HSE and Production: Quirks of Perception and Why It All Matters
Why the Perception of the HSE Function Determines Its Effectiveness
In the development of a safety culture in production, an unobvious but critically important factor is often overlooked: the image of the Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) department itself. How line personnel and management perceive safety specialists directly affects the success of implementing any initiatives. In his presentation, Mikhail Zhiganov, Head of the Safety Culture Development Department at Nornickel, analyzes in detail the process of transforming the image of the industrial safety and HSE function, proving that image is not an abstract category, but a specific tool for achieving goals.
The speaker emphasizes that perception consists of four basic elements: communication style, physical and communicative accessibility of specialists, fairness of decisions made, and, most importantly, the visible benefit from the department's work. If even one of these elements sags, the HSE function risks turning into an isolated supervisory body with which production tries to minimize contact.
Diagnosing the Problem: From Stereotypes to Numbers
You can only manage what you can measure. To assess the current image of the function, a large-scale survey was conducted, covering 3,400 employees. The questions were based on the Hudson safety culture ladder. The resulting average score of 2.63 points became the starting point for deep analysis.
The study revealed deep-rooted stereotypes. Many workers perceive the HSE specialist exclusively as an inspector looking for violations to fulfill a quota for fines. The speaker shows by example how such stigmatization triggers a fundamental attribution error: if workers do not like the "messenger" (the HSE specialist), they automatically reject the idea itself (new safety rules), no matter how useful it may be. As a result, instead of systematically improving processes, the department spends enormous resources overcoming resistance.
Practical Steps for Image Transformation
Understanding the diagnosis made it possible to develop a comprehensive treatment program. The presentation details three key areas of work designed to change the specialist's role model from an "overseer" to a "business partner" and an "authoritative consultant."
- Developing soft skills. Historically, the technical training of engineers is at a high level, but insufficient attention is paid to communication skills and partner influence. To solve this problem, a system of face-to-face training sessions was launched, covering hundreds of HSE function employees, to teach them how to build a constructive dialogue with production.
- Joint project work. To prove a real impact on safety, HSE managers, together with production workers and laborers, identify critical risks on site and implement engineering solutions (for example, changing stair designs or moving valves). The visible result destroys the myth that occupational safety is divorced from real production.
- Rebooting communication formats. In conditions of information overload, multi-page instructions stop working. The speaker analyzes the approach to transforming documentation: while maintaining formal requirements for regulatory authorities, "one-page" summaries are created for the workers themselves, and modern communication channels, short videos, and live interviews with enterprise managers are also used.
What you will learn from this webinar:
- How to objectively measure the image of the HSE department and what questions to ask the personnel?
- Why does the fundamental attribution error hinder the implementation of new safety rules and how to deal with it?
- What basic competencies are necessary for a modern HSE manager to transition from the role of an inspector to the role of a business partner?
- How to legally adapt multi-page safety instructions into a convenient format that workers will actually read?
- How to use project activities to build trusting relationships between the HSE department and production units?