On 09 March the Queensland Rig Site Safety Working Group (RSSWG) hosted an Incident Review Panel in Brisbane on the topic of Maintaining a Positive Safety Culture During Uncertain Times’. If you missed it, you can watch a recording of the event and share it with your work teams. 

In 2022, maintaining a positive safety culture has remained a challenge for the entirety of our Industry, and so the RSSWG extended the invitation to not just companies working in the Queensland Drilling & Completions Industry sector, but to all Safer Together Member Companies Australia-wide.  The content presented was relevant to all companies and was of particular interest to our WA/NT Members, who were looking to their eastern counterparts for insights  on how they have maintained a positive safety culture while managing the transition from COVID prevention to COVID mitigation.

This fabulous Event was well attended, with more than 120 attendees from over 50 Member Companies scattered across the country. The presenters were from Companies on the east and west coasts, from other Working Groups (WA/NT and QLD Health Working Groups), and from other Industry bodies (APPEA).

Safer Together Members can access a full video recording of the Event here.

Matthew Loth (East Coast & PNG Country Manager, Schlumberger) opened with a great presentation of ‘The Impact of COVID on Schlumberger in Australia’.

Ray Lynam (Project Manager, MPC Kinetic) followed with a presentation on ‘COVID & Culture’, sharing with us the learnings of MPC Kinetic regarding the deep impact that uncertainty has had on the staff and workplace culture of their Company, their learnings & findings, and how we can learn from their experience.

Kylie Firth (Senior Incident & Emergency Response Advisor, Santos) presented ‘Face to Face Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Field Visits’, clearly demonstrating positive outcomes by this brilliant initiative to have EAP support available on-site.

Dave Holland (Vice President HSSES Asia-Pacific, Wood) followed up with ‘Mental Health De-Stigmatisation’ – which we all listened to with eager ears, as it’s something we all need to embrace not just in a work capacity, but also for ourselves, our families and wider community,

Henrietta Jukes (HSE & Risk Manager, Westside) and Matthew Paull (Acting Queensland  Director, APPEA) then wowed us with a comprehensive presentation on the findings of the APPEA COVID-19 Management Guideline, with the findings and recommendations relevant to all in attendance and to the wider Industry.

Our keynote speaker Karen Maher (Smart Culture), followed with her fascinating presentation on ‘Leading Psychologically Safer Teams in Uncertain Times’.  Karen gave us some tools to not just recognise symptoms of distress, but how to nurture resilience by looking out for each other, recognising it’s okay not to be okay.

And thankyou also to our Event hosts Glenn Watt (Vice President Onshore Development, Santos) and Muhammad Yasir Nisar (Operations Manager, Schlumberger) without whom the Event would not have been such a success.  Glenn had this to say: “COVID, global conflicts, a tightening supply chain and increasing industry activity levels all contribute to challenges and pressure for our teams. I thought the topic of ‘maintaining a positive safety culture in uncertain times’ was very timely and provided some relevant and useful case studies on how different organisations are supporting their teams and a focus on key reference information available from APPEA and Safer Together. And the keynote presentation from Karen Maher was a great introduction to psychological safety which was relevant to all of us.”

Karen Maher added “So much critical content was provided during this event for your industry as we all continue to navigate these challenging times.  So great to see the focus so heavily on psychological health & safety.  It’s great to hear the feedback has been so positive.  So much great content from everyone at the event - it is so wonderful to see such collaboration & sharing around keeping people safe. I wish more industries did this, it would greatly reduce harm.”

Finally we would like to thank Member Company Schlumberger for stepping in at the last minute to host the event, due to the impacts of the recent flooding in Brisbane at the original venue. 

Click here to access the Safer Together Health Matters online portal, where you can find a wealth of resources to help your company address Health and Wellbeing and where you can share what your company is doing to manage Health and Wellbeing in your workplace.

Click here to access video recordings of previous events hosted by the Rig Site Safety Working Group as well as a range of other events.

If you would like to be invited to future events hosted by Safer Togethers’ Rig Site Safety Working Group, email [email protected] to register your interest.