An Incident & Injury Free Culture:Changing the Face of Project Operations

Glenn ThomasCorporate S.H.E. Manager

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC

Some Attitudes about Dredging Safety

“Hey, we work in rough offshore conditions with heavy floating equipment – people are going to get

hurt.”

“What do you expect -this is dredging!”

“We are just a body - When someone gets hurt they just call the union and get another worker”

Dredge Alaska caught Offshore of West Hampton Long Island

High Performance SafetyIncident and Injury Free (IIF)

• A process of ‘realignment of a company’s safety culture”

• Enabling a change in safety attitudes from simple compliance with rules and regulations to a mindset that intends to eliminate work related incidents and injuries all together.

• Chevron, Skanska, Lend Lease, Jacobs Engineering, American Infrastructure and several other large organizations had successfully embraced IIF

• Manson 2004, Great Lakes 2005, Weeks 2008

The focus is on the personal side of safety

• Caring about one another• Taking responsibility for one’s

actions• Committing to creating a safe

work environment• Adopting the attitude that

no injury is acceptable• It’s about speaking up and

expressing your concern when you see something unsafe

What is Incident & Injury Free (IIF)

• It’s about planning ahead and asking questions such as “what are the dangerous things that can happen to me on this job/task and what can I do to protect myself and others against them?”

Three key challenges for employees

• Observing my co-workers and myself “asleep at the wheel” or preoccupied.

• Speaking up when I see someone At-Risk.

• Being open to change when someone speaks to me.

Front Line Supervisors Sphere of Control and Influence

• Models S.H.E. values and principles daily• Inspires and influences employees’ safety

attitudes and behaviors• Provides coaching on correcting unsafe

behavior or acts• Good knowledge of a company’s SMS• Gives positive recognition• Gives constructive feedback• Balances project-wide performance in quality

and productivity with safety

Employees drive Safety

• Every employee a safety champion• Report Near Misses• Review Job Safety Analysis• Recognize and manage risk (theirs and

co-workers)• Carry safety home where 90% of

accident occur

Integration of Senior Leadership into Safety

• Visible, demonstrated commitment• High standards of performance• Line management accountability• Knowledgeable and motivated safety

staff• Performance measurement• Thorough investigations and assisting

with recommended remedial measures

Management’s Commitment to IIF

What Leadership Expects from YOU!• If it’s not safe, don’t do it, and don’t let your co-worker do it

either.• If you see something that is unsafe, speak up immediately,

there and then, to your supervisor.• If you are not sure of something or do not understand the task,

stop and ask.

What you can count on from Management?• If you stop a task for a safety reason, we will back you up. • If you bring up a safety concern, we will address it promptly.• If there is an injury, we want to learn from it not focus blame

so we can eliminate the next injury.

Sustaining and Improving Safety Efforts• Safety Leadership Teams

– Review safety performance – Drive continuous improvement

• Safety Management System– Internal Standards– Auditing process– A means to identify & share best practices

• Transparency– Sharing performance results

Examples of IIF tools used at project sites• Training programs,

transformational safety , OSHA, leadership and communication skill building

• Company-wide injury and near-miss broadcasts

• Incident analysis and trends

• Formal orientation process– Orientation videos– Familiarization checklists– Mentoring– Safe Work Practices video

• “Stop Work” authority

• End of Shift Safety Feedback

• IIF Safety Action Alerts & bulletins

• Safety stand-downs

• Pre-shift meetings

• Job Safety Analysis (JSA)

• Site safety advisors partner with operations personnel

• Safety Rule Book

• Project launch meetings with crew and management

How IIF has ChangedSite Operations

• All projects begin with an IIF Kick Off Meeting Crew

Management Client, Union Reps & Subcontractors

• Open discussions, not lectures

• Attitude towards safety, speaking up, being approachable, hazard recognition, commitments to one another

• Project overview, planning, logistics

Taking dredging safety in a different direction

Traditional Direction

• Discipline / reprimand• Employees comply with safety

policies & procedures• Reactive response to incidents and

injuries

• Safety Officers (perceived as “cops”)

• Top-down safety solutions by Safety Department

• Management dictates goals

Transformational Direction

• Coach / counsel• Employees commit to work safely

• Track at-risk behavior and injury trends and initiate remedial measures

• Safety advisors to operations: seen as members of the operations team

• Bottom-up: Safety problems identified and solutions developed by crewmembers with support from Safety Department

• Front-line supervisors set goals

Our Industry

• Safety performance has improved more in the last 8 years than the previous 100.

• Safety is no longer thought of as a hindrance to operations• Operations drives Safety• IIF is embedded at Great Lakes, Manson, Weeks Marine • Operating Engineers and Gulf Coast Crews have embraced it• Great Lakes International operations in the Middle East leads

our 4 Divisions in Safety Performance!

The Return on Investment

• Pre-IIF Incident Rate and 2011 man hours =120 more incidents• Lost time incident rates dropped from 4 /100 to 1/100• Recordable incident rates dropped from 8/100 to 1.9/100• Longshoremen’s insurance premiums reduced 40%• Protection and Indemnity insurance premiums reduced 35%

• We are a far better company because of IIF. It’s the right thing to do!

Challenges to Sustainability

• Sustaining the gains made & keeping the message fresh• Indoctrination of transient crews• IIF for sub contractors• Complacency related to Low incident rates • Leadership engagement• Never forgetting the fatalities• Transition from lagging indicators to leading indicators• Near Miss Reporting• Focusing on Behavioral Based Safety

.

•Live it everywhere!•Live it every day!