HSE culture is the qualification and psychological readiness of all Company employees, where ensuring occupational safety is a priority and an internal need, leading to an awareness of personal responsibility and self-control when performing all types of work that affect occupational safety. Culture is the result (product) of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and behavioral patterns that determine the commitment, style, and professionalism of an organization in health and safety management. Safety culture is built on company values and is proactive in preventing injuries and accidents.
Subject of research: occupational safety sphere (culture)
Object of research: the qualification and psychological readiness of employees to ensure occupational safety during their work activities
Scientific hypothesis: a properly structured Company Policy, followed by the management of employee behavior change, enables the formation of a production culture where the natural human tendency to make mistakes and errors leading to injuries or accidents is effectively compensated by the resilience of collective responsibility for ensuring occupational safety.
Goal: creating a proactive level of HSE culture among company employees, where every worker prioritizes their own safety and the safety of their colleagues above production tasks.
Objectives: creating conditions under which safety is a priority goal and an internal need for every employee, and reducing occupational injuries.
Production culture defines the safety of operational activities as the highest priority through:
The HSE culture system is based on four principles:
The main elements influencing HSE culture include:
System indicators are calculated coefficients used to determine the maturity level of the System within the Company and to compare it with the HSE culture development levels in other Russian and foreign oil and gas companies.
System indicators are divided into primary and secondary.
Primary and secondary indicators are used for comparison with the indicators of other Russian and foreign oil and gas
companies.
System metrics consist of questions categorized by the types of developed surveys and evaluated to determine the development level of the System within the Company, as well as to establish areas for System improvement.
Every Company employee must complete the developed surveys of the corresponding type.
The System establishes the following classification of levels:
The characteristics of the System levels are shown in Table 1.
|
HSE Culture Level Name |
HSE Culture Level Characteristics |
|
Level 1. Initial |
Slogan: I don't care until I get caught. Occupational safety in the organization is defined as a set of technical and organizational measures, rules, and regulations. Health and occupational safety are not defined as the highest priority. Many accidents, emergencies, incidents, and occupational injuries are considered inevitable and inherent to the work. The organization's management is not interested in ensuring employee safety. |
|
Level 2. Reactive |
Slogan: HSE culture is important; we take action in response to accidents that have occurred. The injury rate in the company is average for the industrial sector. Accidents, emergencies, and incidents are preventable, but most of them occur due to the unsafe behavior of employees and management. System indicators are lagging. Management takes a reactive stance on HSE culture issues, and the motivation system is based on punishments. Management is focused on eliminating the consequences of accidents, emergencies, and incidents rather than preventing them. |
|
Level 3. Predictable |
Slogan: The Company has a safety management and control system in place. The rate of accidents and incidents is low and has reached a "plateau". Management believes that involving employees in occupational safety issues is important for long-term improvements, but not for current operations. Management reviews the complex causes of accidents, emergencies, and incidents at work, identifying the primary cause as imperfect personnel management. Most managers strive to work towards improving the health and enhancing the safety of personnel. The majority of the staff is committed to the principle of responsibility for their own safety. The safety of work execution is subject to periodic monitoring. The organization has an occupational safety management and control system. |
|
Level 4. |
Slogan: We work on problems that we continuously identify. Management accepts the principle of bearing personal responsibility for their own safety and the safety of employees. The Company allows for the possibility of suspending technological and regardless of the costs; the need for unscheduled HSE retraining and certification of employees involved in these technological and production processes is established. The organization works on applying preventive measures to avoid emergencies, accidents, and incidents. Safe work execution is subject to frequent monitoring, the results of which are transparent. Off-the-job incidents are monitored; great importance is attached to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. |
|
Level 5. |
Slogan: Safety is not just a way of working, but a way of life. The organization has sustained a period of several years without recorded emergencies, accidents, or a high level of potential incident risk. The high degree of attention to occupational safety issues does not diminish. The organization is constantly looking for ways to improve mechanisms for monitoring the state of occupational safety and assessing the impact of harmful and hazardous production factors and occupational risks. All employees share the belief that health and safety are a fundamental aspect of their work and follow the principles of preventing off-the-job injuries. The organization carries out significant work in ensuring the safety and health of personnel outside of work. |
In order to determine the development level of HSE culture in quantitative terms, a "blind survey" method of employees was applied using developed questions. For each question, the employee responding to the survey indicators assigns a value from 0 to 1 inclusive, in increments of 0.1. The more shortcomings identified, the closer the value of the evaluated indicator should approach one (100%).
Based on the results of the employee survey, an average score was determined for the survey across all survey areas as a whole. Pie charts were constructed showing the distribution of HSE culture component ratings by employees in the "Engineering and Technical Personnel" and "Blue-collar Workers" categories.
This methodology examined the theory and practice of applying a quantitative assessment methodology for the level of HSE culture, as well as the degree of impact on this assessment from a series of measures developed to increase this level. As a result of this work, the set objectives were achieved:
The methodology has proven its viability and effectiveness.
A properly structured Company policy, followed by the management of the employee behavior change process, made it possible — using one of the branches as an example — to ensure the formation of a production culture where the natural human tendency to make mistakes and errors leading to injuries and accidents is effectively compensated by the resilience of collective responsibility for ensuring safety and a high degree of management responsibility for creating conditions that eliminate conflicting production tasks and goals.