Mentorship is essential in everyone's life, starting from the moment of birth. From parents and grandparents to teachers and workplace mentors — they all play a key role in shaping a person's character, teaching them to follow rules and behavioral norms.
In professional activities, mentorship is particularly vital when it comes to HSE. Employees must not only possess specialized skills but also master safe and correct ways of performing their tasks.
In 2020, OZNA Holding Company launched the "Mentorship" project, starting with top-level executives as the most prepared in terms of management practice development, to further transfer three leadership competencies:
Thus, top managers became the first mentors.
Today, the Company has established a system of unified and synchronized management cycles. For everyone involved, participation in the project has served as a boost to their personal management competencies, recognition of their leadership, or a motivating signal that the Company expects a leadership behavioral model from them.
Who needs mentorship? And how is it related to safety?
Young employees without experience often fail to see risks and do not realize all the consequences. Without an experienced mentor, the risk of making mistakes with the most serious consequences increases significantly. Mentors serve as role models, teaching their mentees proper habits and attitudes toward workplace safety. With their constant presence, new employees adapt more effectively to working conditions, including hazardous production environments, while building trust and open communication within the team.
A mentor must not only show how to perform the work correctly but also teach the newcomer to identify and prevent hazards, demonstrate the correct use of personal protective equipment, and react to emergencies.
When joining a new company, there are always doubts: what if it doesn't work out? Fears intensify if you are left alone with a series of questions. Instructions, key safety rules, company policies — it's a massive amount of information.
At OZNA, a mentor is assigned to new managers to teach them the "basics" over 9 months: transferring experience, goal setting, behavioral rules, values, and traditions, followed by feedback on the results of applying the acquired knowledge to develop employees and improve company efficiency. This way, the employee begins to feel more comfortable.
A leader is not a lone warrior; they always need a foundation and support. Trust is developed through mentorship. An interim performance review of the mentor and mentee is conducted to provide them with supportive and corrective feedback.
One can draw a clear conclusion that mentorship plays an extremely important and indispensable role in the field of HSE. Experienced employees passing on their knowledge and skills to younger colleagues help save dozens of lives and avoid severe consequences. Therefore, mentorship should be encouraged and developed within any professional activity, especially in areas where the risk of injuries and accidents is particularly high.