The White Noise of HSE

Last week I spent 2 days with a chemical manufacturing client in the borders. I was there at the end of last year to do a baseline audit as following a recent incident as they needed to get back on track with HSE management, and most importantly their culture.

Taking the site workforce in to small groups for open discussion, it was great to see so many lightbulb💡 moments. But, we had to pick through a lot of white noise to get there.....lots of 🗣️ and lots of anecdotal examples you would expect when you ask people what they think about work.

To channel this, we started with 5 key words on a screen and asked them what each made them think and feel.

💭Mindfulness
💭Respect
💭Learning
💭Informed
💭Fairness

They were initially surprised, as on the face of it, they didn't relate these words to safety and had thought they were getting a lecture on the HSAWA 1984.

But, by focussing on these words and thinking about their attitudes and behaviours, we were able to pick through the white noise and make them realise that safety culture, is actually just culture. Without a positive shift in both across the whole site, their HSE performance wouldn't change.

We've got a lot to work to do, not least to give the work force the tools to understand where things are going wrong and to try to articulate problems before they escalate. Tools to channel through the noise.

But, we are on track to improve now everyone is on the same page and they've realised they are stronger and safer, as a collective rather than the sum of their parts.

#HSEmanagement #behaviouralchange #behaviouralsafety