In the past few years the interest in Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) has increased considerably within the resources sector.
Not only did harmonised Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws commence in New South Wales, Queensland, the Commonwealth, the ACT and the Northern Territory on 1 January 2012, resources companies have also placed increased importance on OH&S. An effective OH&S policy reduces accidents, which have a direct impact on the efficiency of an organisation, and is vital to attract and retain the best people.
In Australia, large resources companies generally have OH&S policies and procedures in place – many of them company and/or site-specific – which are well in excess of minimum legislative requirements.
These are constantly being refined and improved and these large companies have information systems which play a crucial role in supporting them.
However, companies in the Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) industry often find it challenging to demonstrate OH&S compliance and the lack of integrated information systems is a key contributing factor.
EPC Contractors
In the EPC industry, a contractor agrees to complete a fully operational installation.
This is comparable with a contractor who, at the end of a real estate project, offers the owner the key to his building. This turn-key EPC approach is becoming increasingly common in the resources industry.
One advantage is that this approach shifts all the risks to the EPC contractor which designs and constructs the installation and manages all purchasing activities and subcontracting. Also, the contractor is responsible for every aspect of safety, although the contracting company must also ensure that the contractor demonstrates OH&S compliance.
OH&S Management
In order to comply with OH&S regulations – which despite harmonisation efforts, still differ between states – and meet the more stringent demands of clients like resources companies, an efficient OH&S management system is key.
In such a system the responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and means are laid down for the execution of an OH&S policy which is often unique to both the client and the particular site. The advantages of an effective OH&S Management system go beyond meeting any legal requirements.
Improving processes and preventing accidents and environmental damage will also increase a company's efficiency and improve profitability.
Contractor Management
An important part of OH&S Management is Contractor Management. Here, the client measures the performance of subcontractors, suppliers and other parties involved. Measurements are performed on the basis of agreements on safety and working methods. In general, parties will document in detail agreements made with regard to roles and responsibilities, in order for organisations to properly control them and create an accident free workplace on a day-to-day basis.
For a company that outsources work to a contractor or subcontractor, it is far more efficient to work with an integrated system which records and can report on health and safety information, insurance data, training programs and specific contractor and owner/client documents.
Risk and Control
While outsourcing has many benefits it can also increase risk. While companies involved in the execution of projects find it relatively easy to monitor their own OH&S performance, this is more complex for companies that commission assignments. Importantly, outsourcing does not relieve a company of its responsibility for safety management.
Therefore, organisations will benefit from a clear insight into how their contractors and/or subcontractors deal with OH&S policies.
While this insight is increasingly easy to realise by deploying modern automation tools, not all companies involved have the systems in place to efficiently capture and report on the necessary information.
This can be an issue for EPC companies when they are gearing up for a new project. Many lack the systems to efficiently coordinate the right resources and demonstrate OH&S compliance.
This can have a knock-on effect when mobilisation timeframes are compressed – for example, when contract negotiations take longer than expected – and can lead to client companies imposing additional and costly procedural requirements.
Automating Processes
For many organisations, monitoring incidents and reporting on them is a complex matter.
A common reason is that incidents are registered in stand-alone information systems that support only a part of the entire OH&S policy. As a consequence, the organisation lacks a complete overview and it is impossible to coordinate with other business processes.
The question here is what the best choice would be in automating business processes: an integrated system that supports all processes, or a best-of-breed approach where separate specialised applications are deployed for different types of processes.
While efforts to harmonise different OH&S regimes in Australia are welcome, there will never be a one-size-fits-all solution. Systems which can be easily configured to meet different OH&S policies are far more valuable and cost-effective than those requiring expensive or time-consuming customisation.
*Rob Stummer is the managing director for IFS Australia and NZ.