BOC aims for zero injuries

"We don't want anybody to get hurt at BOC - not our employees, our contractors or our customers," says Michael Wilson, Director, Safety, Health, Environment and Quality at BOC. "We believe that all fatalities, injuries and incidents can be prevented, and we are committed to a goal of zero injuries."

Recent studies suggest that more than 90% of accidents in the workplace are partly or wholly the result of unsafe behaviour by individuals. BOC is placing a lot of additional focus on personal behaviour. "Excellent safety systems and processes are not enough," says Wilson. "Organisations must also consider their employees' attitudes and personal behaviour towards safety."

While BOC's current safety performance places the company amongst the industry leaders in the South Pacific, they are now supporting the traditional focus of process safety (design and operating systems) and management systems, with behavioural safety principles. "We need all of our people to understand how seemingly minor hazards have the potential to lead to very serious consequences. We have to understand how our actions can and do cause incidents and then how to avoid them. "This principle applies right across the business - we are encouraging our employees at every level of the business to challenge and intervene if they see an unsafe act about to occur or somebody about to perform an unsafe act."

The program involves education and training programs, helping workers identify and assess hazards and risks, and observation training which focuses on employees surveying their own and their colleagues' personal behaviours and discussing safety methods with them. BOC is focussing on four safety zones: driver safety, site safety, office safety and home safety.