Building A Culture of Safety
New Zealand has some stringent regulations surrounding health and safety in oil and gas organisations. While these go a long way to set up comprehensive procedures and risk assessment systems, legislation alone isn’t enough to protect workers. The concept of safety must become more than a buzzword.
Neither is safety the responsibility of one or two key people within your organisation. The industry acknowledges that there is a symbiotic relationship between an organisation’s safety management system and its safety culture.
It recognises that there are three dimensions to delivering effective safety performance:
● Human
● Organisation
● Technology
According to OGV Energy, safety culture is defined as:
“The attitudes, values and beliefs about safety shared by a group of people.”
Rather than falling on the shoulders of your health and safety officer, the responsibility for safety should permeate all departments and levels of an organisation.
The Key Indicators Of A Positive Safety Culture
Besides the obvious benefit of protecting your workers, a positive safety culture increases productivity and boosts staff retention and loyalty – directly impacting business performance.
Here are some key indicators of a positive safety culture:
● The leadership of the organisation provide a strong influence and direction for the safety culture.
● Employees are actively engaged and involved in the process.
● The organisation recognises that continuous improvement is a necessity. Regular safety reviews and evaluations are standard procedure.
● There is a culture of accountability. Staff look out for each other and hold one another accountable for safety.
● Safety is a focus for all departments in the company.
The Concept Of Safety Culture
This concept of safety culture is not a new one. In 2014, global oil and gas company Total set out to overhaul their safety culture and achieve zero fatalities – and they succeeded impressively.
This was achieved by focusing on technical reliability, management methods, and cultural factors.
They implemented various initiatives, such as focusing on learning and development, incident analysis, personal liability, rewards-based incentives, and involvement of stakeholders at all levels.
Here’s what then senior vice president of health, safety and environment (HSE) Bernadette Spinoy – had to say regarding safety culture.
“People must believe that business performance and safety performance are inseparable. These objectives are based on the same managing principles and can be translated as excellence in operations. Everyone has a role to play, and everyone can help prevent accidents.
It takes a collective body of knowledge as well as individual efforts to resolve issues.
We believe that success requires a certain set of behaviours—vigilance, attention to detail, and rigour. It is about having a collective mindset at all levels and at all times: What is your behaviour when no one is watching?”
Getting Started – Involve The Right Stakeholders
We’ve talked before about the importance of stakeholder engagement for an effective safety culture – and this is no less vital in the oil and gas industry.
Every department should be consulted and actively engaged in safety. Here are some examples of how different departments can contribute:
Operations and Project Management
These teams can drive digital transformation to instill higher levels of safety and efficiency.
They can utilise data collected from connected safety devices to detect gas leaks early, minimising the risks to workers and resolving issues before they result in downtime.
Safety and Industrial Hygiene
The teams focused on safety are tasked with managing workplace hazards and ensuring regulatory compliance. They need to communicate effectively with management and leaders while providing staff with the tools and information to help them work safely.
Using real-time data from connected lone worker safety devices, these teams can develop procedures that heighten safety within your organisation.
They will be responsible for supplying the safety hardware and training, but also the insights to guide policy.
Emergency Management
These teams must be prepared to respond rapidly to incidents. To do this, they need real-time data and the right equipment – such as gas detection devices - to make on the spot decisions.
Personal safety devices that track and locate staff, detect falls or lack of motion, and enable one-button emergency calls are also highly effective, allowing response teams to reach at-risk workers quickly.
Procurement and Instrumentation
These teams will be tasked with acquiring the proper safety equipment and developing procedures for its usage.
They will be looking at budgets and the cost-effectiveness of specialised devices while looking for a connected safety solution that suits their needs, such as devices that offer more than one feature.
I.T
The focus for IT teams will be implementing a digital solution that doesn’t require costly or time-consuming infrastructure changes.
Connectivity without disruption is vital when staying in touch with workers, so this is where the decision comes into play about WiFi vs Satellite vs Cellular signal devices.
Cloud connectivity is a valuable feature for many lone worker safety devices, allowing real-time information to be stored and accessed quickly and effortlessly.
The Importance Of Technology For Safety In The Oil And Gas Industry
The final piece of the puzzle for integrating safety in your oil and gas organisation is utilising technology correctly.
Employees equipped with worker safety devices provide invaluable data to continuously maintain and improve safety standards within organisations.
Managers and professional monitoring personnel know where each employee is at any given time and show their proximity to dangerous areas.
As incidents occur, this data can be used to make rapid decisions that could potentially save lives.
An article from OGV Energy states that:
“Safety management systems are fundamental to the growth of businesses in the oil and gas industry as they provide a vital structure that underpins the delivery of safety performance.
In our recent special report, The State of Safety, we predict growing investment in digitalisation to more effectively and efficiently improve focus on safety monitoring, processes and responses.”
Integrating Safety Into Your Oil And Gas Organisation
We know that safety is a big priority for you, and we want to help you build a safety culture at your workshop. So, partnering with a safety solution vendor that can advise you on the process is an effective way to do it – from policy and procedures to lone worker safety device implementation, monitoring, and data analysis.
Direct Safety are experts at what we do. We can assist you in integrating safety in your organisation and support you as you grow your safety culture.
Contact us today to find out more.