As specialists in challenging industrial environments, Contract Resources is completely committed to keeping their people safe as the first priority. Thinking beyond just compliance, Zero Harm is at the core of everything the company does.
Challenge
Established in 1989 and recognised on site for their red overalls, Contract Resources is a “critical path contractor” in the Oil & Gas industry providing specialised industrial services that are often of a high-risk nature. This includes working in hazardous atmospheres, with dangerous substances and extremely high pressures. With operations spanning Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East, Contract Resources challenge themselves to “tackle the problems and jobs that no-one else wants”.
In the Oil & Gas industry, reducing the occurrence of incidents that result in Fatalities and Permanent Impairment injuries (FPI) requires a commitment to learning and continuous improvement. In the absence of learning, companies simply repeat old practices and incidents are more likely to re-occur.
Like most companies, Contract Resources has incident reporting and investigation processes in place that enable them to identify and apply learning from incidents that occur within their own organisation. They also are acutely aware that other companies are having incidents that Contract Resources could learn from, and vice-versa. But obtaining this type of information can be difficult, and so the opportunity to learn from other companies and other industries doesn’t always eventuate. This situation leaves companies with a nagging uncertainty about the safety controls they have in place - “are we missing something?”.
Information overload is a common problem for frontline workers in major hazard industries – so how do companies like Contract Resources achieve “cut through” of important safety messages with their workforce? Learning Event Bulletins are a key safety communication tool, but it’s essential they are rolled out in a way that ensures the information people at the frontline receive is relevant, timely and engaging.
Solution
As an outcome of some excellent work done by the CSG Drilling & Completions community in Queensland, in 2018 Safer Together introduced a new safety tool known as a Learning Event Bulletin. Learning Event Bulletins enable everybody in our industry to learn from each other - to assist learning from unwanted events and/or threats in order to minimise Fatalities and Permanent Impairment incidents (FPIs).
The Bulletins are designed to encourage companies to approach unwanted events with a positive learning mindset, and to investigate, report and disseminate the lessons as ‘High Value Learning Events’ triggered by unwanted events/threats occurring, regardless of whether they are classified as a “HiPo” or not.
Learning Event Bulletins are issued by Safer Together with instructions on how to use them to derive the most value. When implemented properly, they are a powerful tool for promoting engagement, worker interaction and facilitating conversations that influence and reinforce behaviours focused on helping prevent harm to frontline workers.
Contract Resources saw an opportunity to enhance their existing safety management processes by adopting and implementing Learning Event Bulletins, and the potential benefits these Bulletins could provide as a means of enabling industry-wide cross-pollination of important safety information.
Result
Contract Resources business is founded on the deeply held value of Zero Harm. This Zero Harm culture is built on leading and inspiring, managing risk, rethinking processes, applying lessons learnt, and adopting and adapting practices that aim to achieve zero work-related injuries and minimise environmental harm.
Contract Resources integrated Learning Event Bulletins into their Global Zero Harm internal communications program:
- Each time a Learning Event Bulletin from Safer Together is published, the Contact Resources Global Excellence Manager reviews it to determine if it is relevant to some aspect of the company’s business operations and suggests to the Senior Management Team whether or not it is worth sharing more broadly within the organisation.
- Every Monday the Chief Executive Officer leads a global Zero Harm Leadership Meeting video call, during which any relevant Learning Event Bulletin that has been issued in the past week is discussed. The meeting is attended by the leadership teams from all the countries where Contract Resources operates, and is open to anyone in the company that wants to attend,
- After the video call, a Zero Harm report is produced highlighting the key issues from the weekly meeting and distributed to all employees with their weekly payslip. This ensures that it reaches every one of the company’s field technicians, supervisors and managers across the globe - a total of 1,500 – 2,000 people.
- The Zero Harm report is then rolled out in a company-wide Toolbox for the coming week throughout the whole Contract Resources organisation.
This process ensures that a Learning Event Bulletin about an incident in the Oil & Gas industry in Australia may end up being shared not only with the Contract Resources frontline workforce throughout Australia, but also with their work crews in New Zealand and the Middle East.
Deployment of the Learning Event Bulletins is focused on recognising that there would be little value in simply pinning them up as a sheet of paper on the site’s Safety Noticeboards. The real value is in using them to generate proactive workforce engagement and an open dialogue among the people who work on site.
Emphasis is placed in discussions with frontline workers prompted by questions targeted at “Could this happen to us?” These questions are aimed at promoting discussion about:
- Do we have any similar activities/hazards at our worksite? Promoting thinking about and identification of similar activities or hazards
- How do we manage these hazards? Promoting thinking about improving hazard controls – or reinforcing the application of the controls that are identified in the discussion – i.e. if these controls fail, the Learning Event Bulletin describes the potential outcomes/consequences.
Contract Resources also uses Learning Event Bulletins proactively, by integrating them into the company’s project planning process. When planning the hazardous activities involved in a particular project, the project team builds an audit and inspection schedule and reviews the online library of Learning Event Bulletin on the Safer Together website to identify any that may be relevant. This enables the project team to be aware of incidents that have happened in the past throughout the industry for a particular hazardous activity, and to ensure that appropriate controls are in place to prevent a similar type of incident occurring on their project.
Learning Event Bulletins have been well received by Contract Resources line managers, site supervisors and frontline work crews alike because they can see for themselves the benefits:
“Learning Event Bulletins give us exposure to the issues and safety initiatives across the industry, which drive a safer workplace for our employees.” (Site Coordinator)
“Working in the Oil & Gas Industry alongside diverse clients, contractors, and technicians has allowed us to adopt a standardised safety approach. It was truly rewarding during my recent site visit to witness how the lessons learned from a recent Manual Handling Learning Event Bulletin played a vital role in enhancing the knowledge and education of all the individuals on-site.” (Client Manager).
Lessons Learnt
Don’t Wait For The Next One To Be Issued – the Safer Together website has an extensive library of Learning Event Bulletins. They are specific to the Oil & Gas industry, easily accessible and user-friendly. So, if you’re looking for a LEB about something in particular, dive in and take a look – you’ll probably find useful information is already there.
It’s The Conversation That’s Key – the aim is to get the audience engaged in a two-way dialogue, not just with the person that is facilitating the conversation but also with each other. One-way delivery by merely “telling” people about an incident is pointless, but everyone in the group “talking” about it together is powerful.
Integrate For Effectiveness – incorporate LEBs into your company’s existing internal safety communications processes. This will make it easier to disseminate them, ensuring the right people receive them in the right place and at the right time.
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