOLVEMENT

ACTIVE
RETELL THE MATERIAL STUDIED

90 % DO AND DO AND TELL

TELL PERFORMANCE
THEMSELVES DO HANDS-ON EXERCISES

DO AT THE WORKPLACE

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 Competencies Required for Briefing
Effective and high-quality briefing is mostly attained at the
account of the following competences:

1) responsible attitude to the conduct of briefing;

2) personnel management skills, including:

a) Safety culture development

skills;
b) Communication skills;
c) Motivation skills.

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 Responsible Attitude

Responsible attitude to instruction is based on recognition

of importance of the briefing process:

1) as method of influence on the personnel to build-up mental set of

correct and safe performance of the upcoming job;
2) as means of:
a) shaping the personnel behavior totally
consistent with the safety culture
requirements;
b) diagnostics of the current functional state of
the employees to identify the symptoms of
tiredness, illness, despondency, excitement

3) as method of training on common technical skills.

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 Responsible Attitude

at behavioral level, responsible attitude to instruction is

appeared through:

1) personnel loyalty to the instruction process;

2) preparedness for instruction;
3) use of instruction to attain the production goals;
4) striving for the use of instructions to enhance personal
effectiveness;
5) striving for improving oneself in instruction technology.

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 Skills for Instillation of Safety Culture

Safety culture requires clear determination of duties and

responsibilities of each plant employee and their accurate
and sensible performance based on extensive knowledge,
common sense and personal responsibility .

Building of safety culture implies education of each

individual related to nuclear industry to such an extent
that in the course of his activities, he would be just
unable to make any, even small, step to the detriment
of safety. In the current system of personnel
management, briefings (instructions) are the main
method to foster the plant personnel safety culture.

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 Personnel Management Skills

Briefings, being one of the basic forms of personnel

management, implement the following functions:

 Information;
 Familiarization;
 Training;
 Education;
 Correction;
 Prevention;
 Motivation;
 Diagnostics.

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 Personnel Management Skills

For all NPP managers and employees that use briefings in execution
of their duties, the main psychological skills of personnel
management are as follows:

 Safety culture fostering skills

 Communication skills
 Motivation skills.

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 Skills of Professional Communication

Communication is a prerequisite and mandatory component of

any vocational activity and is considered as the process of
establishing and building-up the contacts between people,
exchange of information, perception of each other by
interlocutors and their interaction.

In the process of professional communication

interrelation of all the components of vocational
activities is provided for, the sequence of their
interaction is defined, the set tasks and goals
implemented.

Adequately administered professional communication is a catalyst of vocational

activities and vice versa, lack of professional skills, lack of communicative culture cast
doubt on successful performance of managers and experts dealing with personnel
management.

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 Motivation Skills

Motivation implies inspiration

Motivating the employees is an art of
exerting vigorous influence on the
efficiency of their labor.

Professional behavior of a worker is

conditioned by the following five kinds of
motives:

1) profit motive
2) safety motive
3) convenience motive
4) satisfaction motive
5) leveling motive.

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 Mistakes Made during the Briefings 1/2
Briefing mistakes:

1) lack of system in presentation and lengthy briefing procedure. Inadequate

logical frame in presentation sequence reduces the attendees’ chance to
acquire the necessary scope of material;
2) indistinguishability of the main and additional components in the composite
structure of the briefing;
3) irrelevance of the part of information to specific field;
4) impossibility to reinforce the information presented by the instructor through
skills;
5) inadequate consideration of psychological prerequisites for memorization.
Such prerequisites include:

a) ensuring attitudinal-positive attitude to the information

perceived
b) information should be presented in specific visual format
c) application of several sources for material presentation
(audial, visual-pictorial, tactile-dynamic etc.)
d) providing for systematic presentation of information

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 Mistakes Made during the Briefings 2/2
Briefing mistakes :
6) single-modality of the information source and its perception (generally, by ear);
7) passive perception of information (an employee listens, but does not hear, looks,
but does not see – which is treated as passivity of volitional attention);
8) the scope of presented information for memorization exceeds the capability of
human short-term memory;
9) irrational organization of briefing procedure (monotony of forma, proximity of
images and examples, over formalization);
10) psychological unpreparedness of attendees (incorrect psychological attitudes:
“register oneself”, to “tick off” );
11) emotional poverty of presented information;
12) distortion or psychologically unfounded behavior of the supervisor or an expert
conducting the briefing (familiarity, forced officiality);
13) lack of “personal approach”. In other words, presentation of information generally
does not take into account the age, gender, qualification, personal features or labor
motives.

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 Methods to Prevent Mistakes in Briefing 1/2

Typical mistakes What should be done

1. Without a clear idea of what to do, the instructor 1. First of all, make the content of a task or
tries to assign a task to the attendee assignment clear for yourself

2. The instructor does not pay attention to timing of 2. When stating the task or defining an assignment,
the task performance and forgets about it establish the timing

3. Use of incoherent, flowery language during 3. While briefing the personnel, use a clear, easy to
instruction which causes difficulties in performance understand language

4. The instructor does not focus the attendee’s
attention on particularly important parts of the task
or assignment, which does not build-up the required
orientation
5. Lack of check-up for mastering the information by
the attendees in case of doubts regarding its
adequate perception and/or understanding
4. Focus the attendee’s attention on particularly
important parts of the task or assignment
5. The less you are sure of adequate perception of
what you said to your subordinates, the more the
need for verification of mastering the material
presented during the briefing

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 Methods to Prevent Mistakes in Briefing 2/2

Typical mistakes What should be done

6. The instructor gets irritated thinking that the
subordinate was inattentive when he explained the
assignment and does not “learn the lesson” for
himself when employees repeatedly ask him
questions after initial briefing
6. If an employee applies to you for clarifications in
the course of performance, be patient (or make
yourself be patient). Try to identify the causes of
repeated application of the worker for explanations.

7. The instructor thinks that subordinates must listen 7. You should have an idea of specific features of
to his briefing, but he does not know that each of perceiving instructive information by your
them listens in his own way. subordinates

8. The instructor repeatedly reminds the absent- 8. It would be useful to teach absent-minded
minded employee of the assignment, instead of subordinates, and write down the brief content of his
teaching him to be responsible assignment
9. The instructor fully relied on the employee who is 9. Whenever you start doubting about timely
apt to violate the established dates performance of the assignment by the subordinate, it
would be better to tell him about it

10. “Grim response” to misunderstanding during the 10. Humor is a good means to remove
briefing results yet to more misunderstanding in misunderstanding during the briefing
performance

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 Review of Training Objectives

Terminal Training Objective:

To explain administration and conduct of briefings at NPP

Enabling Training Objectives:

1. List the objectives of briefings conducted for NPP personnel.
2. Expound on the types of briefings.
3. List the competences required to conduct briefings.

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 Test Questions 1/2
1. List the objectives of briefings conducted for the plant personnel.

2. Tell about the types of briefings:

a) introductory;
b) initial;
c) refresher;
d) unscheduled;
e) targeted;

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 Test Questions 2/2
3. Describe the technique and procedure of :
a) initial, refresher and unscheduled briefings;
b) targeted briefing;

4. List the competencies required for conducting the briefings.

5. Explain the components of responsible attitude to conducting the briefings.
6. Tell about the fostering the safety culture skills.
7. Tell about the professional communication skills.
8. Tell about the personnel motivation skills.
9. Tell about the quality of briefings.

© Rosatom Tech 37