SAFETY

Defining a true safety culture

For Golding Barge Line, as for others, the COVID-19 pandemic created turmoil for the company in terms of safety culture.

What is safety? Safety can be defined as a noun, a verb, or an adjective. However, the most powerful and hazards or obstacles may range from physical, mental, or spiritual. We want to provide the appropriate tools, proper PPE, adequate effective definition of safety is a combination of the above—it’s called culture.

A safety culture is an avenue that can pull resources from virtually anywhere. It is not solely material items (personal protective equipment, machinery, etc.), qualitative data or even quantitative data. Is it possible to simply describe a company’s safety culture in a procedure or policy or even a mission statement? Is a safety culture something that is posted and comes into effect over night?

Let’s use a traditional spider’s web as an example. It has lines extending outward from the center at every angle with circles beginning at the center and growing in diameter the further away from the center they get. In a short period of time, a masterpiece is created, and it is magnificent. But how do we use it?

The center, or core value, of a safety culture is you. It is you, your supervisor, your co-worker, your employees. It is very simply a person. When safety is focused on the individual level, the atmosphere of a company shifts. Morale increases with positivity, accidents decrease, equipment runs smoother, a job becomes a career, and a company becomes more successful.

Focusing on an individual from a safety aspect is knowing what hazards will be present during that person’s daily task. Potential training, healthcare/insurance, and available resources to obtain the assistance someone might need. All are examples of the lines and circle of the spider web mentioned before.

These are our resources that we can pull from to keep a person safe. When a company applies this type of safety to every one of its employees that is when its safety program becomes a safety culture. Safety then becomes a part of your company’s core values.

Golding Barge Line is a family owned and operated business that has been built from many years of experience in the maritime

Safety is not solely based on the incident-free transit from point A to point B. It also includes the care and safety of our mariners during the transit.

industry. From the beginning, the foundation for Golding Barge Line has been the health, safety, and care of its mariners. With this focus and support coming from ownership, care and safety has become a key part of every department, decision and action. Incorporating safety in all decisions is what created our safety culture. Without it, Golding Barge Line would not be as successful.

As for others, the COVID-19 pandemic created turmoil for Golding Barge Line. One of the lessons we learned is to not take your way of business for granted. We were devastated to eliminate gatherings and personal connections such as lunch in the galley, vessel visits, even customer and vendor meetings. That hurt our core. With this disconnect, we began to see a shift in safety—minor incidents, focus wasn’t 100%, morale turned to nerves and worries. Thankfully with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, cell phones and other communication avenues, we were able to reach out and fill the voids we were beginning to experience.

Weekly calls, more personal conversations, and fleet wide support. As a company, we saw how much we truly needed each other to make what we have successful. Safety is not solely based on the incident-free transit from point A to point B. It also includes the care and safety of our mariners during that transit. We have learned that even with safety, health, and care as a part of Golding Barge Line’s foundation, it can’t become lost in the routine. They should be a priority, consistent, and sincere from all employees. This is a safety culture.

Safety is a necessary and very important priority for everyone throughout our industry. We are required to have, and need, policies, procedures, and guidelines to navigate successfully. With this being the very beginning of 2023, as an industry, let’s make our atmosphere shift: Apply your company’s safety focus on your people and create a safety culture. With that, the maritime industry becomes safer and employees return home the same way they came to work—healthy and whole.

HANNAH LEWIS Health & Safety Director Golding Barge Line Inc.