Leadership in Safety Culture

Leadership as the Foundation of a Safe Production Culture

Developing a safety culture in the oil and gas industry requires not only the implementation of standards but also a change in employee mindset. During the webinar, speakers from Salym Petroleum Development (SPD) — Andrey Nalobin, Alexey Pantyukhin, and Ruslan Akhmetzyanov — share their practical experience in building a safe production culture (SPC). Andrey Nalobin emphasizes that basic knowledge and skills are negated if the team lacks the right attitudes. That is why the company has developed a comprehensive approach that includes training, mentoring, and the creation of professional communities.

Training and Shaping the Right Attitudes

The speaker examines the evolution of the training system at SPD. Initially, the company faced inadequate training quality in third-party training centers and developed its own onboarding courses. However, practice showed that mere knowledge of the rules is not enough. To change attitudes toward safety, an introductory SPC session was implemented. During this session, participants discuss real cases, analyze manifestations of overconfidence, and learn to intervene in unsafe situations. An important element is accepting personal responsibility for safety — each participant promises not to ignore violations and to respond adequately to colleagues' feedback.

Four Leadership Skills in the SPC Style

The presentation details a program for managers aimed at developing four key skills:

• Assigning work in the SPC style: setting tasks through dialogue, discussing risks, and actions when conditions change. This involves employees in the safety planning process.
• Encouraging safer behavior: sincere, specific, and public gratitude for maintaining high standards. This motivates the team and sets a positive example.
• Correcting less safe behavior: one-on-one conversations, identifying causes, and jointly finding solutions. This approach reduces resistance and helps the employee understand the risks.
• Stopping unsafe behavior: immediate cessation of work in case of a direct rule violation, identifying causes, and monitoring the elimination of hazardous factors.

Mentoring as a Tool for Changing Behavior Models

Alexey Pantyukhin demonstrates with an example how the mentoring system works. Mentors are leaders who help managers apply SPC skills in practice. The process includes joint observation of work, practicing communication skills with employees, and providing feedback. Regular practice helps make safe behavior a habit and an integral part of the production process.

SPC Communities: Bottom-Up Initiative

Ruslan Akhmetzyanov talks about the role of informal communities in developing a safety culture. Communities unite caring employees of SPD and contractor organizations. They generate ideas, hold events (quizzes, quests, "hazard hunts"), and create an atmosphere of trust where everyone can suggest an improvement. This allows personnel at all levels to be involved in the safety assurance process and makes it more lively and interesting.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to change employee attitudes and overcome barriers that prevent intervention in unsafe situations?
• What four skills are necessary for a manager to effectively manage safety?
• How to properly encourage and correct employee behavior without causing resistance?
• How to organize a mentoring system to consolidate safe production skills?
• How to create informal communities that will generate initiatives to improve working conditions?