Shell’s HSE director talks about safety
Feature Articles, Nov  27  2009 (Digital Energy Journal)

- Safety managers should be ready to challenge and should be the kind of people with the “headroom” to run the business one day says Kieron McFadyen, head of global health and safety with Shell

Shell wants its safety managers out in the field challenging what people are doing, not “waiting for the phone the ring,” said Kieron McFadyen, head of global health and safety with Shell, speaking at a breakfast meeting during Aberdeen’s Offshore Europe event.

Kieron McFadyen, head of global health and safety with Shell

“One of the biggest ways we can get improvements is people taking the time to engage with staff on site. We need to put ourselves in the environments that we create,” he said.

“A few years ago, I did one hour safety visits (to platforms) on a monthly basis. But this is not good enough. It’s at 10pm at night that people tell you that the system doesn’t work. You have to let the helicopter go home and stay overnight.”

Shell has had a traffic light system for its safety for many years – red, amber, green. The “red” issues are normally obvious and need as much management support as possible. But the “green” problems might indicate complacency and need continuous challenging. So the motto is “support the red and challenge the green,” he said.

Most of all, the best way people can maintain safety is by continuing to work together and learning from each other, and getting out there, he said. You have to make sure that safety is everybody’s “number one choice.”

“There’s no quick fixes and panaceas – at the end of the day its plain hard work.”

Shell expects everybody to take responsibility for their own safety – it is not something you can depend on your managers to sort out for you, because there are many things they don’t know.

For the past three years it has held company wide safety days, where employees can meet together and talk about what they are doing to maintain safety in their own working environments.

SUBHEAD

Safety and business

There is generally a very close link between companies which have a good safety performance and a good business performance, he said. “Safe businesses are generally very profitable businesses.”

Mr McFadyen emphasises that safety indicators, such as days since last lost time injury, give an indication of how well a business is being managed overall as well as its safety performance.

“Shell’s CEO, Peter Voser, says ‘poor safety is nothing more than a lack of leadership,’”’ he said. “Safety is a fundamental reflection of our performance.”

Mr McFadyen said that it was important that safety managers were the kinds of people who could also be senior business managers, “with the headroom to run businesses.”

Before being in his current role, Mr McFadyen was European technical director for Shell Exploration and Production.

When he was asked to take on the director of HSE role by Shell’s CEO, he initially said, “I’m not the right guy. I like to do operations and business stuff.”

“Being a safety manager can be tough,” he said. “You’re caught between regulators and business leaders. But at the same time it can be a great job.”

I see all of Shell. I see shipping, aviation, LNG, refining. I need that line of sight to be sure we’re doing the right thing.”

Mr McFadyen was asked by Steve Walker, head of the UK Health and Safety Executive Offshore Division, how companies should maintain their commitment to safety in times of financial pressure.

Commitment to safety is great in the good times. We’re not in good times,”” Mr Walker said. “There’s pressure on contractors. People are making decisions. Contractors are under pressure as companies and individuals. How have you had to change your approach for the last year when things aren’t easy?”

Mr McFadyen emphasised that there are ways of ensuing that commitment to safety is not being reduced, for example by comparing the amount of money spent on it to previous years.

“Every time we make a communication we must start with ‘these are challenging times,’ but remember that safety is the number one priority, he said.

SUBHEAD

Root causes

“Going back, we find 80 per cent of incidents are due in a large part by failure to comply with safety rules (looking at root causes),” he said. “We need to impose zero tolerance for rule breaking, and make rules clear.”

Shell recently completed a project to identify which incidents had the most potential accidents, then set clear rules which must be followed by all Shell employees and contractors. For example, don’t phone and drive. “If you choose not to follow the rules, you choose not to work for Shell,” he said.

If the rules are broken there are also consequences for the people managing the staff who broke the rules.

A major focus is “process safety,” he said – ensuring that facilities are well designed, properly operated and maintained, with multiple barriers which could prevent a chain of events leading to a loss of containment.

Typically 50 per cent of oil and gas industry fatalities a year come from road accidents. “At Shell we drive 2bn km a year – often in the most challenging environments. It’s been the no 1 cause of fatalities,” he said.

“We started a road safety expertise centre – with a road safety global manager,” he said.

“We aim to reduce road travel - more transport by bus, accommodation near work sites. More use of rail and water. It works.”

“We have in-vehicle management systems in all our vehicles – which can monitor behaviours.”

In Sakhalin, Shell’s efforts to encourage seat belt wearing had an impact beyond its own employees. “We helped Sakhalin police to improve seat belt wearing rates from 5 per cent to 85 per cent – with rapidly increasing traffic,” he said.

SUBHEAD

Supply chain

Shell has calculated that 95 per cent of fatal incidents have involved its supply chain partners. “It’s clearly an area where we can make a big difference,” he said.

Shell recently held a meeting to discuss safety management with its major contractors, and many of them had suggestions of what Shell could to improve safety management.

“It was the best meeting – but it was tough for Shell to be there,” he said.

“The suppliers said making clear requirements would help them. They also wanted to get involved,” he said.

SUBHEAD

Safety equipment

One delegate from a personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturer asked him what he thought PPE manufacturers could do to contribute more to safety.

“I can’t comment specifically on PPE, but my call to all those in the Safety arena to make sure that in our efforts to try and protect people, we should be mindful not to overcomplicate things for people.”

“I worry that with some of our basic safety things we make it more complicated than might be necessary.”

SUBHEAD

LTI –a good indicator?

One delegate asked how good an indication of overall safety the number of years without lost time injury is. “One platform had 10 years without a LTI, but it wasn’t a very good standard,” the questioner said.

Mr McFadyen replied that Shell aims to look at a range of different indicators – including lagging indicators (which tell you what has happened such as a lost time injury) and leading indicators (which indicate what is currently happening which might lead to an accident in future).

Examples of leading indicators include the number of overdue inspections, how much of the maintenance budget has been spent. “This is everyday stuff, its vigilance,” he said.

SUBHEAD

Drugs

One delegate involved in the offshore industry said that the biggest safety problem is drugs and alcohol. After his company implemented a zero tolerance drugs and alcohol policy, it “lost 50-60 great people,” he said.

If the fired employees get quickly snapped up by other companies, the first company is at a big competitive disadvantage, which means that it only works if every company in the industry has the same policy.

Whilst alcohol abuse is relatively easy to spot, drugs are much more difficult, the delegate said.

Mr McFadyen said it came down to people supporting their colleagues but also being able to challenge them. “You should be able to say to people, “This is not right”,” he said.

“And if people feel the need to be heard and they’re not being heard – they need to be able to get to me.

SUBHEAD

Bureaucracy

Mr McFadyen was asked about how to avoid safety regulation turning into an overly complex bureaucracy which can get in the way of achieving safety objectives.

“At times we’ve been a bit overly comprehensive – which leads to complexity,” he said. “If you’re a contract operator and want to understand what we want, you have to sift through all that stuff. We have a tendency to overcomplicate, we need the right balance.

“But my worry is that we may overly simplify, which is worse.”

SUBHEAD

Prison

Mr McFadyen was asked what effect the threat of harsher penalties (such as prison sentences for health and safety offences) was having on people’s behaviour.

“I don’t see it influencing leadership behaviour – except in North America,” he said.

“I don’t see any disproportionate impact that is happening. Apart from one exception – our friends in the US.”

One audience member from the US said that the threat of imprisonment meant that people wanted to get lawyers involved in accident investigations, which can get in the way of finding the truth and learning from it. “It didn’t serve us well at all,” he said.

SUBHEAD

Tankers

When asked by Tanker Operator magazine what he thought about the efforts of Shell’s shipping departments to achieve continuous improvement, he said “absolutely. The people who run our tanker fleets are one of the most professional outfits I’ve seen anywhere.”

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