Evaluation of Employee Attitudes to Health, Safety & the Environment
Joshua Healy
Between 1999 and 2001, the National Institute of Labour Studies conducted surveys of workers attitudes to - and opinions of - Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) in seven Australian oil and gas companies: Apache, BHPP, Chevron, Esso (Bass Strait platforms and the Wandoo Production Alliance), Newfield, Santos and Woodside. In total, 1618 employees and 717 contractors were surveyed. The broad objectives of this exercise were:
- To give each participating company a report on its HSE climate; and
- To produce the first Australian oil and gas industry benchmark of HSE climate, allowing each company to measure itself to the rest of the industry, in order to create stimulus for HSE improvements at the industry level.
Each participating company received a confidential report with details of the results and suggestions for HSE policy directions. The industry benchmark results indicate that, generally speaking, employees and contractors are satisfied with the HSE climate in their companies. In particular, they are motivated and confident about their personal and team skills and attitude toward HSE. While the general picture is satisfactory, there are opportunities for improvement, mostly in the planning and design of safety systems and processes, the timely and regular maintenance of equipment, as well as management’s attitude towards workers’ safety and follow-up on reported incidents. The results suggest that policies for improvement are likely to be more effective if they are tailored to each particular company or group of workers. It is hoped that the benchmark will encourage information sharing between companies. This dialogue will lead to an overall improvement in HSE within the industry as a whole.
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