A new independent report on workboat and offshore support vessel (OSV) safety, commissioned by operations and maintenance management software specialist Helm Operations, has been published yesterday.
The report, entitled ‘The Impact of Crew Engagement and Organizational Culture on Maritime Safety in the Workboats and OSV Sectors’, summarises six months of research by Fathom Maritime Intelligence and primary data collection and analysis by Southampton Solent University.
It draws on original analysis of Port State Control records, feedback from 50 individuals from various offshore companies, incident case studies, and input from industry leaders in best practice.
Ron deBruyne, Co-Founder and CEO, Helm Operations, commented: “This report should be considered a major contribution to knowledge in the industry, highlighting the link between the human element and safety performance in this distinct sector.”
“We weren’t able to discover any similar study with a focus on workboats and the effect that organisational culture has on safety outcomes. The qualitative surveys done with participants from across the offshore industry is original, and respondents were quite forthcoming with their answers.”
The report found that 50% of crews working on OSVs say that safety standards have been compromised because it is difficult to say ‘no’ to clients or senior management. Nearly 80% appear to accept that commercial pressures could influence safe working practices.
“The report seems to show that safety statistics are so highly valued by operators now that there may be pressure not to report an incident. If incidents aren’t being reported then the safety statistics cannot be realistic, and it is possible that safety is not as good in reality as the statistics would suggest,”deBruyne explained.
While most companies do a good job of promoting safety in their organisations, deBruyne believes many crew members feel that they cannot be forthcoming in identifying an issue for fear of reprisals, which generally take the form of loss of work for them personally. “Lack of empowerment is still something our industry needs to come to grips with,” he stated.
This view is supported by the report’s finding that, even though 84% of respondents felt backed up by management when reporting a safety issue, almost half acknowledged that safety standards have been compromised due to the difficulty to say ‘no’ to clients or senior management.
“There’s disconnect there,” deBruyne noted.“The same disconnect appears in the fact that nearly 100% of respondents felt they had undergone adequate training to do their job safely, but 34% said their company needed to offer additional training specific to operational duties and certain technical items of equipment.”
Beyond raising awareness, the Helm CEO believes the new report will provide a benchmark against which industry players can measure themselves. “After all, you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” He hopes it will highlight the need to encourage crews to report concerns.
The report’s findings are expected to offer a strong, sector-specific indication of what behaviours companies and their crews need to improve or curb. It also comes with eight recommendations for better industry practice, looking to enhance communication, empowerment of employees, feedback systems, mutual trust, problem identification, promotion of safety, responsiveness, and safety awareness.
The full version of the OSV Safety report is available to download here.
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