During Oil & Gas Middle East‘s panel, ‘How HSE will transform post-pandemic’, Shaun Hannam, EMEA head of HSES at McDermott and May Faraj, head of environment and sustainability at WSP in the Middle East discussed how the pandemic impacted their overall HSE strategy, and the future for health and safety.
How did the pandemic impact your HSE strategy?
Shaun Hannam: It was definitely a surprise, the impact it had on individuals in the way they approached the workplace. When we look at safety culture, we consider what is influencing people’s behaviors. We saw that everyone was distracted with the pandemic, and we needed to understand how to respond to that. We had to adjust quickly to the sheer impact across the wider workplace, and that meant encouraging our leadership to be even more personable and empathetic, and that was the first big step in the right direction. Everything we’ve talked about and worked towards over the decades, about leadership, engagement, empathy and trust came together very quickly. Our leadership became more visible 24/7.
May Faraj: We’ve seen a major shift in the Middle East in terms of spending and focus areas, particularly when it came to the ‘health’ aspect of HSE. It touches back on Shaun’s point around mental health and the well-being of the workforce. It was a challenge, and our focus shifted towards a more important area, the health and well-being of our employees. Another opportunity I see is relevant to digitalisation and automation, and their importance with unmanned systems and assets on-site which reduce incidents and exposure.
Shaun Hannam: We have to be innovative, and think about how we could evolve. Technology played a big part in that, with most of us working remotely. In a project environment, you don’t have that luxury, so we had to go back to basics, to care and trust, to make sure our people were in a safe environment and that we understood what they were going through personally.
