American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2023 - 76

SpecialReport: Frac Tech Advancements
While employees value a safety culture,
it can be difficult for individuals to take
the safe path in the moment, Winchell
acknowledges. " Sometimes the risky approach
can be shorter or easier. Sometimes
people are distracted or the instructions
are unclear, " she illustrates. " As a company,
we try to make employees and leaders
aware of those influences and refocus
everything we do around making sure
everyone makes it home to their families. "
As part of that effort, Universal has
started a program to recognize stop work
calls. " Our people have the authority and
responsibility to stop work when something
unsafe is occurring, but when we
investigated incidents, we would often
find that no one spoke up about risky behavior
or hazardous situations. We wanted
to figure out why, " she says.
" As we investigated, we began to
realize that many people did not know
what a good stop work looks like, " she
relates. " Issuing a call to stop work sounds
like a dramatic event, an alarm that shuts
down everything. But the reality is, most
of the time a stop work needs to happen,
it's because of a hazard related to one
task that a small team is performing. "
For example, an employee may notice
someone picking up a defective hand
tool, working at height without being
properly tied off or installing a piece of
iron that is not rated for the task it will
be expected to perform. These mistakes
are easy to correct when someone points
them out, but they can lead to injuries if
they are missed, Winchell says.
To help employees become comfortable
stopping work, Universal is asking frontline
supervisors to recognize crew members
who do so. As part of that process,
Winchell says the company teaches supervisors
when and how to provide recognition.
" Ideally, they should give specific
praise in front of the crew member's
peers, " she outlines. " That may sound
simple, but it does not come naturally to
many people. "
Since the stop work recognition program
began in the first quarter of 2023,
almost 80 stop work events have been
highlighted, Winchell reports. She says
feedback on the program has been positive,
and it may be affecting the company's
safety metrics. " We did not have any
high-potential recordable incidents in the
first quarter, which is a significant improvement
from what we saw in 2022, "
she relates. " In the second quarter, we
are seeing fewer injuries. "
Engaging Employees
That progress comes in part from two
other initiatives, Winchell suggests. The
first, dubbed LiveSafe™, involves helping
employees articulate why they care about
safety. " The intent is for individuals to
recognize why they personally work safely,
whether it is for their family, friends and
loved ones or because they have activities
they love to do, " she outlines.
For many, that reflection is helpful.
" The oil and gas industry in general has
a big focus on working efficiently because
that is how we all make more money, so
there is a lot of pressure to work quickly, "
Winchell says. " The LiveSafe moments
prompt people to step back, share stories
about times they may have been injured
and make a personal connection to safety
that we hope will keep it at the forefront
of their minds. "
To encourage employees to adopt that
safety-first mindset, Winchell says Universal
is enlisting its frontline leaders.
" We are asking them to take 15-20 minutes
every month with each crew member to
discuss safety, " she says. " To make that
conversation as easy as possible, we put
together a questionnaire and a toolbox of
resources our leaders can use. "
The questionnaire covers why each
crew member works safely, the hazards
they frequently encounter, ways to mitigate
those hazards and lessons learned from
recent incidents, Winchell details. " The
feedback has been extremely positive
from both crewmembers and frontline
leaders, " she says. " In the past, we would
ask our leaders to discuss safety, but they
did not always know what they needed
to engage employees on and how to go
about it. The more structured process
and resources let them do it efficiently
and effectively. "
Frontline involvement is key, Winchell
stresses. " For frontline workers, their
crew members and leaders are the most
influential people in the company, " she
explains. " I can share a safety-oriented
message when I go to location, but when
it comes from someone they work with
every day, it's more powerful. "
Training
Safety training is becoming more reAfter
noticing that many people felt
uncomfortable exercising stop work
authority, Universal Pressure Pumping
launched a program to recognize
employees who do so. This sticker
shows one form that recognition
takes. The company says highlighting
wise stop work calls helps crews
realize that such decisions are rarely
dramatic events. In fact, most involve
brief, team-specific pauses to mitigate
familiar hazards.
76 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
alistic, Winchell observes. " When I started
working in the industry, training meant
listening to someone narrate PowerPoint
slides that show what personal protective
equipment is, " she recalls. " Today, we
do far more hands-on, practical training.
For PPE, we hand it out, have people try
it on and make sure they understand exactly
what it is for. "
Universal's forklift and driver training
programs also involve practice, Winchell
notes. " Before the end of the year, we
will roll out training around stepping,
handling and lifting, " she continues.
" There will not just be a slide that explains
how much people can pick up and when
they need to do a two-man carry. We will
American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2023

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