Safety Culture. Who is Responsible?

Evolution of Safety Culture: From Regulations to Awareness

The concept of safety culture historically originated in the nuclear industry as a response to critical incidents, proving that human behavior is the main barrier on the path to zero injuries. In her presentation, Irina Kosareva, Project Manager at Rosenergoatom, analyzes the architecture of a system where responsibility for safety ceases to be a formality and becomes a personal value for every employee.

Debureaucratization and Process Convenience

An abundance of regulatory documentation often becomes an obstacle to its actual implementation. Using her company as an example, the speaker shows how launching a debureaucratization program helps adapt rules for the end user. The essence of the approach is that documents should be written in plain language, and their effectiveness regularly evaluated in practice. This allows the system to develop in an upward spiral, rather than getting stuck on formal compliance with outdated norms.

Leadership Transformation: From Protocols to Personal Commitments

A key shift in safety management occurs when the format of top management involvement changes. The presentation details the transition from classic meetings with dry reports to interactive formats. Managers participate in strategic games and forums, resulting in memorandums with personal commitments rather than standard protocols. Practice shows that a critical view by leaders on their own achievements stimulates the development of the entire system.

The Institute of Representatives and New Training Formats

To ensure continuous communication between management and line personnel, an institute of safety culture representatives was created. Unlike HSE inspectors, their main task is to build a dialogue and collect feedback. In parallel, the training system is being transformed:

• The introduction of interactive and virtual simulators (for example, on electrical safety) allows practicing skills with a full presence effect.
• The use of mobile learning platforms gives employees the opportunity to take courses and tests at a convenient time, increasing overall coverage.

Expanding the Perimeter: Contractors and Employees' Families

Safety culture is not limited to the enterprise checkpoint. The speaker emphasizes the importance of integrating safety requirements even at the stage of drafting technical specifications for contractors. Preliminary knowledge checks and competitions among contractors have increased their work efficiency by 60%.

Special attention is paid to employees' families. Holding family safety days, creating 3D textbooks for children, and transforming children's drawings into motivational posters at the production site form a unified value environment that affects employee behavior more effectively than strict reprimands.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to restructure the work of safety committees so that managers take on real commitments?
• What is the fundamental difference between a safety culture representative and an HSE specialist?
• How to launch the process of debureaucratization of the regulatory framework at a large industrial enterprise?
• What non-financial motivation tools work best for employee engagement?
• How to integrate contractors into a unified safety culture loop before work begins?