Reinforcing safe behaviour among workers

Aimed to promote a Safety Culture

The awareness of supervisors and workers and their adherence to minimum safety standards before commencing work, along with their empowerment to STOP unsafe work, are essential last-mile defenses against potential hazards.

P Nagarajan

Head – EHS (RCF SBG)

True to their commitment towards Mission Zero Harm, B&F IC have introduced several technological advancements such as safety screens, access equipment, and alignment with global EHS management benchmarks such as the BSC Five Star Audit specifications. However, as P Nagarajan, Head – EHS (RCF SBG), shares seriously, the compliance of the workforce with safe behaviour remains a critical aspect to prevent incidents. “The awareness of supervisors and workers and their adherence to minimum safety standards before commencing work, along with their empowerment to STOP unsafe work, are essential last-mile defenses against potential hazards,” he points out shrewdly.

Campaign to reinforce safe behaviour

To address Nagarajan’s concerns, B&F launched a campaign specifically designed to reinforce safe behaviour among the workforce in January 2024, focusing on supervisors and workers, centred around ‘Improving compliance with safe behaviour’. The campaign sets out to achieve a set of objectives:

Safe to Start: Enhance the effectiveness of pre-task briefings by site engineers, serving as the last line of defense.
Reiteration of Mandatory Risk Controls: Use various communication avenues to embed mandatory safe behaviour for high-risk activities into the daily practices of supervisors and workers.
Empowerment to Intervene: Remind supervisors and workers of their authority to stop work in case of atrisk behaviour.

Benchmarking best practices

While there were many initiatives available to address these challenges such as job-specific training, induction training, toolbox talks, etc., the EHS team sought to introduce something new to enhance its effectiveness, benchmarked with global practices, and positioned as close as possible to implementation at site.

“Our approach began with a comprehensive benchmarking exercise, drawing inspiration from international safety standards,” elaborates M Nachiappan, Senior DGM – EHS, “and after examining best practices such as the IOGP’s ‘Start Work Check’ framework and campaigns for lifesaving rules compliance, we identified key strategies to improve our safety interventions.” The team’s primary takeaways focus on a few critical controls for high-risk activities, ensuring that these controls were well communicated and enforced across the organization.

By involving our workers to promote a culture of safety, we are not only reinforcing safe behaviour but also empowering them to actively participate in maintaining a safe working environment. Together, we are making significant strides towards our goal of zero harm.

M Nachiappan

Senior DGM – EHS

Campaign development: Risk profiling

The first step towards developing the campaign was risk profiling, guided by data from B&F’s predictive analytics tool pinpointing areas that needed intervention regarding safe behaviours.

The initial phase of the campaign targets the following six activities:

Work at height
Scaffold erection
Scaffold dismantling
Hot works
Masonry works
Loading and unloading

For each of these activities, mandatory safe behaviours were identified through extensive consultations with the EHS teams and various service departments.

Innovative training methods: Live video series

To enhance the impact of the training, a video series was developed using live footage from sites, an approach that departed from the traditional animated videos, offering a more realistic view of safety practices. Key features of the video series include:

Micro-learning: Short videos (of 3–4 minutes) to keep audiences engaged.
Focused Content: Each video covers the top five mandatory safe behaviours for the activity.
Behaviour Verification: Emphasizes behaviours and controls that workers can easily verify before starting work.
Clear Standards: Demonstrates acceptable and unacceptable practices, reducing ambiguity.
Reiteration of Safe Behaviours: Reiterates the top five safe behaviours at the end for better retention.
Empowerment Emphasis: Reinforces the importance of intervention by all personnel in case of non-compliance.
Multilingual Availability: Available in Hindi, English, Bengali, and Odia.

The campaign was launched with a month-long drive, screening the videos to over 70,000 workers using large screens at various project sites. In addition, these videos are integrated into the induction process, ensuring that every new worker receives relevant safety training before commencing his duties.

Site engineers play a crucial role in enhancing hazard communication using these videos, streamlining the briefing process through activityspecific ‘Safe to Start’ cards. Additionally, key points from the videos are displayed prominently on large posters at workplaces to reinforce the learning, establish a minimum standard for all activities, and create a framework for addressing non-compliance with the standard.

Employees can access these videos on a newly created, exclusive SharePoint portal, accessible to all L&T employees. They can view the videos on their mobile devices and PCs too.

A great beginning …

Nagarajan, Nachiappan, and team are delighted that their ‘Reinforcing Safe Behaviour’ video series campaign has been recognized for its effectiveness at the group-level EHS Council and will be implemented across all L&T businesses and workplaces.

“By involving our workers to promote a culture of safety, we are not only reinforcing safe behaviour but also empowering them to actively participate in maintaining a safe working environment. Together, we are making significant strides towards our goal of zero harm,” states Nachiappan with a definite sense of purpose.

“Our campaign has made compliance to safe behaviours both easy and effective,” states a proud Mohammad Moizuddin, Head – EHS (HPA SBG). “By focusing on the top risks and five mandatory safe behaviours, we see much better retention among workers at the workplaces, and when they are reinforced by the site engineers and see the same messages on posters, the message gets embedded in the minds of workers.”

Our campaign has made compliance to safe behaviours both easy and effective. By focusing on the top risks and five mandatory safe behaviours, we see much better retention among workers at the workplaces, and when they are reinforced by the site engineers and see the same messages on posters, the message gets embedded in the minds of workers.

Mohammad Moizuddin

Head – EHS (HPA SBG)