Abstract
People's behavior accounts for over 95% of all recorded incidents; because poor employee moral, lack of belief and distrust in management's commitment has become an over-riding influence and obstacle towards improvement.
But all is not lost! We have shown that by targeting the human element a real improvement can be achieved in the corporate HSE (Health, Safety, and Environment) culture.
The authors’ methodology is to first evaluate the existing HSE culture using an HSE Climate Survey designed specifically for the company; then analyze and identify the gaps and areas of improvement, and in conclusion proposed and is implementing an action plan to attain the desired HSE Culture.
The research questions:
What is the existing HSE Culture in The Company?
What is the personal behavior of The Company's employees towards Health, Safety, and the Environment?
What areas require focus to close the gap and improve The Company's HSE Culture?
To improve the HSE Culture The Company has focused its efforts in the following areas; moral building and developing teamwork, entrenching employee responsibility and supervisor accountability, empowering employees to ‘stop work’, and continually making the benefits of an incident free workplace clearly understood.
The results revealed that management must be accessible and willing to listen to the employees’ needs and wants. Secondly, management decisions must be transparent; they must address all moral issues and demonstrate visible and passionate safety leadership on a day-to-day basis. Thirdly, providing the necessary resources and processes to the employees is crucial for them to move towards a sustainable and healthy work environment.
By using these above "People" tools the company has measured an overall reduction in high potential incidents with an increase in identified substandard practices and conditions. The company and its contractors’ HSE culture have improved due to management's vision and commitment to address the underlying human elements and to move from ‘understanding HSE, to believing in HSE’.
