Posted on November 1, 2021
DredgeWire Exclusive
Heiko Osterchrist, Associate Publisher of DredgeWire, recently sat with Russell Zimmerman, SVP, Project & Operations of the Southeastern Region, and David Johanson, SVP, Project & Area Operations Gulf of Mexico, to discuss GLDD’s culture of safety and the role it plays in the company.
DW: When did GLDD first start to make a proactive drive for safety vs. reactive?
DJ/RZ: This started over 25 years ago- in 1996-when we hired a safety manager who developed a formalized Safety department for the entire company. From 1996 through 2004, we implemented a series of safety programs which helped lead to a significant drop in TRIR (Total Recordable Incident Rate), but then we plateaued. Gains became more difficult and people were getting frustrated.
DW: What steps did you take to get safety TRIR to a lower level?
RZ/DJ: We decided that we needed to change the culture and safety attitudes from compliance to embracing a mindset of safety that eliminates work related incidents and injuries all together.
DW: ….and how was this accomplished?
DJ/RZ: We asked for everyone’s input throughout the company and decided to implement the “Incident and Injury Free” (IIF) program. This involves the following key points: a. Speaking up when you see something unsafe, b. Take responsibility for your own safety and those around you, c. Follow safety rules because you want to, not because you have to, d. Care for safety of your co-workers, e. Stop work authority without fear of repercussions f. Requirement of vendors and subcontractors to participate in GLDD’s IIF work environment and g. It’s about going home safely to family and friends at the end of every day.
DW: What was the effect of the implementation of the IIF program and what subsequent improvements have you made?
RZ/DJ: The company saw a dramatic drop in incidences across the board to the point that GLDD is sub one (TRIR<1). IIF while it is a rule-based program, because you need rules, it is now a behavioral based program. As the IIF is a living a breathing program and we are always looking on improvement, we started looking at the past, for example bad outcome events and analyzing them because our incidence rates were high. We tackled that and now incident events are so low there were not a lot of lessons to learn from incidences. We then started to focus on proactive safety reporting and let’s analyze all of the good things we are doing vs. just the bad. For instance, we said let’s start looking whether we are doing things proactively like, JSA’s (Job Safety Analysis), pre-task planning, good planning discussions and conversations, are we stepping back for safety.
Typically, people don’t like the idea to report a near miss, so GLDD implemented a proactive reporting called “Good Catch”, which is something that could have gone wrong, but it’s a positive outcome because people paid attention and caught the unsafe condition before there was an incident. GLDD started tracking “Good Catches” and we document approx. 1200 to 1500 “Good Catches”each year. We share this across the company to identify and watch out for these same hazards on other vessels and sites.
DW: Are these catches made mostly by senior people observing new employees making mistakes?
DJ/RZ: It is some of that, but we think it is mostly in the opposite direction, which is more powerful, as new employee/younger generation tend to be more cautious, look at things differently, because they don’t know and observe with a different perspective. So, they tend to speak up and question more freely.
DW: Is safety training required for employees and what about vendors/visitors who go on the equipment?
RZ/DJ: Safety training is required for all employees of GLDD. We have several levels of training that continues regularly for every employee regardless of tenure. As an example, we have a training program called “Safety without Compromise,” which is a two day comprehensive training program for new employees. Part of the training is that we tell them they have the right and responsibility to stop any operation if they see an unsafe act, with no repercussions. Training is also done for each piece of equipment. For instance, if you were safety trained on the Texas, you would still be required to have a safety training orientation for each subsequent dredge or any other equipment before you could board. The same is true for any vendor or visitor, they have to go through a minimum safety training.
DW: How do you feel about the safety program GLDD has implemented?
RZ/DJ: One of the most rewarding aspects is that we see the change in our culture. Our people come to work wanting to be safe vs. us having to tell them to be safe. Every day at work we start the day with a safety meeting, and someone shares a safety moment whether work or personal. Our crew sets the examples for the new crewmen that come onboard. They see it and follow it. Management stressed that it is safety that is paramount and reporting an incident or potential safety issue to a manager, regardless of circumstance, would result in no repercussions. Once the crew started understanding the value and that management meant it, that is when the culture really started to change. It has gotten to the point that now our employees take the safety training home and apply it to their own personal life stressing safety to their family in everything they do. Simple actions, like wearing safety glasses when trimming weeds in the yardor properly crossing the road, makes a difference. All of us constantly think about safety. We live it every day whether at work or at home.
DW: Please explain GLDD’s SALT (Save a Life Today).
DJ/RZ: SALT is a safety rule book that was written back in 2013 and was written by the crew members for the crew members. It has rules and best practices. You have to follow these best practices unless you can find a safer way. The rules are very black & white and is referenced to quite a bit. We are currently updating SALT revision 3 to be published in early 2022.
DW: How have Coast Guard and local Federal Regulations affected GLDD?
DJ/RZ: We feel that it is important to have CG rules & regulations because they make you do the right thing and that goes for USACE as well.(EM 385) One of the things that these agencies need to consider to focus more on is behavioral based safety. GLDD is starting to get some traction at USACE HQ, Divisions and the Districts to embrace the IFF program, which is somewhat counter to the military styled manual rule book culture. Behavioral based safety is not a manual, but a soft touch approach with your people. We had binders full of safety rules & regulations, while you need them, the critical key is to get your team to follow it. Once you get the mind set in place, everything starts clicking. We have been having many conversations over the past few months with the USACE, sharing and exchanging information with them about what GLDD is doing with the safety programs.
DW: Over the course of a year do you see any variances in your safety incidences?
DJ/RZ: Several years ago, we looked at our safety stats over a number of years and saw that we had pointed incidence spikes in the spring and to a lesser extent in the fall. We put together via the PMSLT(Program Management Safety Leadership Team) a spring safety challenge to try and drive those numbers down. We created a safety reporting, matrix measuring proactive safety reporting different things, good catches, JSA’s (Job Safety Analysis), etc. that you could get points for. The challenge was that every job site and every group of dredges was in a competition against the rest of their type of dredge or office group for prizes. We were amazed at the response and amount of information that was generated because the teams enjoyed the competition and wanted to report to obtain points to win a prize. Throughout the challenges we also push out special awards for nominated safety champions, during the challenge, which is broadcasted throughout the Company to provide continued motivation. Since starting this, we have seen significant reduction in incident spikes and have now converted it to only metrics on proactive safety reporting and have implemented the same program in the fall.
DW: What do you feel caused these spikes?
DJ/RZ: Most likely spring fever, after working during dark winter hours, project delayed due to winter weather, days getting longer, people more excited. We think it is a variety of things. A couple of things GLDD does is that we were one of the founding members of Safety Week along with 20 to 30 other major construction companies from different industries around the country. This takes place every May when we focus not only on safety, but learning tools, as well as celebrating our safety success’. We invite our clients and USACE to participate. We do serious training ranging from CPNR and first aid to healthy eating and exercise. Separately, we also conduct other internal programs like mental awareness because the construction industry experiences a higher degree of suicide than other industries. So, it is important to us to address and offer our employees a program for good mental health. As mentioned earlier when we started this safety change, the attitude was that we don’t have time for this, but today no one feels this way. A safe project is a well planned and executed project. The two are linked together. When you start with safety first and do it correctly, then the rest all falls into place.
DW: Does GLDD have a safety officer on board each of their operating equipment?
DJ/RZ: Some of that is client driven. Some require a certain safety professional coverage, while the USACE requires a safety professional on the job all the time. In addition, we have designated representatives on the job, because the safety professionals can only be in so many places at once when you are running jobs 24/7/365. However, every one of our people are trained as safety people. We do point out to clients that GLDD actually has over 1100 safety professionals due to amount of safety training that we conduct.
DW: Does the USACE and private sector take incidences into account when dredge contractors bid on projects?
RZ/DJ: The USACE typically does not take this into account, as they look more to past contract performance and pricing. In the private sector this is more prevalent, especially in the Oil & Gas sector, where they look at your experience, quality, performance and safety record as well. All these categories are weighted to determine the bid award. You have to be Sub 1 in order to work in the O&G sector. The O&G sector is very strict in this regard and one of the leaders in safety procedures. GLDD has learned a great deal and implemented many of their safety practices into our procedures.
DW: Are there certain number of hours employees can work on a dredge for safety reason?
DJ/RZ: It depends on their job responsibility and workload on the dredge. On some sites we have 3- 8 hour work shifts, where others are 2- 12 hour shifts.
DW: What would say are the challenges you still face?
RZ/DJ: A few things. Safety improvement is a journey. We are not there, but you never stop. In fact, we may not even know what the challenge is right now, but we feel confident that GLDD can handle it. A major issue we are high lighting currently are man over boards. Our CEO Lasse Peterson has personally taken this on to work on minimizing this type of incident. We have made many capital investments to improve transfer locations on all vessels. For decades dredging pipelines have been installed and maintained with an assortment of floating equipment, such as derricks, anchor barges, tugboats and pontoon tanks. Recently, we announced a nearly $30 million investment to build two new multi cats to support our dredges. The multi-cats will be a step change on how we perform our work by providing one stable platform to conduct hose and pipeline operations securely on deck thereby reducing the risk of man over boards. Plus, we have modified our pontoon tank designs to make them more stable platforms with more room to move, a flat surface instead of round tops, and it is a focal point in the aim to prevent man over boards. In addition, we are focused on keeping the energy within the company on safety. We do this through our many safety leadership teams/working groups that work on different topics and maintain safety in different portions of the fleet. We even have an Office Safety Leadership team that focuses on all of our offices and HQ. The Safety Leadership Team come together three times/year for a corporate meeting to make sure we are all on the same page and maintain the same focus. Every meeting in the company starts off with a safety moment.The objective is to keep focus and energy on safety. We also have an Executive Safety Leadership Team, which sets a safety action plan for the year, consisting usually of five topics. This is distributed to all 12 of the other Safety Leadership Teams and they are asked to develop their plan based on these topics. The 12 Safety Leadership Teams report back three times a year to the Executive Safety Leadership Team with updates on the implementation progress of the five topics.
DW: Thank you Dave and Russ for your time and willingness to share GLDD’s safety program with DW. We believe this will be beneficial and of interest to the industry and our readers.
