Safety culture and the human element

The shipping industry is run by and for people. Human behaviour needs to be managed at all levels, ranging from ordinary seafarers to regulators developing national and international regulations. It is vital for a safe and viable shipping business to effectively manage the human element, taking account of the capabilities and vulnerabilities of humans.

 

Developing a safety culture with the effective and correct application of human factors plays a vital role in the implementation of health, safety and environmental protection policies. The HSEQ personnel in a company are entrusted with the task and responsibility to develop and monitor the safety culture.

 

Companies develop procedures, work schedules and safety standards with the implicit assumption that people are essentially alike. HSEQ personnel should understand that individuals are unique - they have different needs, different ambitions, different attitudes and different levels of knowledge and skills. The objectives of the ISM Code to ensure safety at sea, prevention of human injury or loss of life, and avoidance of damage to the environment can be achieved by developing a good safety culture.

 

The HSEQ team supports and guides the shipboard team through effective communication while at the same time ensuring that the decision making stays in the hands of the master and his crew. The HSEQ team is required to manage and operate the systems and have current knowledge about the human, technical, organizational and environmental factors that determine the safety of the system. It involves creating a safety information system that collects, analyses, and disseminates information from incidents and near-misses, as well as regular proactive checks on the system’s vital signs, which fits into the informed culture component of a safety culture. Ships’ personnel are required to be open in reporting any errors and near misses, thus promoting a reporting culture, which includes an organizational climate in which people are prepared to report their errors and near misses. It is normal for us to make mistakes. It is also clear that wider organisational factors play a huge part in helping to create our behaviour. These realisations have allowed a new approach to safety management to emerge in recent years, hinged on the need for safety critical organisations to shift from a blame culture to a just culture for both ship and shore personnel.

 

An effective reporting culture depends, on how the organization handles blame and punishment. What is needed is an atmosphere of trust in which people are encouraged, even rewarded, for providing essential safety-related information. The HSEQ team needs to have a pro-active approach in developing and establishing a safety culture within the organization. Although in some cases the root cause of an accident is equipment failure through poor design, in the majority of cases the accident is attributable to operational failures arising from the fallibilities we suffer – the human element. Therefore a clear understanding about human element issues should help in achieving the company’s goals and objectives in reducing accidents.

 

The complete version of Captain Butalia’s article can be downloaded below:

 

HE00985 - Safety culture and the human element