Case Study

Improving the safety management framework and organisational culture

safety latch on site

Ensuring consistent safety improvement across a diverse business.

The situation

This organisation oversees a broad range of entities, some which it manages directly but the majority of which are independently managed. The organisational goals were revised making the HSSE Directorate responsible for HSSE across all entities. They realised that not only was the current safety management system inadequate but their whole approach to safety management needed to change and ultimately a new culture needed to be established that gave this organisation the assurance they needed but also allowed the independent entities to own HSSE in their areas.

Our approach

Advisian carried out an initial gap analysis to identify both the gaps in the safety management system and in the broader framework and approach for safety. From the results, our team created a leadership alignment process to align all the key stakeholders around the new way of working and commit to making it happen which was vital in an organisation with such a varied group of companies. We established a new framework around policy, expectations and minimum standards for the entities to follow and reorganised the HSSE Directorate to align with a greater level of authority including the establishment of an assurance group.

Action teams were set up to drive improvements in a number of areas, including closing the gaps in the safety management system, establishing and managing KPIs, developing leadership, organisational change management, and training and communication.

The results

The implementation is ongoing, but benefits are being seen in the following areas:

  • Installation of an upgraded safety management system
  • Enhanced relationships between the different stakeholders and working groups leading to efficiencies in the way that work gets carried out
  • Establishment of the new assurance organisation
  • Better data management with will lead to improvement in the lagging indicators as preventative measures are put in place
  • Starting to see a different and improved safety culture

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