Safety Culture

The occurrence of accidents which resulted in lost work time, since 2007, prompted the Company to invest in a new Educational Program to prevent accidents. The program was divided into several parts. One of these parts was the project on Safety Culture. The Safety Culture project had been implemented since September, 2009, at PETROBRAS TRANSPORTES S.A. – TRANSPETRO, in Guarulhos, Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil. The project had intended to change the employee’s behavior, informing the employees, who are exposed the risks, to know and understand the risks associated with their tasks, delivering a higher perception of the risks and making possible a change of behavior resulting in employees reaching a safe attitude. The Safety Culture project was developed specifically for TRANSPETRO. The project was divided in three parts: Safety Culture Visual, Procedures and Leading with Safety. This paper will discuss the content one part, Safety Culture Visual. The Safety Culture Visual concept has as its main objective to completely change the visual of the Company. In this concept about Safety Culture Visual, the Company wanted to demonstrate its concern with employee’s safety. Although the goal of the project was to change worker’s behavior, it was important first to communicate that having a strong Safety Culture is a main objective of the Company’s culture. The beginning of the paper discusses how the company can change its visual. By changing your visual, the company can demonstrate to workers that they are interested in their safety and their lives. Posting warning signs at the entrance of the company, at the entrance of the offices, streets, work areas, and other settings where employees must go were all small signs that the company had started to focus on the importance of having a safety culture. By installing warning signs everywhere, workers who are exposed to the risks can better know and understand the risks associated with their tasks. This greater awareness of the risks associated with their tasks provide the employee a greater insight to the risks, enabling a behavior change and helping them reach a complete attitude on safety. The methodology that the Company has been using to implement this change in vision is an “Andrago´gico Model”, exploring the experience of the person; with a focus on the day by day work and daily life situations. The project has been applied in the form of weekly leadership meetings, where everybody has the opportunity to suggest ideas as to promote the change. Expecting results and consequence of the Project: • to turn the concept of safety into a real value to the worker; • to preserve the integrity and to give value to the life of the employee; • pursue a lasting and stable changing of behavior, with a culture based on safety; and • to support the management safety system and reduction of accidents. This project has reduced worker’s exposure to risks and has diminished the number of industrial accidents. Accidents with lost time: using a different concept to deal with safety, focusing directly on the behavior of the worker, leading the worker to a shaper perception of the risks and thus enabling a change of behavior towards a safer attitude.