Motivation for Safe Work

From Reactive Control to Proactive Motivation

The issue of motivating personnel to work safely is one of the key challenges for any industrial company. Traditional methods of control and punishment often lead to formal compliance with rules, but do not form a conscious attitude towards risks. During the webinar, Evgeny Kovalev, Head of the HSE Department at Sakhalin Energy, shares his experience in transforming approaches to employee engagement through gamification and competitive mechanics.

The speaker analyzes how the company transitioned from one-off events to long-term engagement programs, why it is important to shift the focus from reactive indicators (number of injuries) to proactive ones (number of observations and interventions), and how this affects the overall safety culture at the production site.

Prerequisites for Creating the "Winter Safety Marathon"

An analysis of injuries in the company showed that the root cause of most incidents (especially those related to falls and hand injuries) is a lack of awareness and low personnel knowledge of risks. Employees fall into so-called "mental traps" when they are physically at the workplace, but their attention is scattered.

To solve this problem, the "Winter Safety Marathon" was developed — a five-month program based on the natural human desire to compete and win. The goal of the marathon is not just to inform employees, but to make them active participants in the safety process, moving them from the status of "fans" to the "playing field".

Marathon Structure and Mechanics

The presentation details the marathon implementation mechanism. The company was divided into 24 teams, grouped into three categories (project, production, and administrative) to equalize chances. The assessment was conducted across five key categories:

• Safety: tracking the number of registered intervention cards (both hazardous situations and positive observations), timeliness of incident investigations, and implementation of corrective actions. This encourages personnel not to walk past violations.
• Leadership: fulfillment of workplace walkabout schedules by managers and the number of personnel rewards for safe work. This motivates managers to recognize positive behavior.
• Competence and Engagement: participation in information sessions (open discussions rather than formal briefings) and quizzes on the topics of each marathon stage.
• Health Protection: indicators related to the prevention of occupational diseases.
• Facility Indicators: targeted criteria focusing on specific problems of a particular facility.

Each month of the marathon was dedicated to a separate relevant topic (for example, safe driving in winter). To maintain interest, various communication channels were used, including creative video contests, in which even contracting organizations actively participated.

Results and Implementation Lessons

The speaker demonstrates, using his company as an example, that gamification yields real results. About 10,000 people (including contractors) were involved in the marathon. Over 70 employees received personal awards for their active contribution to safety. The main outcome was a reduction in injury rates — the company worked for over five months without recordable injuries.

Among the key lessons learned from the project, the speaker notes the need for careful differentiation of indicators for different types of departments (to equalize the chances of administrative and production personnel) and the importance of maximum automation of data collection to avoid overloading frontline employees with additional reporting.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to shift the focus from punishment to rewarding proactive behavior in HSE?
• How to organize a large-scale safety competition among thousands of employees and contractors?
• What proactive metrics to use for evaluating team performance in a safety marathon?
• How to engage managers of all levels in the personnel motivation process?
• How to automate data collection for evaluating results to avoid bureaucratic burden?