Formation and Development of Safety Culture in Contractor Organizations

The Challenge: Why Contractors Require a Special Approach

The development of a safety culture traditionally focuses on full-time employees with whom the company builds long-term relationships. However, on large industrial and investment projects, thousands of contractor employees can be present simultaneously. The speaker notes that these specialists often have different levels of education, mentalities, and social backgrounds. The main problem lies in the short-term nature of their stay on site — from a few months to a year. At the same time, contractor injury rates directly affect the company's overall performance indicators (LTI, LTIFR). Going out into the "field" showed that standard tools, such as behavioral safety audits (BBS) or dynamic risk assessment, often remain incomprehensible to temporary personnel. This required the creation of a fundamentally new approach to forming a unified information field.

Adapting Training Programs: From Theory to Practice

To solve the problem, proprietary training programs were developed, separated for engineering and technical personnel and blue-collar workers of contractor organizations. The presentation details the implementation process of these programs. The key decision was to abandon the distance format and presentations in favor of face-to-face training with an internal motivational trainer. The speaker emphasizes that the success of the training largely depends on the personal qualities of the trainer — their ability to "ignite" the audience.

Safety culture training was officially enshrined in supplementary agreements to contracts. Practice has shown that for many workers, this is their first experience of an open dialogue about the human factor and the reasons for hiding micro-injuries. For foreign contractors, the programs were translated into English and integrated into their own multi-day induction briefings, which made it possible to remove the language barrier even before entering the site.

Tools for Retention and Control in the "Field"

After the initial training, the program was adjusted: complex tools like BBS were excluded, as they require a higher baseline level of safety culture. The remaining arsenal includes five-minute safety talks, dynamic risk assessment, the right to refuse unsafe work, and a "Thank You" culture.

To evaluate the effectiveness of implementation, short unannounced meetings with work crews are used. The trainer conducts practical tasks right at the workplaces (for example, asking to assess the risks of operating equipment), rewarding active participants with small souvenirs. An important insight was the feedback from contractors: the customer's own workgroups did not always demonstrate a role model of safe behavior. In response to this, the customer conducted retraining of their own employees using the same programs.

Supervising and Proactive Initiatives

Maintaining the achieved level of safety culture is ensured through the institution of supervising. Supervisors, who are on site 90% of the time, are trained in all tools and work continuously with personnel, preventing violations in real time. Additionally, modern technologies are being implemented, such as video monitoring with artificial intelligence elements.

Special attention should be paid to the practice of replacing penalties with proactive measures. A contractor who has received a fine for violating HSE requirements has the right to direct the funds to purchase additional equipment or gear beyond the standard norm, which stimulates investments in real safety, rather than simply replenishing the customer's budget.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to adapt safety culture tools for short-term contractor personnel?
• Why is face-to-face training with a motivational trainer more effective than distance courses for blue-collar workers?
• How to measure the retention of safety knowledge directly at the workplaces?
• What to do if the customer's employees themselves do not follow the rules they teach contractors?
• How does the mechanism of replacing fines for violations with proactive investments in safety work?