Human factors, such as lapses in concentration, mistakes and violations, are frequently cited as the root cause of incidents in the offshore oil & gas industry. Changing these behaviours has therefore been identified as key to reducing recordable incidents and improving overall safety performance. Stork Technical Services' Mike Mann explains why.
The success of changing behaviours has varied greatly, from dramatic reductions in incident rates to no change and/or worker disillusionment. The majority of organisations are also concentrating solely on the behaviour of their offshore operatives, which essentially tells the wider business that safety performance can only be influenced by the individuals and teams at the 'sharp end' of operations.
This has led to Stork Technical Services placing a more significant focus on changing leadership behaviours, which will in turn influence the safety beliefs of the offshore workforce and positively impact on onsite behaviours. The company's Reach safety initiative has provided a platform to communicate and demonstrate positive leadership behaviours which has had a significant impact on the company's safety performance.
The Reach initiative is credited with helping Stork to deliver significant improvements in its safety performance.The first step to influencing and eventually changing the beliefs of those at the sharp end is through demonstrating clear leadership behaviours and commitment to safety by action. This has to be about more than just investing sums of money in safety initiatives and programmes; it has to be a visible leadership commitment. If safety initiatives are poorly formed, communicated and coordinated, this may be seen as a lack of leadership commitment to ensuring safety is the priority at all times. Safety initiatives must have ongoing leadership involvement and be sustainable, engaging and varied to ensure that consistent safety messages are delivered and followed. From the outset, operatives must understand the safety expectations, minimum standards and consequences of not adhering to them, which ultimately may result in dismissal – a just culture must be applied.
The transient workforce of a contractor poses a particular issue for leadership when trying to achieve, maintain or improve upon a high safety standard. While operators have fixed assets and staff, a contractor's offshore workforce can change significantly on a regular basis as it wins new contracts, with hundreds of employees switching companies under the UK's TUPE – Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) – regulations. If an operative has TUPE transferred several times, they may feel little or no loyalty to the new company and its values. It is therefore crucial for leadership to engage this population at the earliest possible juncture and demonstrate a management commitment to putting safety first at all times. If they take this belief into the field from the start of their employment with the new organisation, and it is regularly reinforced, this will have a significant and positive impact of the safety performance for the duration of the contract.
Celebrating excellent safety performance is also crucial for leadership when influencing beliefs. Organisations that commend the achievements of their personnel through award ceremonies and other reward schemes will experience a greater commitment to working safely as their operatives will believe that if they perform well, they will be recognised for their commitment. For example, Stork hosts its Reach Safety Awards formal ceremony and dinner annually, as well as rewarding operatives through its ad hoc Reach Recognition Awards scheme. While this is in no way the only reason an operative will work safely, the belief that management value their commitment to safety will influence the behaviour of the workforce. It should also be clear that awards and rewards are for going the 'extra mile' and beyond simply the requirement of working safely, which is a condition of employment.
Offshore supervisors can have the biggest impact in shaping the beliefs and behaviours of offshore employees. Working with small and large teams of operatives, supervisors are increasingly being positioned as 'leaders', individuals that can have significant positive impact on improving offshore safety performance. For this to be effective, supervisors must be empowered with the necessary tools (such as safety campaigns, posters, interactive lessons learned) and training, as well as the belief that safety is, unequivocally, the number one priority of senior management. This will allow them to become leaders and demonstrate positive safety behaviours that will be carried through into their teams. For example, if an operative believes that leadership and management value production over safety, they may take a shortcut on a workscope which could endanger their wellbeing and the wider asset. Conversely, if an operative believes that management see safety as the priority, they will stop a job safe in the mind that they have full support to do so.
While safety strategy is almost always developed and implemented onshore from the top down, it is crucial for senior management to be engaged on safety issues with offshore supervision. Supervisors are the day-to-day eyes, ears and mouthpiece in the field for senior management and are the main conduit for raising issues and providing feedback of the wider offshore workforce. If this communication channel breaks down it can have an adverse impact on safety performance, productivity and morale as issues that are affecting the teams are not being resolved. To maintain this channel Stork has launched bi-monthly communications forums for supervisors from each of its key contracts, at which the issues affecting the offshore employee community can be raised with the UK operations director. An online safety forum for supervisors was also developed to share best practice, discuss safety issues and help introduce innovations across the company.
Collective ownership
In December 2009, the Stork Technical Services (previously RBG) leadership team put safety firmly at the top of the agenda with the launch of Reach. The fundamental cornerstone of Reach, the company's first global safety initiative, is that of collective ownership. The scheme was born out of a proactive collaboration between senior management and the wider employee community, meaning that employees from all levels of the company have been involved at every level of its evolution - from conception through to delivery and sustainability. This in itself ensures collective engagement and an empowered employee community. The initiative is owned by Stork's employee community and led by the Reach Steering Group (comprising senior management) who, by their actions, encourage the entire wider company to make safety the priority each and every day.
The initiative is driven by collating, interpreting and understanding data which enables the company to measure its performance, safety culture and working practices across each of its projects, regions and key customers. The data provides a mechanism for benchmarking safety performance in a meaningful way on the basis that: if you can't measure performance, you can't improve it. However producing data does not in itself drive improvements. What does make a difference is the way the company analyses the data and information to influence performance, culture and behaviours. The cause of recordable incidents is analysed to determine what is hurting the company's people and take action to try and resolve the situation. This can take the form of producing video message lessons learned from those in the field, topical campaigns and posters, holding mandatory 'Time Out for Safety' sessions and offshore management visits.
By creating a framework for leadership and maintaining this throughout the initiative, Stork delivered a:
This means that between the launch of Reach in 2009 and the end of 2011, the company reduced its UK LTIFR by over 70%, and globally by over 60%.
The Reach initiative has created an employee led safety culture which is driven by clear leadership beliefs and behaviours. Operatives believe safety is the number one priority of leadership and management, which results in positive safety behaviours and an excellent safety performance.
When safety performance offshore reaches unacceptable levels, there has often been a reaction from organisations to point the finger at those at the 'sharp end' and increase expenditure on new safety initiatives. While this may improve the situation in the short-term, it will not lead to a long-term change in people's beliefs about safety and the behaviours they display. That's because the problem is not offshore, that is only the symptom. The root of all poor performance lies with weak management. The process to drive sustainable improvements in safety performance must start by challenging the behaviour, norms and performance of senior management. A step change in leadership will act as a catalyst for changing the beliefs of supervisors and, in turn, employees in the field, leading to positive behaviours and sustainable improvements in safety performance. OE
Mike Mann is Stork Technical Services' senior vice president, global HSSEQ, and has more than 25 years experience in the oil & gas industry. He joined Stork in 2010 through the former RBG business, where he served as HSEQ director for two years. Prior to that he was group corporate responsibility manager at Cairn Energy.
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