Creation and Development of the Institute of Internal Safety Culture Trainers

Having strict rules and regulations does not guarantee safety in the workplace. The main cause of incidents remains human behavior — unsafe actions or inaction. It has long been recognized in the professional community that workers often violate requirements not out of malicious intent, but due to a lack of understanding of the real consequences and a lowered threshold of hazard perception. In his presentation, Stanislav Seleznev analyzes in detail how the transition from formal briefings to practical mindfulness training helps change people's attitudes toward their own safety.

Why Rules Alone Are Not Enough

The speaker draws attention to the problem of the "inevitability of punishment," which in HSE is divided into physical and legal. While a physical threat (for example, falling from a great height) is obvious and stops the worker, a legal one (dismissal for violating cardinal rules) often does not work due to the low probability of being caught and punished. In addition, modern workers have a dulled basic skill of risk identification. To correct the situation, it is necessary to build a clear chain in a person's mind: identifying a hazardous condition → understanding a possible event → realizing personal consequences.

Abandoning Part-Time Roles: The Trainer as a Dedicated Function

Many companies try to develop internal trainers by assigning this role on a part-time basis. However, practice shows that a good specialist in production cannot effectively tear themselves between their main duties and training colleagues. A dedicated function is required for a systemic change in the safety culture.

As part of a large-scale project, the company formed a staff of dozens of full-time trainers who report directly to the HSE departments. Their work is structured according to the principle: 70% of the time — conducting classroom training, 30% — methodological work and evaluating the effectiveness of training directly at the production sites.

The selection of candidates for the role of internal trainers was held on a competitive basis. Out of almost two hundred applicants, those with a high level of emotional intelligence, strong communication skills, and internal motivation to influence people were selected. At the same time, the lack of deep technical knowledge in HSE at the start was not an obstacle — candidates were taught the basic principles of safe behavior during the preparation process.

An important success factor of the project was the proper motivation of line managers. The speaker shows by example that the high-quality work of internal trainers directly affects the quality of life of shop managers: a decrease in the number of incidents means no night calls, interrupted vacations, and endless investigations.

What Trainers Teach: From Risk Assessment to Behavioral Audits

At the first stage of implementing the institute of trainers, the focus is on two basic programs adapted to the specifics of the enterprises:

• Dynamic risk assessment for workers. A practical skill that allows a worker to stop, look around, and analyze the situation before starting any actions. The goal is to teach them to see non-obvious threats in routine operations.
• Behavioral safety audits (BSA) for line managers. A tool for building a dialogue with subordinates. The speaker emphasizes that the main problem of BSA in the industry is formalism. Therefore, the company abandoned strict schedules and paper reporting on audits, positioning them as a natural communication skill rather than a bureaucratic duty.

The rejection of formal indicators also affected the assessment system as a whole. The company moved away from using the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) as the main measure of success, as this provoked the concealment of micro-injuries, and focused on preventing fatalities and fulfilling qualitative action plans.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• Why cardinal safety rules often do not work in practice and how to fix this?
• How to properly select candidates for internal trainers and what skills they need first of all?
• Why an internal HSE trainer should not be a part-timer?
• How to implement behavioral safety audits without schedules, plans, and rejection from line managers?
• How to restructure the HSE KPI system to motivate managers for real changes, not for "beautiful" statistics?