This session examines how the sharing of best practice can improve the wind industry's health and safety performance through innovative, proactive research and hands-on experience.
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Learning objectives
- Implementing best practise in safety;
- Managing performance through integrated safety thinking;
- Innovative safety aspects when moving from fixed to floating offshore;
- Setting industrial standards to provide constant safety leadership;
- Safety leadership throughout the industry from management level to operational level.
Presenter
Co-authors:
Annette Nienhaus (1) F
(1) ERM, Hamburg, Germany
Presenter's biography
Biographies are supplied directly by presenters at WindEurope Summit 2016 and are published here uneditedMs. Nienhaus is a Technical Director at ERM based in Hamburg, Germany. She holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering and European Energy Economics and has more than 20 years of experience in environmental, health & safety (EH&S) management with a specific focus on the wind energy sector. Her experience ranges from strategic EH&S management advice over safety culture programmes to EH&S training programmes, management systems, risk assessments, operating procedures etc. She supports onshore and offshore wind equipment manufacturers and developers in developing H&S management frameworks and driving safety culture improvement.
Abstract
Managing performance, not paperwork – the route to a sustainable offshore wind safety culture
Introduction
As the wind industry has moved from land to sea, unique and unprecedented challenges have arisen in terms of managing health and safety (H&S) aspects at work, requiring a new perspective on safety.
Approach
Any programme to enhance and develop the safety culture within an offshore wind organisation will typically include various stages, starting weith an initial diagnostics phase focusing on management systems and the maturity of technologies applied as well as people's mindset and values. This will be followed by tailored activities to drive leadership engagement, the development of safety mutlipiers within an organisation and other activities specific to the results of the diagnostics phase.
Main body of abstract
The successful transformation towards an advanced, sustainable safety culture within an organization requires a delicate balance of people, their behaviours and practices on one side and the physical and organisational infrastructure (equipment, systems and processes) on the other side.
In terms of the physical and organisational infrastructure, the offshore wind sector is still a pioneer technology characterized by operation in harsh environments and limitations in comprehensive regulatory health & safety frameworks. While existing offshore oil & gas standards can often be applied, they typically have to be altered or adapted.
This limitation in regulatory frameworks typically includes response to inclement weather, emergency response, vessel transfer, specific work methods and equipment etc. It has to be compensated by strong internal health & safety management frameworks including adequate H&S skills and resources.
In terms of people, behaviours and practices, effective leadership (by supervisors and managers) and ownership (by all employees) are key factors for managing offshore wind projects safely. The offshore specifics, with project teams often operating remotely away from the back office and with significant contractor involvement poses specific leadership challenges to fostering a strong safety culture.
A common pitfall in the development of increasingly elaborate health and safety systems, procedures and processes is the implementation of formalised aspects which leaves people, their experiences and mindset aside. While management systems help to improve clarity and consistency of expectations, one question remains – do they really result in shift changes towards the journey to a sustainable safety culture in which at-risk behaviours are eliminated and zero accidents are a realistic scenario? Or, to go even further, to what degree can they be the basis for a safety culture in which individuals show the ability and willingness to integrate safety thinking into a “performance variability” (Hollnagel) essential for complex working environments?
On the other hand, an imbalance towards the people-oriented side may manifest itself by powerful safety messages sent by strong leaders, while at the same time there is a lack of common standards for “how to do things”. Even if a broad understanding of the importance of safety exists, such cultures are characterized by the fact that “safety” is interpreted differently by different persons and each person is left to solely act on personal preferences rather than a shared understanding.
Conclusion
Only a thorough analysis of the existing safety performance allows for the development of tailored measures for advancing the safety culture. A key to driving safety is to acknowledge what goes well and to build on identified strengths.
The unique safety challenges of the offshore wind sector are best approached with a move from established, “paper-based” management settings towards advanced approaches which understand and address personal & value-based aspects as well as systems and technologies. Tailored, sustainable safety strategies based on an analysis and acknowledgement of the current status have proven effective in engaging leaders and all staff in making safe behaviours an integral part of everything they do.
Learning objectives
Strategies for an advanced safety culture will include a thorough “safety culture diagnostics” phase focusing on existing systems as well as on people's mindset and values. Based on the results of the diagnostics, tailored activities can be developed including leadership engagement sessions, safety culture multiplier trainings, tailored activities etc..
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