SAFETY

To put safety first, remember to put people first

Safety meeting onboard a ship

Many vessel operators and owners have an overarching goal of ensuring safety comes first. Achievement of this goal is often measured through a variety of methods, including the number of lost time incidents or a reduction in year-to-year reported incidents. In these ways—year-end reports, insurance claims, insurance premiums—safety is often viewed as another data point, another set of facts or figures that informs operators and owners of how successfully they are achieving the goals they have set in place.

To have clear, objective, and measurable goals, safety data is a critical piece of the puzzle; it would certainly be more challenging to determine whether or not safety-related goals were achieved without quantifiable data. But to develop a well-rounded company and operational culture that ensures safety always comes first, it is important to remember that data is only one piece of that puzzle. And one of the other key pieces? Investing in the people who those data reports represent.

Companies invest in the health and safety of their employees by ensuring adequate quantities and sizes of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are available, providing options for insurance and benefits for both day-to-day wellness as well as recovery after potential on-the-job injuries, and coordinating training to ensure personnel can identify and mitigate risks in their work environment. These, and other, examples are important investments—but what about investment in the less-tangible matter of soft skills?

Hazard Communication trainings, for example, typically involve reading and interpreting chemical Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and pictograms, not how to communicate in the workplace to prevent hazardous work conditions. Leadership trainings, as another example, where one may learn and practice such verbal and non-verbal communication skills to reduce workplace hazards, are typically viewed as appropriate investments for only those specific leadership positions clearly identified as a head of department. How should a company invest in soft skills of other crewmembers (such as unlicensed ratings or those who are green to the maritime industry)? And is this an important part of putting safety first?

One route of investing in soft skills of all crewmembers, regardless of rank or industry experience, is identifying that leadership, which can be dynamic and situational, is a necessary quality for every crewmember to understand, appreciate, and demonstrate. Although included (as a requirement for the Use of Leadership and Managerial skills for Masters, Chief Mates, Chief Engineers, and Second Engineer Officers and Application of Leadership and Teamwork Skills for Officers in Charge of a Navigational or Engineering Watch) in the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) 2010, as amended, leadership in the shipboard environment isn’t merely a regulatory line item.

It’s easy to interpret this requirement in picturing the strategic success required to be in command of a specific department or an entire vessel—business-critical voyage planning decisions need to be made, manning levels need to be managed, and effective communications need to be facilitated with shoreside port agents, port authorities, and emergency response service providers.

Leadership in the shipboard environment is also situational and individual. This individual leadership is each and every crewmember, at any rank or position, having accountability in the quality of their individual work, being able to effectively communicate when they need more information or tools to complete a task correctly and safely, and having the confidence to speak up and clarify any situation they believe to be unsafe. Depending on individual backgrounds and personalities, this type of situational leadership and confident communication may already be very visible—or it may be very dormant, hidden beneath the expectation that safety is part of the overriding responsibility of the captain and not something any individual crew member can influence or achieve.

If a shipboard (or shoreside) culture is permeated with the tenet that safety comes first and effective leadership contributes to safety and regulatory compliance (as its inclusion in the STCW Code indicates), then it is reasonable to believe that effective leadership is a meaningful investment at all levels to develop the competency and confidence of all crewmembers, who share responsibility for their individual safety and for the implementation of a functioning safety culture.

The next time safety data is ticking towards an unfavorable trend or an incident investigation’s root cause analysis seems stuck once reaching the human factor, consider the people underneath the data and underneath the incident report. Consider whether safety-related investments are limited only to equipment and technical trainings. Finally, consider whether there is a just investment of soft-skill development across all levels of an organization.

ANGELICA SOGOR Manager, Marine Safety and Training Carnival Cruise Line