Challenge
Ask anyone with a few years of experience working on an industrial site, and they’ll tell you they’ve seen umpteen different hazard identification checklists being used to do pre-task risk assessments - from one client to the next, and one site to the next. But just because someone ticks off a checklist, how do you know if they are adequately prepared to do the work safely? Can you be confident that they are not simply “going through the motions” and relying on the paperwork to identify all the hazards and keep them safe?
UGL provides end-to-end asset solutions across a broad range of different industry sectors. With more than 7,000 employees throughout Australia providing specialist services spanning the entire value chain of design, construct, commission, manufacture, operate, maintain, upgrade, overhaul and manage, the safety and well-being of their people is paramount to UGL.
The UGL management team are always open to fresh ideas and practical tools for pre-job planning and transition to work that can help to keep the teams focussed and aware of the potential hazards around them.
In 2020 UGL commenced a new contract with Shell’s QGC business for brownfield projects, cranes, scaffolding and fabric maintenance services at Shell’s QGC LNG Plant on Curtis Island, Gladstone. Over the course of the past 2 years, the UGL team at the LNG Plant has increased from an initial group of 10 people to an average of about 130 people on a daily basis. During major planned maintenance, this increases again to around 300 people.
The UGL team includes a diverse array of disciplines on site at any one time – everything from:
- Civil works (carpenters, machine operators, concreters, steel fixers)
- Structural steel (riggers, scaffolders, crane operators)
- Mechanical trades (mechanical fitters, pipe fitters, welders)
- Electrical and instrumentation crew
- Support team (project engineers, planners/schedulers, quality assurance, administrators, superintendents and managers).
Solution
When the UGL team arrived on site at the Shell QGC LNG Plant, they were introduced to the Assist and Assure program - which Shell adopted several years ago. Assist and Assure is a leadership skills program that focuses on engaging the workforce through 3 strategies:
- Transition to Work
- Safe Work Process (Step 7)
- Effective Supervision (before, during, after).
Importantly, Assist and Assure provides a safe system of working without the need for a complex and bureaucratic safety management system. Trialled successfully across the Shell Wells Group globally, Shell subsequently gifted the Assist and Assure program to industry via Safer Together.
Result
UGL ensured that everyone who has joined their team on site at the Shell QGC LNG Plant since their contract commenced has been trained in the fundamentals of how to apply the Step 7 process - the foundation of the Assist & Assure program. Shell QGC had dedicated Assist & Assure Champions within their team on site, who ran training sessions for UGL in the early stages of the contract.
Since adopting Assist & Assure a number of individuals within the UGL team have chosen to become real advocates of the program, taking it upon themselves to drive and actively support its implementation among their colleagues. This includes training any new people that join the team in how to apply the Step 7 process.
A lot of the work that UGL does at the Shell QGC LNG Plant is carried out in conjunction with other parties, whether it be with Shell QGC personnel directly or/and with other contracting companies. Because Shell QGC requires all companies working at the LNG Plant to use the Step 7 process, it ensures everyone involved in the job uses a common, consistent approach for pre-job planning and transition to work. This enables all the different parties to bring their respective work teams together to have a joint conversation about the job before starting the work, rather than each company doing this in their own way with just their own people, in isolation from the other parties involved.
UGL’s safety framework provides the ability to adopt additional safety steps to align with their clients’ approach to safety. For the Shell QGC LNG project at Curtis Island, the combination of UGL’s safety framework and the Assist and Assure program has meant the team has a best-of-both solution.
Assist and Assure is now well embedded on the project and you’ll find that everyone in the UGL team is carrying their Step 7 prompt card – whenever there’s a safety interaction on site, everyone involved can talk through the Step 7 process and they use it frequently.
Assist and Assure has been well received by UGL’s managers, superintendents and work crews alike because they can see for themselves the benefits:
“The Step 7 process ensures we are talking the same language as our client and all the other contractors on the client’s site. That continuity and consistency of language is really powerful in helping achieve a safe outcome for everyone.” (Operations Manager)
“Our workforce is having the conversation - they’re owning the outcomes for themselves and their mates and making sure a plan is in place before they start the work. That ownership by the team of the job and the risks involved means less reliance on supervisors to spot any problems.” (Contract Manager)
“The great thing about the Step 7 process is that the workforce own and run the conversation prior to work commencing, allowing them to own the outcomes.” (Line Supervisor)
“The Step 7 process is fantastic, we love it. It prompts us to go through the safety requirements needed to do the job safely, starting with planning to the last step which is starting work. It just brings everything together.” (Frontline Worker)
Lessons Learnt
Coaching is Key – Ongoing support through the use of formally trained A&A Coaches and A&A Champions (who are part of the site peer group) is essential. Transformation in safety performance and culture requires the program to be resourced appropriately.
“Airtime” from Managers – Assist and Assure is not a program driven by the safety function, nor is it a “bolt-on”. Strong commitment and active involvement in the process by senior line leaders is imperative.
All For One and One For All – Assist and Assure works best when it’s driven by the client and deployed by all the different parties on the client’s site (as opposed to a contracting company trying to run it on their own in isolation from everyone else). Ideally it should be integrated into the onboarding and induction process so that people are trained before they turn up on site.
Download the Case Study Poster here.
For more information about UGL click here.
For more information about Assist and Assure click here.