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The accurate transmission of critical information is vital for the safety and profitability of high-reliability organisations. Shift handover is one of the critical points of information transfers for continuous process operations. A number of high profile disasters (e.g. Piper Alpha) have illustrated the consequences of failing to communicate information, especially between shifts.

The Keil Centre has completed three applied research projects on improving safe communication at shift handover for the UK Health and Safety Executive, and numerous projects for commercial clients to assess and improve the effectiveness of communication in safety-critical operations. The Keil Centre has developed an audit methodology, training courses and a three-stage approach to improving safety critical communication. The first stage involves conducting a communication audit, and the results of this audit are used in the second stage to improve communication by improving systems and training. The third stage involves ongoing monitoring against a specified standard. This improvement methodology can be licensed for use by in-company personnel.