Health and Safety
Executive
The Importance of
Workforce Engagement
for the Regulator
Steve Walker
Head of HSE’s Offshore Division
Introduction
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Thanks for the invite!
My role
Why is the Regulator interested in
workforce engagement?
• Its effective!
• It’s the law!
It is Just Common Sense
Engaging the workforce should be just
common business sense to everyone. By doing
so:
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The workforce becomes involved, motivated and
enthusiastic about their work
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A sense of joint purpose with their employer
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Effective, efficient and driven working environment
with overall performance enhanced
Makes for better communication
Improves performance and contributes to fulfilling
potential
….But does workforce engagement
lead to a safer workplace?
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Workers are in direct contact with work hazards and
understand what the problems are at first hand
Workers are more likely to work safely when involved
in worksite planning
Workforce engagement helps create a collaborative
safety culture and commitment to safety at all levels
Note: Lord Cullen stated; “the whole workforce
must be committed to safe working practices”
Without good engagement things can
go wrong!
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Numerous examples of major incidents
which could have been prevented if there
had been better communication and
collaboration within the organisations
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Common themes are poor
communication, shift handovers, hazard
identification, risk assessment,
managements of over-rides etc
Without good engagement things can
go wrong
Piper Alpha
Bhopal
Texas City
Flixborough
Chernobyl
But also a legal requirement
•Employers cannot meet statutory obligations without the
input of the workforce
•Offshore, this is captured by the Offshore Installations and
Pipeline Works (Management and Administration)
Regulations (MAR), Reg 8:
“Safety requires co-operation between everyone who has a
contribution to make to ensure Health and Safety on the
offshore installation”
•Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974:
“Every employee has a duty, while at work: to co-operate with
the employer so far as is necessary to enable the employer or
any other person to comply with a duty or requirement
imposed by health and safety law” (Section 7)
Offshore Installations (Safety Reps and
Safety Committees) Regulations 1989
SI 971 provides a full suite of legal requirements about the
roles/involvement of offshore elected safety representatives.
For example, SI 971 requires duty holders to consult with
safety representatives when reviewing a safety case:
“this is a good opportunity for the wider workforce to
contribute their experience and knowledge to the review
process through their representatives”
“The summary of the consultation should include an outline of
how Safety Representatives were consulted and what
procedures were used to encourage them to offer their views.
Sufficient time should be allowed for Safety Representatives
to discuss matters with the workforce.”
How does HSE work support
workforce involvement offshore?
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Commitment to dialogue with safety reps
– Always meet with reps offshore
– Active support for safety committees
– Involvement at annual company reviews
Looking for evidence of their effective
involvement – e.g. safety cases, thorough
reviews, follow-ups from incidents
Act on information from reps
OIAC cross-industry Workforce
involvement Group (WIG)
HSE’s ‘Play your part!’ document
covers the importance of workforce engagement
How effective is workforce
engagement in the offshore industry?
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Lessons from the SI 971 Inspection
Project Report
http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/meetings/i
acs/oiac/wig/projects.htm
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The report concluded there is room for
improvement and scope to adopt/share
many of the good practices identified
Good Practices
The SI 971 Inspection Project identified many
examples of good practice including:
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Bespoke company safety representative courses and
training matrices
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Safety Representatives starter packs and safety
representatives charters supported by senior management
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Duty Holders paying directly for contractors/safety
representatives training
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Safety Representatives inspecting against major accident
hazards in the safety case – fed into safety case review
process
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Internal safety representatives websites
Workforce led behavioural programmes
Step Change Toolkit
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HSE welcomes this initiative
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See it as a positive contribution towards
continuous improvement – a driver for
change
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Objective of developing a recognised
industry workforce engagement
benchmark is a worthy one
Visible commitment from the industry to
deliver world class safety performance
through good workforce engagement