Getting to Zero - The Perfect HSE Day

Abstract

As an oil and gas industry, we are committed to "Getting to Zero" and to collaborating on our mutual goal of an incident free workplace. This paper describes our company's journey to embrace our industry's collective learnings, take action, and achieve a step change in HSE performance using a concept called "The Perfect HSE Day". The first phase of our journey involved benchmarking best efforts and addressing the learnings identified in various SPE "Getting to Zero" workshops since 2010. These learnings include visible leadership, engaging employees and the pervasiveness of lagging indicators. While we developed methods to address these issues, such as our leading indicator scorecards, we realized we needed to do more. We also needed to adjust our mindset and really embrace the idea that getting to zero is possible. The real barrier was quite simply that to achieve it, you must first believe it. It was absolutely essential for all company leaders to believe, take a stand, and publicly declare our goal to "Make Every Day a Perfect HSE Day". The second phase included defining the standard and metrics. Instead of focusing solely on safety, we chose a broad, well rounded approach, incorporating personal safety, transportation and also environmental aspects. The most critical part was employee engagement, to capture their hearts and minds using personal testimonials and a host of other means. It also meant celebrating success through daily email progress updates and enhancements to our HSE recognition program, among others. The third and final phase is the continual evolution of The Perfect Day. This is a journey, and we must keep the momentum going to keep it alive. We've used a variety of strategies, including a personal renewal of employee commitment through what has now become an annual "HSE Commitment Day". Using The Perfect HSE Day concept, we've achieved step change HSE performance improvement, far surpassing the incremental progress from prior years. This trajectory is dramatic and continues, as we are on track to achieve a 500% improvement since the Perfect HSE Day concept was introduced in 2012. And, the concept has been embraced by Quality and other groups, further expanding towards true operational excellence. This paper describes our journey to zero, using a novel approach that connects broadly with employees on a personal level, in a way that statistical improvement goals never could. HSE goals that change from year to year can leave employees disconnected and feeling that they are back at square one. Instead, "The Perfect HSE Day" illustrates how breakthrough performance improvement can be achieved using an evergreen concept that can evolve and grow indefinitely.