An honest look at the journey of an HSE specialist.
Perhaps every HSE specialist has faced this thought: "Why do employees meet all the rules with such hostility?"
I have always observed three types of reactions, and each requires a different approach.
This is the most difficult audience. You can't convince them with quotes from the Labor Code. Their authority is personal experience. And if they've "gotten away with it" for 20 years, it means the rules are nonsense.
My tactic: I stopped trying to persuade them. Now, I show them. I find accidents in the archives and show the causes. I always ask the question: "Look, this worker also had 20 years of experience. Do you think he also thought he'd get away with it right before this happened?" Silence is the best answer. I am learning to speak to them in the language of facts.
Their world is a chair and a monitor. Their main risk is a paper cut. Conducting HSE briefings for them is always quite a challenge.
My tactic: I changed my approach. During office briefings, I talk about what really bothers them: "Want to save your eyesight by the time you're 40? Let's adjust your monitor." "Back tired? It's not because of your age, but how you sit. Here are 3 rules." I turn HSE from an abstract concept into a personal assistant for preserving their own health.
There aren't many such employees, but their numbers are growing. These are the ones who aren't afraid to say: "I won't start work until safety is ensured." They are my main channel of communication with reality. I support them in every possible way, praise them in front of management, and set them as examples. Their initiative is worth a lot.
My main conclusion as an HSE specialist:
The problem is not the employees. The problem is that we, HSE specialists, often live in a world of instructions, while they live in a world of real tasks and KPIs. My job today is not control, but the integration of HSE into production operations.
We need to:
Speak their language. Be one of them in the field. I regularly go to the production floor not with an inspection, but with a question: "Guys, what is preventing you from working safely?"
HSE stops being a "punishing sword" when it becomes part of the work culture. And my task is not to make people fear the rules, but to help everyone understand: these rules were not written by me. They are written in blood. And my mission is to ensure that not a single new line appears in this sad chronicle.