Maxine's Optiblog

Many of us believe that good safety is good business.  Some research has shown that for every £ or $ spent wisely on safety you can save £3 or $3 through preventing the cost of incidents, investigations, insurance, reputation, etc.  This obviously ignores the very human aspect of what is the morally correct way to treat our employees and contractors in terms of keeping them safe and well.

Unfortunately we have seen too many £'s and $'s spent ineffectively on safety, on systems that nobody follows and on tick-box training where people get a certificate for attending, not learning or where the desired change is not properly supported where it matters - in the workplace, as it happens.  It does not have to be this way.

Spend on safety is only effective if it makes a difference.  Sometimes this may work in a short-term, unsustainable way (i.e. for the duration of a project or shutdown), but obviously better returns are achieved if the change is sustainable, through delivering change at the highest level (leadership, management and then supervision).  Even better is change that is not only sustainable once your external support has disappeared, but is generative and continues to move forward with its own momentum.

We have worked on many projects where addressing behavioural issues leads to more than improved safety.  With one North Sea operator their work with us lead to dramatically reduced injury rates and unheard of Lost Time injury free periods of operation.  Not only that, but the installation also dramitically improved the length of time without a plant trip.  This was no coincidence.  On an LNG construction project in Australia our client found that improved safety also lead to improved teamwork and productivity, with completion  of the storage tank construction beating plan - but in a safe way.

At Optimus we would implore you all to spend on safety that makes a difference, whether that is through Optimus or one of our competitors.  Avoiding the tick-box mentality is much harder work, but much more rewarding for you and the people whose safety you are responsible for.