Supporting the Implementation of Safety Culture Development Tools and HSE Management Systems at the Enterprise

From One-off Initiatives to a Sustainable Safety Culture

The development of a safety culture in manufacturing often faces a systemic problem: new tools, implemented with the help of external consultants or adopted from other enterprises, eventually stop working. Once the active support phase ends, initiatives fade away, and employees return to their usual behavioral patterns. In his presentation, Vyacheslav Eremenko, Head of the Transformation Center at JSC Apatit (PhosAgro Group), details how the company solved this problem by creating an institute of internal risk managers.

Evolution of Support: The Emergence of Risk Managers on the Shop Floor

Using his company as an example, the speaker shows that continuous internal support is necessary for the sustainable development of the occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS). Initially, this function was performed by trainers; however, practice showed that the partial involvement of employees does not yield the desired effect. The solution was a transition to dedicated risk managers who are physically located directly within the structural divisions.

This approach allows the specialist to become "one of their own" on the shop floor, deeply immerse themselves in the specifics of the processes, and build trusting relationships with the team, avoiding being perceived as just another supervisory body.

Six Key Areas of a Risk Manager's Work

Vyacheslav Eremenko highlights specific tools that the risk manager takes charge of supporting. Each of them is aimed at employee engagement and proactive threat identification:

• Risk Hunting. The risk manager does not just collect data but coordinates team work, facilitates discussions, and tracks the status of corrective measures. This turns one-off inspections into a continuous improvement process.
• Audit of High-Risk Work (Working with Contractors). Unlike a classic inspection aimed at punishment, the audit is focused on dialogue. Not only violations are recorded, but also positive practices, based on which a rating of contracting organizations is formed. The best contractors receive rewards, which creates a competitive element.
• Supporting Leadership Visits. The specialist helps managers properly plan the visit route, focusing attention on truly important safety aspects and organizing a quality dialogue with workers.
• Step-by-Step Work Execution Cards. Development and control of the application of visual instructions (A4 format), where every step of the work is linked to specific safety measures and the possible consequences of violating them.
• Shift Briefings. The risk manager trains shift supervisors to conduct short, focused safety talks, provides feedback, and helps improve the leadership level of line managers.
• Cascade of Meetings. Building a system for broadcasting problems and best practices from the shop floor level to the company's steering committee, which ensures transparency and prompt decision-making.

Overcoming Barriers and Developing Competencies

The introduction of a new role inevitably faces resistance. The speaker analyzes the main problem — the perception of the risk manager as an additional controller. To overcome this barrier, the company relies on developing the communication skills of specialists and building partnerships. The goal is a joint search for solutions, not a search for the guilty.

In the future, the functionality of risk managers will expand: they will become experts in assessing safety culture (using the Bradley curve) and competence centers for managing all division risks, passing all identified violations through a risk matrix.

What You Will Learn from This Webinar:

• Why do implemented safety tools stop working after consultants leave, and how can this be avoided?
• How to integrate a risk manager into the production shop floor so they are not perceived as an overseer?
• How does an audit of contractor work differ from a classic inspection, and how to motivate contractors to work safely?
• How to properly prepare and conduct a leadership visit so that it brings real benefit to production?
• How to build an information cascading system so that shop floor problems are promptly resolved at the company management level?