Offshore Observational Safety Reporting Systems - Some Findings & Thoughts

Everyone's a winner

Based upon several decades of HSE consultancy services to the Oil & Gas industry across the globe, I feel I am appropriately placed to provide feedback on the application and analysis of safety systems chosen by various businesses who reputedly rely heavily on the time, resources and effort that's required to get the best from a safety reporting system and for the right purposes.

Irrespective of the particulars and styles of systems that are out there, ultimately, each have been developed and designed to save lives and mitigate accidents and incidents...so how good are they really and how well are they used?

Overall Impressions (a 20 year review) - Not wishing to be at all controversial but to be frank and honest...I am not overly impressed and have rarely worked anywhere where the systems are embraced by those it is designed to protect and support, or applied correctly with conviction and understanding. In my opinion, where observational reporting safety systems have been incorporated, particularly for some time, the industry users have lost they're way in respecting, prioritizing, educating and promoting its sincere value.

Roll Out Processes - Rarely these days does anyone receive any form of 'introductory training' to the reporting systems they are expected to use...I have heard it said many times during new arrival inductions 'you'll be familiar with these systems, they are like all others' and 'we expect a participation' and out the door they go. By not correctly demonstrating 'how' the system is needed to be correctly applied we have already set ourselves up for a lesser standard of return and potential opportunities for improvement.

Expected Participation - Reporting systems have been a feature for some time now and when I started working offshore in 2001 with Single Buoy Moorings (SBM) as the vessel Safety Officer I had to attend the DuPont STOP Instructor course in Paris in order to facilitate the systems introduction and integration onboard an FSO tanker based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

SBM's acknowledgement and planned application of STOP was I have to say commendable...it was not a 'cheap' punt at doing it right, they had purposefully established a high standard with their commitment and an equal expectation.

Incentives - In my early years some companies were offering very attractive 'sweeteners' to encourage and reward participation of these types of systems. Notoriously, big American companies were offering some sought after incentives including televisions and more executive gifts delivered to the winners homes for the 'best card' and escalated 'motivators' for submitting the 'most', and the 'best' selected on a monthly, quarterly and half-yearly basis.

When I represented ConocoPhillips(2011 - 2012) they too had established this practice and the offshore HSE Advisors were directed to award up to £200.00 per week in vouchers for good spots and observation participation...as no surprise we didn't see a reduction in 'unsafe behaviors' reporting we actually saw an increase and as one example I can personally account for we received card submissions across just 1 week that 'allegedly' found 7 lump hammers (PDO's) spotted on the edge of skips and containers just before they were about to be lifted by the deck crane!

Another service company incentivized their safety system participation with an e-bike and when the Project Manager attempted to impress me with his companies enthusiasm and achievements for observational reporting I merely asked how many cards per month were being averaged...less than 12 came the reply?. If I had represented any company that offered an e-bike as the 'award/reward' for active participation I would be unable to open my office door in the morning due to the volume of paperwork.

Here in lays the rub with incentives...to not acknowledge the submissions as generously as advertised or previously achieved will see an immediate and very swift loss of favor and participation from the collective, so...despite mine and my HSE colleagues concerns raised to our line supervisor of this damaging process actually being a negative incentive we were directed to keep rewarding on the basis that 'Dropped Objects' were a big ticket item. Tours of the decks and coffee shops quickly identified that the various crews had established a 'winners list' outlining which crew had achieved the most monies worth of vouchers across the trip and how this would be divided up per-person at the end of the trip. Other disadvantages of 'incentivizing safety' are identified below...

Driven Participation (1 card per person per day) - Oh my...what had I walked into when someone made the executive decision to set an expectation of 1 card per person per day...back then (really showing my age now) there were no 'electronic reporting systems' available...the only time the word 'TABLET' was used was when visiting the Medic due to a headache so with in excess of 100 personnel onboard the card administrator became the most frequent visitor to the Medic for a 'tablet' knowing that before their head was raised from their pillow each morning there would be an equal number of cards to read, decipher (very loosely worded) and entered into an excel sheet for reporting purposes that nobody really had any interest in reading.

Suddenly the world was now a safer place to be...it must have been based upon the 150 cards being submitted on a daily basis by an offshore team that had become more focused on getting more vouchers than their opposite crew mates. The vouchers kept getting issued, and in many cases the senior managers received bonuses based upon set and achieved KPI 'reporting' targets being met despite the woefully poor quality of detail applied to the majority of submissions and the onset of arthritis of the safety guys hunched over a pc all day inputting the fodder.

Consequences of driven participation - Across a 2-year period (2018 - 2020) I worked on several drilling jack-ups and had the fortune of coming across familiar faces of several service company teams, one in particular will remain with me for my lifetime but not necessarily for the right reasons.

My daily review of the paper based cards recognised some similarities among recent submissions and all emanated from one particular 'mud-logging' crew so I did a little more digging...not wishing to get too 'detective like' about it but the use of particular wording, the format of the wording drew my closer attention and I decided upon a visit to the teams unit to air my concerns. Unfortunately for the collective team a junior member of the crew was in the unit and engaged very positively with keenness toward my interest in the recent participation...their confidence grew and as I seized the opportunity to evaluate their understanding of the system process I was invited to view an excel document on one of the pc's where it turned out there were several hundred pre-filled 'observations and comments' that could be either cut and pasted or hand written on submissions (dependent on location/company and system etc.). While recognising someone's 'initiative' I had to recognise with some sincere disappointment that corner cutting had sunken to such a low point and little or no opportunities were being taken to evaluate or consider hazards, risks or even positive impressions from the team across their shifts.

The inevitable removal of financial sweeteners for an expected participation to the safety systems understandably has had a massive implication to the original perception of what the system had been established for and what it could achieve. That purpose has not changed at all...it's as equally important now as it's ever been.

Inefficiency - Measuring the efficiency of time allocated to processing and administrating the submissions I have to once again voice there is little to applaud, particularly if companies still use paper-based systems. For those that have to achieve manual input of the cards albeit the Safety Lead, Radio Operators or Medics...you have my deepest sympathy and apologies. Having personally manually entered approximately 75% of 'dross' across the last 23 years it achieved something significant for me and that was to design my own electronic system (ACE Card).

My more recent observations apply to supporting both 'short-term' and 'mid-term' positions and I have inevitably met with frustration during my 'caretaking' periods. Essentially, pointless submissions that at best don't even provide what some may consider as 'window dressing' feature more frequently. On one particular North Sea operation (2023), I was met with approximately 70+ observation cards (2 days worth of participation) from a POB listing in excess of 150. My review and evaluation raised more than one or two eyebrows based on the poor standard. My temporarily inherited reporting system (keyboard/excel sheet) required approximately 3 hours of input which was 1/4 of my working shift and although I flagged it as pointless and tedious to the Drilling Company Rep due to only 5 cards having been filled out with correct detail and content he felt it was important to 'show participation' by numbers...(wow!..."Medic do you have a tablet please"). One of the submissions had the wording "no decaf coffee in the locker room tea shack AGAIN!!!"...seriously have we really fallen so far with such an important safety tool?

Typically, complaints about the days food standard and un-substantiated safety observations that were not intervened upon when the opportunities were presented are in my opinion referred to as 'easy pickers' and 'very low hanging fruit' and merely achieve demonstration of participation to a line supervisor who may be still subjected to a KPI target (and bonus) under their roles and responsibilities.

What's needed to make it work - It takes time to establish a genuine active participation and engagement of any safety reporting system and although it is considered as a major part of my responsibility as 'the safety guy' to do this I genuinely believe I have prevented others from being harmed, exposed or subject to accidents and incidents through my application.

Where it has worked well in my experience, I and the collective operations team had a very engaging 'head of the table' who not only supported the systems applications and entrusted their team to utilise it correctly but understood it and its potential benefits in keeping people, assets and the environment safer.

Although there remained a continued offer of award/reward for participation, a trend developed which identified that 'winners' shared their award with their colleagues or nominated other worthy winners...what this indicated was an embedded 'team culture' that not only used the system effectively but valued it.

Where I have seen it work well it is truly fantastic and you can literally almost sense something in the air. I have received so much positive feedback from new arrivals and short-term visitors who within 1 to 2 shifts recognise the positivity and also their appreciation toward the CULTURE.

I shall continue to promote and encourage others to spare just 2 minutes of their time toward someone else's safety and to complete the opportunity by submitting an observation. I do not require any form of extra payment for doing what I can to preserve the value of someone else's life...I reciprocate with more than the effort shown toward me.

Stay safe everyone...keep making a difference to yours and someone else's future.