UK

The ‘Step Change in Safety’ partnership was formed in 1997 to share learning on safety across the industry. In 2008, Step Change created a workforce engagement steering group comprising offshore installation managers, health and safety executive representatives, trade union representatives and other industry experts. Over the following three years the group worked to produce a toolkit that would enable worksites to measure the quality of their workforce engagement and identify areas for improvement. It was also intended to benchmark performance against the rest of the United Kingdom oil and gas industry. The toolkit contained a guide to help companies identify the good behaviours that should be exhibited by different workers. Included within the toolkit is a unique survey tool which can be completed online or on paper by every employee at a worksite, regardless of the employer. The survey consisted of 40 questions, verified by academic experts. It asked for opinions on how visible leaders were, how well they communicated, how they acted to address safety issues and to what extent workers were encouraged to participate in safety. All personnel, including management, were encouraged to take part in the survey, with all the inputs being confidential. Data from the survey was submitted to Step Change and a summary report sent back to the worksite. The results helped worksite leaders understand their site’s strengths and weaknesses, to benchmark their performance against other companies in the industry and also develop improvement plans. The toolkit was trialled at 15 worksites in 2011 and 2012, with an improved version released in September 2012. This project was commended for the Good Practice Award 2013 of The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).

Level of Education: Continuing vocational education and training

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