Safety culture

The Shipowners Club explains how the marine sector needs to adopt a more formalistic approach to safety culture to tackle the ever-rising level of incidents.

The maritime industry continues to see incidents at sea despite increasing regulations, standards and safety equipment. Other industries, however, have successfully improved their safety records. Take, for example, the aviation industry’s continuous reduction in the five-year average of fatal incidents and the hugely successful London Olympic development campaign which was the first campaign with zero fatalities in Olympic history.

How do these industries achieve these improvements? According to these projects the answer lies in the safety culture that was developed and established in these areas. It is apparent that the maritime industry, by learning from others, could benefit from reviewing how a healthy safety culture can most efficiently be established on board.

So how can a vessel operator improve the safety culture within their operations? To assist, the Shipowners’ Club has created a roundup of some of the key considerations in developing a healthy safety culture that will not only assist in improving safety for the crew and improve efficiency but also contributes to the improvement of wellbeing on board [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cea-wLaDgX0].

VISION, MISSION AND VALUES

to the vessel’s crew. It should be reflected throughout the company, from the senior leadership team to the support staff ashore as well as the crew on the vessels. This can be achieved by ensuring that the company has a well-defined and understandable vision, a clear mission and values which reflect the company’s core principles.

The vision of a company should be short and simple, often a single sentence to highlight the future goals with safety as the key component. The mission expands on the vision, describing how the company intends to achieving its vision through practical day to day means. Finally, the values should reflect the attitudes and behaviours of the people working there, implementing safety at a personal level.

The vision, mission and values of a company should be coherent and encourage safety and should not overlook safety measures when they become inconvenient.

By openly promoting safety related values and creating a positive vision for the company, crew can believe and work towards the goals of the company, not only being safer but also working more efficiently and with more unity.

Seafarers will better understand the aims of company initiatives and therefore be more willing to assist with their implementation on board. It is vital that the company’s vision, mission and values are individual to that company, and should be carefully considered, showing exactly what

the company hopes to achieve and how they can achieve it.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

This vision, mission and values can be implemented on board in numerous ways, but one of the key methods would be through the vessel’s safety management system (SMS).

SMS may be part of the International Safety Management (ISM) Code, but this does not mean they are solely for vessels to which the ISM code applies. They can be used on vessels of any size, operation and trading pattern to assist in the development of a healthy safety culture.

The SMS should be ship specific and assist the crew in reducing the risks associated with the operations of the vessel. It should incorporate contingency plans should an incident occur, and include forms and checklists that help to ensure that procedures are followed.

SMS may not be followed if the procedures are incorrect, too voluminous or overly complicated. Procedures must be simple, easy to understand and process oriented.

The best way to achieve this is by involving the crew in the development process as this gives ownership of the SMS to the people who will be using it, helping them understand the benefits and the safety advantages.

Comprehensive policies and procedures encourage and formalise the culture on board the vessel. Coherency with the vision, mission and values of the company ensure that the healthy safety culture is seen as being an important part of the operation and elevates the system beyond something purely developed for regulatory purposes.

LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNICATION

A healthy safety culture on board is one which is open, caring and fair and encourages learning and honest reporting of incidents and near misses.

This culture can best be developed through the leadership, both ashore and on board. As well as assisting in

“SMS may be part of the International Safety Management (ISM) Code, but this does not mean they are solely for vessels to which the ISM code applies. They can be used on vessels of any size, operation and trading pattern to assist in the development of a healthy safety culture.’’

developing the company’s values and the SMS, the leadership team should ensure values are implemented and that they actively listen to feedback.

By allowing themselves to be challenged on their ideas at all levels and being open to change, the crew will feel empowered with a sense of responsibility towards the safety of all on board – a vital part of a healthy safety culture.

The creation of this just culture and reporting culture can be achieved through proper communication. Learning communication methods and using them when appropriate ensures that we are communicating effectively, especially while solving conflicts, which helps develop the team.

One useful communication tool is The Empowerment Dynamic. The Empowerment Dynamic can be valuable in solving conflicts and ensuring communication helps develop crew rather than create further conflict. This works by recognising the roles that people take when communicating and learning to take up different roles more conducive to healthy dialogue.

Furthermore, methods to raise problems can empower the crew into feeling they can be responsible in preventing developing situations.

The PACE method (Probe, Alert, Challenge, Escalate) is a tool for raising concerns and helps crew understand how they can prevent dangerous situations developing by ensuring all individuals involved in a task are communicating effectively and have a common understanding of the ongoing situation.

> Further information on the above topics is available in a v ariety of formats on The Shipowners’ Club’s dedicated safety culture page https://www.shipownersclub.com/safety-culture. To inform this campaign, the Club has collaborated with industry experts Rachit Jain (managing director, Safe Lanes Consultants Pte Ltd), Karen Passman (director, Impact Crew) and Dr Claire Pekcan (director, Safe Marine Ltd).