Safety Communication System

"The only stupid question is the one that isn't asked"

Stephen King

A modern HSE specialist faces the daily necessity of solving a vast number of issues and problems at various levels. The absence of a well-established communication system within an enterprise can bring even the most minor problems to a standstill, while truly high-quality ideas from employees may vanish without ever seeing the light of day.

It is worth focusing separately on the different levels of problems or questions being addressed. To determine the level, one simply needs to ask: which processes will be affected by the solution to certain problems or the implementation of employee ideas? In our case, we propose the following three:

1. Structural Unit Level – solving the issue/problem or implementing ideas is often possible without involving additional resources, including without the need for decisions by the enterprise management. It requires adjustments to internal processes within a specific structural unit.
2. Enterprise (Branch) Level – solving the issue/problem or implementing ideas is often impossible without involving additional resources, and there is a need for decisions by the enterprise management. It requires adjustments to processes in all or most structural units.
3. Company Level – solving the issue/problem or implementing ideas concerning the company's activities as a whole is impossible without involving significant additional resources, and there is a need for decisions by the company's top management. It requires adjustments to processes in all branches of the company.

A meeting remains an effective way to discuss any issues, problems, or ideas when they cannot be resolved through routine procedures. And here we are talking specifically about a cascade of meetings. As part of the implementation of the "Safety Culture Transformation" project at JSC Apatit, a cascade of project meetings has been organized. However, the tool itself can be applied to any area of any of the enterprise and (or) company services.

Key tasks of the cascade of meetings:

• cascading problematic issues from lower levels to a higher one;
• translating decisions made at high levels to lower levels;
• scaling best practices to other structural units or branches.

The most valuable aspect of a properly organized cascade of meetings is that all stakeholders are in the same information field. It is important that each cascade of meetings is built strictly for one direction. Proper organization here implies the following:

• the frequency of meetings at each level is defined;
• a role model is defined: process owner (chair), moderator, secretary, and mandatory participants;
• the goal and agenda of the meeting are clearly outlined;
• rules for conducting the meeting are established.

Each of these meetings ends with the adoption of decisions, defining specific actions, deadlines, and responsible executors.