Effective HSE Communication. Ways to Engage Employees in Safety Issues

Context and Prerequisites for Internal Communications Transformation

Effective communication in occupational safety is not just about informing, but a tool for engaging employees and reducing injury rates. In his presentation, Alexander Romanov, Chief Occupational Safety Specialist at Rosvodokanal Group, discusses how to build an internal communications system that genuinely works for safety.

The speaker notes that the transformation began with an engagement survey in 2017, which showed the need to make occupational safety one of the company's core values. The goals were defined: creating a unified information space, strengthening employee loyalty, ensuring quality information exchange, and explaining the company's strategy.

Communication Tools and Channels

To achieve these goals, the company uses a comprehensive approach, dividing communications into official, business, personal, and internal corporate. The speaker examines in detail the tools that have proven their effectiveness:

• Corporate Media and Electronic Sources: Newspapers, newsletters, website, and internal portal. In every issue of the corporate newspaper, several pages are dedicated to occupational safety issues, which is especially appreciated by older employees.
• Safety Committees: Regular meetings (at least once a quarter) where KPIs, legislative changes, incident analysis, and risk assessment status are discussed. Importantly, any employee can attend these committees and ask questions to management.
• Feedback Tools: Engagement surveys, exit interviews, and "coffee with management" meetings where employees can directly discuss issues (e.g., uncomfortable workwear) with top management.
• Videos: Creating viral videos featuring the employees themselves. The speaker emphasizes that animated videos proved ineffective, while videos with real people filmed at production sites received a great response.

Results of Implementing Information Support

A systematic approach to internal communications has brought tangible results. Over four years, the injury rate decreased by 1.5 times. More than 9,600 employees were trained in safety best practices. In addition, by drawing attention to the issues, significant investments (113 million rubles) were directed to improving sanitary and welfare conditions at production sites.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to integrate occupational safety issues into corporate media and make them interesting for employees?
• Which video formats work best for engaging personnel?
• How to organize the work of Safety Committees so they bring real value rather than being a formality?
• How to use feedback tools (surveys, exit interviews) to improve working conditions?
• How to engage top management in a direct dialogue with ordinary employees on safety issues?