Today, amidst a "labor shortage," we are witnessing a real battle between enterprises for qualified employees, including both frontline personnel and office or engineering specialists. HR departments are employing ever-new tricks and tools to find and attract new workers, while managers seek opportunities and solutions to retain existing, valuable, and indispensable "homegrown" talent. Companies exchange experiences regarding their own loyalty and motivation ideas for staff, as well as examples of using outsourcing and outstaffing.
And what is the role of the HSE department in this?
As colleagues on the HSE DAYS platform have previously noted, specialists and managers in the HSE and fire safety departments are lawyers, psychologists, rescuers, trainers, teachers, sales managers, buyers, clerks, designers — the list goes on indefinitely. But for employees who have "had enough," we are also loyal friends, protectors, fathers, and mothers to whom they can tell everything and even more; sometimes, a direct supervisor may not have full information about their subordinate.
The organization of technological processes and workplaces, social issues, potential conflicts of interest, requests on any topic — this is just a small fraction of the subjects an active HSE department hears. And here, a number of questions arise:
Everyone will answer these questions in their own way, based on their professional life experience, charisma, habits, and personal positioning. And, certainly, these topics will not be raised by an employee if they do not see authority in the HSE representative — a person who not only speaks but acts, a person through whom it is sometimes easier and faster to reach the right ears or hear advice, especially if it relates to their well-being, health, and improved working conditions.
Does all this affect safety? Yes, of course! After all, it correlates with employee motivation, energy, mood, desire, efficiency, and performance. Can this influence industrial injuries and the occurrence of incidents? Should an HSE specialist be interested in this? Yes, of course!
We must be able to find an approach to every employee in the company to promote our ideas, goals, and objectives in the field of HSE. Someone will tell a funny story, someone will ask if a new product or equipment has been launched, whether it is convenient to use a new safety guard design or a specific tool, and someone will ask how the onboarding of newcomers is going. The closer we are to people, the more they open up to us, but it is important to understand the ultimate boundary and not cross it with any given professional in the company; this must be felt, though mistakes are also possible.
How can all planned KPIs work most effectively, HSE training be completed on time, and the Vision Zero concept be implemented if, for example, there is endless turnover in a department, training for work processes happens "on the fly and from the get-go," foremen don't have time for site walkthroughs because they are filling gaps in the shifts, and social issues regarding staff well-being are not resolved in time or there is insufficient information about planned solutions.
Yes, we are not superheroes! But we are the ones who are heard and listened to; we are those who record everything and act rather than wait; those who explain in detail why it matters. We are, if you will, the connecting link between everyone, and sometimes the threads of interaction are so thin that it is in our power to strengthen them by explaining again and again through all communication channels and at all levels why all this is important, showing interest, and making our own suggestions.
Are we needed to form a general concept and develop ideas for the company's internal social network with the ability to share news, submit applications and ideas, and take training courses? Yes, we are!
Is our opinion needed on the results of employee engagement within social surveys on various topics? Yes, of course!
Does the current safety culture at the enterprise affect an employee's opinion of the company? 100%! Does they compare it with other workplaces? Always! Is the observed and felt positive level of and attitude toward safety an integral cog in the complex mechanism of their impression? Yes, absolutely! Is it the defining and sole factor? No, but it is one of the fundamental ones!
By providing high-quality PPE, replacing it in a timely manner with more comfortable and lightweight options, asking staff if everything is okay with safety in their area and if they have everything they need, and eliminating non-conformities; by considering their interests in risk assessments, during relocations, and when modernizing machine safety systems; by making proposals to revise the functions of staff in various positions if the system no longer works and directly affects safety — we win the staff over. Without this, there will be no serious results in transitioning to the next levels of safety culture or qualitative leaps in various KPIs!
Does this function of ours relate to employee retention in the company? Does it influence employees' decisions to continue their employment? Yes!
We cannot be everywhere at once, but we cannot be nowhere either. And every day, coming to work, we find that very balance, setting priorities to continue being needed in different roles, because we will endure! Because we know why we do it, because it is part of our job, and we cannot help but love it, for we are fierce fans of what we do!