Interview with HSE DAYS Ambassador Serik Mazhkenov Published

At the end of 2020, the book "Occupational Safety: Mission Possible" was published, authored by HSE DAYS project ambassador Serik Mazhkenov.

This book is a collection of articles containing practical recommendations for implementing various tools and solutions to develop a safety culture, tested during the author's work in oilfield service companies in Russia and Kazakhstan.

In this regard, the HSE DAYS editorial team organized an interview with the book's author, Serik Mazhkenov.

Serik Abzalovich, at the end of last year you released the book "Occupational Safety: Mission Possible," the content of which was highly appreciated by our colleagues. Could you tell us about the reasons that prompted you to write this book?

The book appeared for a number of interconnected reasons, among which I want to highlight three main ones:

First. It is well known that any successful business is based on 3 key components: the quality of products, the timeliness of product delivery to the customer, and the continuity (which is based on safety) of the production process. The first two components are responsible for the efficiency of the enterprise, and the third for its reliability. Efficiency reflects the short-term indicators (financial, operational) of the organization's activities, while reliability (or viability according to S. Keller and C. Price, McKinsey experts) is more related to long-term activities. Reliability shows the ability of an enterprise to ensure a given level of production efficiency over a long period of time.

Often, the attention of individual organizational leaders is focused more on efficiency indicators, while they pay attention to the reliability of production processes and occupational safety on a residual basis. Obviously, such an attitude is unreasonable, which in the medium and long term is highly likely to lead to the destruction of the business. Only with a clear balance of management's attention to all key business components, including occupational safety, is successful business development possible.

Second. The 4th Industrial Revolution has generated a high level of technological development and simplified companies' access to various resources. Under these conditions, the vast majority of unique technologies and production facilities can be reproduced quite easily, which neutralizes the potential competitive advantages of any company. The only advantage of a company, according to the same McKinsey experts, which is almost impossible to replicate, is the corporate culture of the company (including the safety culture) and the leadership qualities of managers. And these are exactly the key values focused on by the international VISION ZERO concept and its 7 golden rules, which ensure the resilience of any organization in conditions of uncertainty.

Third. Obviously, the carriers and conductors of a new safety culture at enterprises are HSE specialists. This imposes corresponding obligations on them: a high level of qualification in the field of occupational safety, an understanding of their role and the list of tasks to be solved in the organization, and mastery of effective techniques for managing human behavior. To illustrate this statement, the following metaphor can be used: when preparing dough, to make it rise well, high-quality yeast must be added to it. With defective or poor-quality yeast, the dough will not rise. In organizations, HSE specialists act as analogues of such yeast, who must be provided with high-quality information and knowledge, armed with active and effective management tools, and assisted in implementing their proposals and recommendations to improve the level of occupational safety.

These reasons prompted me to publish a book in which I outlined my vision and effective approaches aimed at developing the level of safety culture in organizations. These approaches and practical recommendations are based on many years of experience working as the head of HSE departments in the largest oilfield service companies in Kazakhstan and Russia.

Which tools described in your book would you like to draw your colleagues' attention to?

First of all, I want to note that all the approaches and recommendations presented in the book have been tested by the author in practice and have proven their viability. All of them are important and effective, but among them I would like to draw readers' attention to the following:

Four stages of occupational safety development. I believe that HSE specialists need to know the evolution of occupational safety development in order to clearly understand what key problems and tasks are solved at each stage and what effective tools contribute to their successful solution.

Personal System of Conscious Occupational Safety (PSCOS) – this provides a description of the original methodology of the 3rd stage of occupational safety development (behavioral safety). The PSCOS methodology is aimed at developing the safety culture of every employee of the enterprise based on a new paradigm of building relationships between the organization and the person – "system-system".

Methodology for the effective use of HiPPO potential (highest paid person's opinion). The HiPPO status means the highest level of an employee's position in the enterprise hierarchy and indicates the priority of such a manager's opinion for subordinates. The possibilities of effectively using the HiPPO potential for the development of a safety culture are revealed.

TWI Training Technology (Training Within Industry). The main cause of workplace injuries is repeatedly performed incorrect actions by workers, the source of which is a lack of training in safe work practices. To reduce injuries, it is proposed to use the TWI methodology — a technology for quickly training workers in the workplace to correctly and consciously perform work operations without risk to the performer and others. The practice of applying the TWI training methodology has shown its effectiveness for the purpose of increasing the level of occupational safety.

I am confident that these and other tools outlined in the book will provide invaluable assistance to my colleagues, especially young ones, in developing and improving the safety culture in the workplace.

Serik Abzalovich, thank you for the interview, and we wish you continued success!