Absolute Safety, 365

Long-Term Culture Change within the Oil and Natural Gas Industries

Imagine if you will a place where people from all over the world come together to fulfill one common purpose, a place where it doesn’t matter what language you speak, a place where achieving that common goal is paramount. Can’t be, you say? Well, it exists today! This place is the oil industry. An industry where people of all races, cultures and homelands meld together creating the workforce that produces oil and natural gas.

What does the oil industry look like? It looks like the Dubai shipyard where they are refurbishing several oilrigs. The crews are made up of Egyptians, Saudis, French, Indians, Pakistanis, Pilipino, Nigerian, Gabonese, Dutch, British, American, Canadian, and Croatian. Yet it is a unified culture of men and woman trained to handle billions of dollars of heavy equipment, to bore deep into the belly of the earth and to extract the source of energy that drives this planet. This global industry is operating under the constant goal of creating and maintaining an injury-free safety culture.

Contrast this with a typical drilling rig of the past. In the past, it wouldn’t take long to shake hands with a driller missing a finger or look in the eyes of a roughneck with a scar across his face. “These are badges of courage,” they would say. The old school proposition was “people get hurt doing this job.” It was not uncommon to hear a driller tell one of his roughnecks to climb up a piece of equipment and retrieve a wrench while using the words “hurry” and “you don’t need a safety harness, you’ll be right down.”

Fortunately the old “cowboy” ways of drilling are drifting off into the sunset. A new frontier of safety has taken root with improved technology, higher operating standards, and a diverse workforce that asks questions more than just following orders. This is the new generation of behavior-based safety and mutual accountability.

So how is transformation taking place? Corporate management has gotten on board: they have learned that a safe workforce is a productive workforce. Rather than being seen as an add-on or a by-product of doing the job, safety is now viewed and promoted throughout the organization as the first and foremost priority or value by which each individual is governed. Management has made commitments to give their people the necessary training and to continually promote behavior-based safety throughout their organizations. All employees within that gumbo of diversity – not just management – receive the same investment of training. Management backs this training up with safety coaching and appropriate policies and procedures: safe crews and rigs are rewarded, while those individuals who refuse to get on board are disciplined, up to the point of dismissal. The message is clear: if you’re safe, we want you to work with us; if you’re choosing at-risk behaviors, you’ve got to go.

This push and reinforcement by management has changed employee beliefs. Each crewmember comes to know and expect that he or she, and each person on the crew, can and should go home safe at the end of the tour. Each crewmember develops an awareness of his or her level of tolerance for risk and chooses to act safely, day in and day out. Each crewmember understands and accepts that it is HIS OR HER JOB to watch out for his or her own safety and the safety of each person with whom he or she works.

For this behavior-based safety culture to last, communication is key. Remember that mix of different nationalities on any given platform: how many of those native languages do you think can be understood by the average supervisor of the typical crew? If the supervisor is lucky, it’s two! If the supervisor has been in a particular region for a long time, understanding what others say is limited to the basics: safety, crane, don’t do that, top drive, tongs, 36” wrench, stop, and traditionally yes and no make up the essence of their common language.

Unlike a typical United Nations’ conference, professional translators are, for the most part, not an option. Instead, management identifies a few crewmembers who can understand English (the “required language” of the oilfield) and establishes them as crew chiefs to be the “bridge of communication”, an essential element in behavior-based safety. Everyone gets the same training as his or her supervisor; when it is translated into his or her native tongue by a co-worker or crew chief, everyone understands.

So what is the practical result of this blend of focused safety leadership, changing beliefs and improved communication? Very simply, a common starting point in the development of a safety culture where everyone has a voice and can speak up when it comes to identifying hazards and behaviors that could create injuries or death. And as a team, when everyone’s voice counts and everyone is able to speak up and assist in eliminating hazards, the workplace becomes safer. Organizations are achieving the level of safety to which they have committed. A work environment where no one gets hurt is attainable!

This new generation is leading the way. It has embraced a culture of safety in which people are no longer expendable. Thousands of “experienced hands” have left the industry and thousands of “green hands” have entered with the same enthusiasm as before, which is to make a living for their families. But the difference is a culture of in which everyone knows that safety truly does come first.