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2021 IN REVIEW | Safety Culture In association with The Shipowners Club
Safety culture The maritime industry continues to see incidents at sea despite increasing regulations, standards and safety equipment. Other industries, however, have successfully improved their safety records. Take, for example, the aviation industry’s continuous reduction in the five-year average of fatal incidents and the hugely successful London Olympic development campaign which was the first campaign with zero fatalities in Olympic history. How do these industries achieve these improvements? According to these projects the answer lies in the safety culture that was developed and established in these areas. It is apparent that the maritime industry, by learning from others, could benefit from reviewing how a healthy safety culture can most efficiently be established on board. So how can a vessel operator improve the safety culture within their operations? To assist, the Shipowners’ Club has created a roundup of some of the key considerations in developing a healthy safety culture that will not only assist in improving safety for the crew and improve efficiency but also contributes to the improvement of wellbeing on board [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cea-wLaDgX0].
VISION, MISSION AND VALUES A healthy safety culture is not something that is limited The Marine Insurer | January 2022
The Shipowners Club explains how the marine sector needs to adopt a more formalistic approach to safety culture to tackle the ever-rising level of incidents.
to the vessel’s crew. It should be reflected throughout the company, from the senior leadership team to the support staff ashore as well as the crew on the vessels. This can be achieved by ensuring that the company has a well-defined and understandable vision, a clear mission and values which reflect the company’s core principles. The vision of a company should be short and simple, often a single sentence to highlight the future goals with safety as the key component. The mission expands on the vision, describing how the company intends to achieving its vision through practical day to day means. Finally, the values should reflect the attitudes and behaviours of the people working there, implementing safety at a personal level. The vision, mission and values of a company should be coherent and encourage safety and should not overlook safety measures when they become inconvenient. By openly promoting safety related values and creating a positive vision for the company, crew can believe and work towards the goals of the company, not only being safer but also working more efficiently and with more unity. Seafarers will better understand the aims of company initiatives and therefore be more willing to assist with their implementation on board. It is vital that the company’s vision, mission and values are individual to that company, and should be carefully considered, showing exactly what
