Here’s the story of how one company is using the Step 7 process to effectively engage multi-disciplined teams in pre-job planning and transition to work in a way that is simple, doesn’t add unnecessary paperwork, and helps to build a united workforce.

Ask anyone with a  few years of experience working on an industrial site, and they’ll tell you they’ve seen umpteen different hazard identification checklists being used to do pre-task risk assessments - from one client to the next, and one site to the next. But just because someone ticks off a checklist, how do you know if they are adequately prepared to do the work safely? Can you be confident that they are not simply “going through the motions” and relying on the paperwork to identify all the hazards and keep them safe?

UGL provides end-to-end asset solutions across a broad range of different industry sectors. With more than 7,000 employees throughout Australia providing specialist services spanning the entire value chain of design, construct, commission, manufacture, operate, maintain, upgrade, overhaul and manage, the safety and well-being of their people is paramount to UGL.

UGL has a robust health and safety framework embedded across the company and in each of their projects.

In 2020 UGL commenced a new contract with Shell’s QGC business for brownfield projects, cranes, scaffolding and fabric maintenance services at Shell’s QGC LNG Plant on Curtis Island, Gladstone.  When the UGL team arrived on site at the LNG Plant, they were introduced to the Assist and Assure program which Shell adopted several years ago.

The UGL management team are always open to fresh ideas and practical tools for pre-job planning and transition to work that can help to keep the teams focussed and aware of the potential hazards around them.

UGL’s safety framework provides the ability to adopt additional safety steps to align with their clients’ approach to safety. For the LNG project at Curtis Island, the combination of UGL’s safety framework and the Assist and Assure program has meant the team has a best-of-both solution.

Fast-forward a couple of years and now you’ll find that the Step 7 process (which is the foundation of the Assist and Assure program) has embedded a culture within the UGL team on site whereby ownership of safety outcomes and decision-making to achieve these outcomes has been put back in the hands of the people on the tools that do the work – exactly where it should be.

Click here for a Case Study from UGL that tells the story of why they adopted Assist and Assure, how it helps them build engagement with their people, and what impact it’s had to date. You’ll also find out UGL’s tips for other member companies on how to maximise the value of Assist & Assure.  

For more information about Assist and Assure click here.

Contact: [email protected]