Development Tools Without Million-Dollar Budgets: Practice of Building a Strong HSE Team

From Indifference to Passion: Why Develop an HSE Team

The profession of an industrial safety specialist involves constantly overcoming resistance, dealing with the negativity of incidents, and facing the risk of professional burnout. As Ekaterina Gemberova, Head of the Safety Systems Development Department at ATEKA, notes, the most terrifying thing in this job is not the volume of regulatory documentation, but indifference and a loss of interest. That is why building a strong, engaged team becomes a critical success factor for implementing any, even the most modern, safety management systems.

The presentation details an approach to forming an ecosystem for specialist development, which is especially relevant in conditions of strict austerity. Using her company as an example, the speaker shows how to develop employee competencies without involving expensive external training, relying solely on internal resources and the synergy of experience.

Internal Internships: Experience Exchange Instead of External Courses

Abandoning mass external training in favor of internal experience exchange allowed the company to solve several tasks at once. The following types of internships are practiced:

• Cross-functional internships within the directorate. Specialists from different areas (occupational safety, industrial safety, ecology) intern with each other. This broadens their horizons and improves the quality of work at the intersection of disciplines, for example, during line walkarounds.
• Role exchange with business trainers. HSE specialists act as co-trainers, developing soft skills and enriching training programs with real cases. In turn, corporate trainers immerse themselves in fieldwork (audits, investigations) to adapt theory to practice.
• Immersion in the production system. Training in lean production tools (5S, visual communication) and root cause analysis methods (5 Whys, cause tree) makes the work of specialists more systematic.

Round Tables and Brainstorming: Synergy of Multidisciplinary Experience

Formal meetings have been transformed into a working tool by involving specialists with experience from various industries (metallurgy, food industry, oil and gas sector). This approach solves three key tasks:

• Idea testing. Before implementing a new procedure, the initiator defends it before colleagues. "Uncomfortable" questions help identify risks and obtain a solution that is 80-90% free of internal contradictions, which saves time and protects reputation during implementation in production.
• Solving complex problems. If a small group cannot cope with a task, a brainstorming session involving all areas is initiated. Stepping outside the box often allows finding a solution at the intersection of disciplines.
• Mini-trainings. When the quality of incident investigations declines, practical reviews of real cases are conducted in mixed mini-groups to practice methodology and move away from template thinking.

Internal Coaching and Professional Competitions

To conduct purely practical training, such as first aid and defensive driving, the company trained and certified volunteers from among its own HSE specialists. This led to a multiple increase in their expertise, the development of skills in dealing with resistance and public speaking, and also provided additional financial motivation.

Participation in professional competitions and rankings (for example, TOP-100) is viewed not as satisfying vanity, but as a tool for creating healthy competition and stepping out of the comfort zone. The successes of colleagues motivate others, forming an ambitious environment that protects against routine.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to organize an effective exchange of experience between specialists in different safety areas?
• How do internal internships help adapt training programs to production realities?
• How to use brainstorming for preliminary risk assessment when implementing new procedures?
• Why is internal coaching a powerful tool for developing the soft skills of HSE specialists?
• Does an ordinary occupational safety specialist need managerial competencies and effective communication skills?