6 Months of OTECSA HSE: What Have We LearneD?

It’s been around 6 months since we started to offer HSE services at OTECSA and in that time, we’ve delivered a range of projects to clients across the UK.

Although I have spent a fair chunk of my career in oil and gas, it has been across the supply chain so I feel like I have seen the good, bad and ugly, and it is the same everywhere!

Over the coming weeks, I will be looking at our key takeaways from this time, some of which will surely resonate with our client base:

1. 'Off the shelf' management system certification. My words, and what I mean is acquiring a system certifications from a company which sends pre written manuals and key procedures. When you’re reading a document with [insert name here], guaranteed the site didn’t write it…..

While there is a place for all budgets, needs and expectations, the only value a lot of these systems deliver is the ability to tick the box which says yes we have ISO 9001/14001/45001 etc. They rarely represent what I consider to be a functional, value adding live system which drives continual improvement. And then senior managers wonder why their HSE performance hasn't improved with the new wall art.........

2. In a similar vein, I have been surprised at the lack of recognition of management systems as a business improvement tool. Where they exist, objectives and targets are standard lagging indicators, often repeated year after year without any demonstrable plans to effect a changing outcome. This is maybe that the systems are relatively immature, and often there is no HSE professional on site so the bigger picture is difficult to see.

3. This one particularly applies to smaller companies, and on the face of it, doesn't need to be a problem. Many people are carrying out multiple roles. But, is this documented in their job descriptions and their competency requirements? Usually not. So they’re unaware of their roles and responsibilities and more importantly their reporting lines. Who is accountable? No one, so tasks doesn't get done. Who do they report to? Don't know, so who checks they'd delivering? Who is responsible for them? This all has serious ramifications for site safety.

4. Given I come from a generation that learned about Piper Alpha and the Alexander Kielland disaster at uni and had friends’ Dads killed in both, the idea that I could go to work and not come home is front, left and centre in my mind at the worksite. When you work onshore and can run away from an incident, your perception of consequence is very different. 'You have to die somehow' is a response now etched in my brain when I talked about what could happen on a site, and one I have used in almost every safety meeting I have been involved since I heard it from a site worker.

5. When we start with a new client, we spend time with the leadership team and workforce, understand the operation and review some key documentation. It's very common to hear communication as a challenge up and down the reporting line. Initially this might be viewed as a negative cultural indicator, but my experience is that the biggest problem people have is that they don’t have the mechanisms and tools to communicate. Many places don’t have tool box talks or scheduled safety meetings, the majority don't make interventions so its easy to see how workers struggle to receive and transmit communications.

If any of this sounds familiar, we can help. We have made significant changes on all of the sites we support through system and process improvements, training and coaching. We see people thinking differently, stopping jobs to reassess and asking questions they wouldn't have previously asked-that is real change.

Jill Butler-Rennie is the Business Improvement and HSE Lead at OTECSA Consulting Ltd with over 20 years safety and environmental experience in high hazard industries.

jill@otecsaconsulting.com