TURNAROUND SAFETY PERFORMANCE WITH A GLOBAL CHEMICAL COMPANY
COMPANY
The client is a global polymer producing chemical company. This evidence based sheet focusses on a site located in the Mid South of America, situated in a business park with several other companies. At the company, there are over 700 working employees, including contractors. The senior management team consists of 10 members.
Start position
At time of the initial contact (end of 2011), a fatal accident had occured at the site and the recordable injury rate was at an unacceptable level compared with the peer sites of the company.
The management team had not clearly defined and shared their vision and goals regarding HSE development. Therefore the team was not yet fully committed to the message: Safety First and was not able to show consistent example of leadership and internalization of this message. The interviews InTense held, revealed a culture of distrust, silo thinking, communication issues and the perception that management pushes on result rather than on safety performance. Current safety initiatives were seen as ‘must do’ instead of ‘important’ and leadership at the supervisory level felt no support, mandate and lack of trust from management. The current culture was defined as a ‘fear’ culture where employees did not feel the courage to speak up. On the other hand employees were extremely proud of their work, but did not have the feeling that this was recognized by management.
Desire for change
Roll out a total program that integrates behavior, hardware and systems with focus on people and safety culture development. Develop a culture of improved risk awareness, hazard recognition, constructive feedback, accountability and trust amongst employees. Integrate own initiatives with a program that focusses on Safety Culture Development in such a way that within a year a Support Team of its own people can further drive the culture change.
Approach
In 2012 and 2013, an integrated safety culture and behavioral program had been rolled out, starting with creating a common goal and commitment on safety culture with the management team. A hybrid of InTense Safety Culture Development programs towards management, supervisors and shop floor employees were carried out. Together with the installed Support Team, various initiatives were rolled out, and best practices and results were openly shared. Performance and behavioral changes were measured along the way.
These programs are; Safety leadership program towards management and the ALERT! program (now Time Out), towards the supervisor and shop floor level.
Result
Today, three years after the program, the senior management member said:
In the first three months after the program we had two major Turn Arounds. The results were outstanding: for the first time ever the TA were on time, injury free, and executed with commitment, accountability and passion. The total investment in the program was recouped twice in this period. At the moment the site has worked 1.347 days without a Lost Time Accident and has a Recordable Rate of 0.18, which is World Class in our business, with 304 days injury free. Even more important: the total attitude and culture on site has changed. Everybody is now truly ‘His Brothers Keeper’!
