Safety is Everyone's Personal Business. Practice of Creating Safety Culture Communities

From Formal Instructions to Conscious Safety

Traditional training methods and HSE briefings are often perceived as a formality. Information is quickly forgotten, and rules are followed only under supervision. In his presentation, Andrey Khokhryakov, Head of Safety Culture Development Programs at Salym Petroleum, examines how to transition from imposed requirements to a conscious choice to work safely. Using the example of creating safe production culture communities, the speaker demonstrates how to make safety the personal business of every employee.

Goals and Objectives of Safety Culture Communities

The creation of safety culture communities is aimed at solving several key tasks:

• Promoting safety culture outside classrooms: It is important that safety discussions continue in the work environment and are not limited to formal training.
• Forming a habit: Safe behavior should become automatic, transitioning from the work environment to everyday life.
• Involving everyone: Safety culture is not only the responsibility of management but also the personal business of every employee.
• Developing relationships: Trust and open dialogue are the foundation of an effective safety culture.

Approaches to Forming Communities: From Utopia to Practice

The speaker detailed various approaches to community management, noting their pros and cons:

• Complete self-governance: An idealistic approach that identifies true leaders but eventually leads to the burnout of the most active participants due to a lack of structure and goal-setting.
• Authoritarian approach: Ensures high activity and discipline, as it relies on the existing organizational structure. However, the quality of events suffers due to the lack of internal motivation among performers.
• Reward and incentive system: The most effective approach at the moment. Participation in communities is included in personal development plans and through rewarding KPIs for contractors. This stimulates activity, although the sincerity of motivation sometimes remains in question.

Community Work Formats: From Informal Meetings to Creative Initiatives

The presentation details four main formats of community work:

• "No ties" meetings: Informal discussions of incidents, watching documentaries, or recordings of their own work. This helps employees speak out, share problems, and find areas for growth without fear of punishment.
• Participation in joint initiatives: Conducting "intervention days," stop-hours, and information campaigns using ready-made templates. This allows reaching a wide audience and practicing practical skills, such as the ability to intervene in unsafe situations.
• Quality circles: Using continuous improvement tools, such as a "problem-solving board." This involves working personnel in process optimization and clearly demonstrates the benefits of the proposed solutions.
• Creative initiatives: Independent organization of professional skills competitions, practical classes (e.g., first aid), quests, and video shooting. This format requires more effort but maximizes creative potential and engages employees.

Keys to Success: Consistency and Motivation

For communities to function successfully, consistency and systematicity are necessary. It is important to hold events regularly, maintain activity, and not chase instant results. Participants' motivation can vary — from a sincere desire to improve safety to financial incentives. The main thing is to start a dialogue and gradually form a conscious attitude towards safety.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to overcome the formal approach to HSE and achieve employee awareness?
• Which approaches to managing safety communities are most effective in practice?
• How to organize informal meetings and creative events to engage personnel?
• How to use a reward system and KPIs to stimulate participation in safety initiatives?
• How to measure and demonstrate the real benefits of safety culture communities?