What are Alberta organizations doing to maintain safety cultures during mass layoffs?
Maintaining a strong safety culture is always a priority in the oil and gas sector, but it should perhaps be even more of a priority during times of a reduced workforce.
That was among the points raised in Enform’s annual executive summit of industry leaders to discuss best practices and listen to stakeholders.
This year, the National Energy Board along with three provincial regulators gathered to speak at the summit about the importance of safety culture in a challenging employment landscape.
“There has been no increase in accidents or environmental incidents,” said Jim Ellis, Calgary-based president and CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator, at the Enform summit. “Companies don’t seem to be cutting back on safety — even as they look for efficiencies.”
Peter Watson, chair and CEO of the National Energy Board in Ottawa, also spoke at the summit.
“Canadians want to know that we care about public safety and environmental protection,” he said. “We have to continue to make sure our commitment to our values and our commitment to safety and operational excellence are explicit and observable.”
“One of the things that we recognize is the ups and downs of employment in an industry which is driven by commodities,” said Cameron MacGillivray, president and CEO of Enform in Calgary.
“Right now we’ve lost perhaps one-third to one-half of our workforce, depending on the sector that you’re looking at,” he said. “But the focus on safety through all of this is a constant. Safety is critical to the success of our industry, so there’s a great deal of focus on protecting workers… and that was kind of the recognition of the current circumstances we find ourselves in.”
Boom versus bust
We’re always challenged by cycles of boom and bust, said Alan Quilley, president of Safety Results in Edmonton.
“So during boom times, we have a tendency to throw resources at things.”
But then during a bust, layoffs enter the picture.
“So where you might have two guys working at a certain pace, then you’ve decided that you can only afford one. But then the challenge is, how does that one person working alone do it as safely as they can?” he said. “Sometimes, setting the standard at the boom time is probably not the best way, because often we have an embarrassment of resources.”
When oil was at $150 a barrel, organizations were able to have a lot of resources, he said.
“So to compare what we have to do at $40 a barrel probably isn’t fair. I think we need to say, what is it that we need to accomplish?”
During a round of layoffs, employers really need to focus on what is essential in order to ensure safe production, said Quilley.
“There’s no doubt it’s challenging, but good companies don’t have much problem with that. When you’ve established a culture where you’re going to take the time to do it safely — even when you’re challenged — that doesn’t go away. Not for the really mature companies that have a good understanding of how safety occurs.”
One of the interesting things about a reduced workforce is actually your safety performance can get better on a per-employee basis, said MacGillivray.
“And the reason for that is, when we have tough times, companies tend to keep their best, most experienced people. And those people also bring a higher level of safety performance.”
One of the things top employers are doing is upgrading the skills and training of the workers still on board, he said.
“So when there is an upswing — no one is exactly sure when growth will return, but we know it will — and when that happens, you have a lot of green workers or inexperienced workers coming into the workforce, and that can cause the other effect to happen, which is an increase in safety incidents,” added MacGillivray.
“One of the ways to help reduce that effect is to train, in the slower times, the people you have retained to improve and upgrade their skills. And we certainly see that going on.
“Although there’s a significant reduction in the number of people being trained because the workforce is smaller, we are seeing companies take this time to upgrade the skills of the workers they have retained.”
Top talent leads the way
In addition to ramped-up training and focus on safety, during a period of layoffs, many companies are often whittled down to only their most experienced, most talented workers, said Quilley.
“There are two opportunities: One for the most talented workers to be quite in demand, so that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to hang on to the best — they may be attracted to go somewhere else. But it’s true that (employers try to keep their best talent),” he said. “There’s a good chance that you have the most experienced workers.”
There’s no magic bullet, but top employers are simply continuing to make safety the first priority, said Quilley.
“Most of the folks I know in the oil and gas business are doing what they always do, just at a scaled-down version,” he said.
“For example, if they honestly believe that (a job requires) a three-man crew, then it’s still a three-man crew, and they’re just going to take on fewer projects.”
And that safety culture has to start at the very top, said MacGillivray.
“For (oil and gas) executives, the challenge is not their values and beliefs, because every executive worth their salt in the oil and gas industry has a firm belief in safety, because we work in environments that are riskier than an office environment — outdoors, in all conditions, around heavy equipment,” he said.
