Page 28 - OHS, January/February 2022

OIL & GAS
Creating a Culture of Safety
Achieving a culture of safety involves every department within an organization.
In the energy industry, getting every worker home safely at the end of a shift is of critical importance. Safety should be more than the focus of designated roles within an organization. A culture of safety should permeate all departments and all levels
of a company.
Embracing worker safety strengthens employee loyalty
and builds relationships between workers and management, increases productivity and attracts top talent, while reducing turnover. Safety professionals and operations personnel must work together to continuously improve their safety programs, leveraging policies and technologies to optimize safety and drive excellence.
“When workers get hurt, it is a sign that things aren’t going right,” said Dr. David Michaels, OSHA Assistant Secretary of Labor. Safety is not a discrete issue for energy companies; it is a key performance indicator of operational effectiveness.
What is a Strong Safety Culture?
How can you tell if your company operates with a strong safety culture? Ask the following questions:
■ Does leadership provide strong influence and direction for your safety culture?
■ Are employees involved in the process? Are they engaged, supportive and invested in the safety program?
■ Do you have a culture of accountability where staff look out for each other and hold each other accountable to keep everyone safe?
■ Is safety ingrained in all departments of the company?
When an organization can say yes to these questions, a robust safety program is in place.
Safety Requires the Right People and the Right Tech
Achieving a culture of safety involves every department within an organization. Maintaining the highest levels of safety and efficiency is only possible by leveraging the right technology and data to inform smart decisions.
Partnering with a safety solution vendor that can supply the technology required to improve safety and serve as an advisor through implementation is key. From cloud-connected devices
monitoring for safety incidents in real-time, to quantitative data and insights dashboards, a comprehensive safety solution reveals opportunities to take your organization to the next level.
This is the power of data: every team throughout an organization can use data from connected safety devices to improve safety and performance, increase efficiency and save costs. Here are some examples:
Safety and Industrial Hygiene
Safety and Industrial Hygiene (IH) teams are responsible for recognizing and managing workplace hazards and ensuring regulatory compliance throughout the organization. They need real-time awareness of safety and compliance data to measure performance against KPIs and ensure compliance with safety standards and regulations. They must communicate workplace hazards effectively with leadership by making data easy to understand. They need to empower workers with tools and information to help them make safer decisions.
Safety and IH teams can use connected data and insights from analytics dashboards to inform initiatives within an organization to reduce risk. For example, using connected gas monitoring devices, an organization may implement a procedure requiring that after opening a vessel, employees walk away for 30 minutes before completing the job to avoid being exposed to nitrogen.
Emergency Management
Emergency management teams must be equipped to effectively respond to incidents and facilitate swift evacuations. To do this, emergency response teams need gas detection hardware, along with the software, data and communication capabilities to access real-time information about the incident and enable rapid decision-making.
On the hardware side, a comprehensive safety solution includes both area monitors and portable gas detectors for each responder at risk.
While portable gas detection equipment on its own protects the individual or the few within the area of detection, the ability to make data-driven decisions protects the larger collective. Gas
24 Occupational Health & Safety | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
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