Company-Wide Effort to Create High-Quality HSE Culture

In the world today, companies should no longer view occupational health and safety (OH&S) as a burden. Rather, they should view it as an opportunity for self-examination and an essential condition for achieving sustainable operations. No one would like to see an incident occur in the workplace. So to achieve the vision of zero incidents, company-wide engagement to form a robust health, safety, and environment (HSE) culture is necessary. 

At CTCI, we truly believe that if a company wants to do well in terms of HSE, such practices have to be implemented from top to bottom. An HSE culture reflects the attitudes, beliefs and values shared by employees on safety issues. The most critical factors in determining an HSE culture are the support from leaders, active participation of employees, and the establishment of a safe working environment.

Visible Leadership

Leadership and the support from top management are the primary keys to promote and establish HSE culture. The top management acts like a shining flag by taking the initiative to support such culture and encourage employees to follow suit, so that they would firmly believe in and implement safety principles during daily operations.

I. Top Management Signs HSE Policy Statement 
CTCI President and all heads of Business Unit need to sign the CTCI HSE Policy Statement, which promises that CTCI would continue to improve employee’s health and well-being, environmental protection, risk management, legal compliance, and contract fulfillment. Jointly, they commit to providing employees with a safe and secure workplace. CTCI requires those who enter our sites to abide by our HSE policy. We also fully communicate with our suppliers and partners to convey our HSE policy.

II. Managers from All Levels Directly Involve in HSE Practices
CTCI requires that, regardless of the type of company or projects, all levels of management should take HSE issues seriously. They should frequently talk about HSE related topics, hold toolbox meetings, visit sites, and directly interact with the workers on the front-line. When a major incident occurs, top management of the department must go to the site with project managers to understand the situation, so that colleagues feel that the company really cares for their safety and health. That way, we can foster a “safety-first” working atmosphere.

Full Employee Engagement

The primary key to maintaining a culture that stresses on safety and environmental protection is "people." A successful HSE culture not only depends on the commitment and support from top management, but also depends on the participation of employees at all levels. By holding various HSE activities, we hope that employees can understand the types of behaviors that are acceptable by our company’s culture and gradually increase their HSE awareness, so that HSE practices can be carried out during daily work.

In recent years, CTCI has held annual "CTCI Group HSE Serial Activities." We integrated a number of large-scale promotion activities about HSE, and use a systematic approach to build our HSE culture. At the same time, these activities show support to the annual "National Workplace Safety and Health Week Activity Implementation Plan," which is organized and encouraged by the Ministry of Labor’s Institute of Occupational Safety and Health for corporates to take part.

In the following section, we will share some of the “CTCI Group HSE Serial Activities” that took place in 2021, including letters from top management, HSE fun contests, site HSE promotion, selection of subcontractors with outstanding annual HSE performance, and group annual HSE meeting.

I. Letters from Top Management
Support from top management is crucial to the success of any activity. A highlight of “CTCI Group HSE Serial Activities” each year is that the top management at CTCI would address all staff and express their care in the form of open letter on April 28, known as World Day for Safety and Health at Work, about the importance of employee safety and the management’s support for HSE activities. The letter would be announced on an internal bulletin board called EIP website, as well as be posted around all our sites and fabrication plants.

II. HSE Fun Contests
The purpose of HSE Serial Activities is to enhance all staff’s awareness on HSE issues, so that they can discover the connection between HSE and daily work. To encourage staff to participate in these activities, we arranged various interesting contests, including “Safety Moment PowerPoint Slides Contest”, “Photo Contest” and “HSE Slogan Contest.” By taking photos, making slides, and creating interesting slogans, staff are encouraged to think deeper about HSE issues and have a deeper knowledge on HSE concepts.

In 2021, in addition to the aforementioned activities, we held a new contest called Spot the Safety Hazards contest. The contest, which took the form of online questionnaire through Survey Cake, required staff to look at various pictures and identify potential HSE hazards. This contest is a useful way of allowing staff become more capable at identifying hazards.

III. Onsite HSE Communication 
Compared to office environments, worksites have higher HSE risks. To reduce the risks and increase the effectiveness of on-site HSE management, we would invite clients, project management teams, on-site engineers, and subcontractors to join our onsite HSE communication sessions. These sessions involve experience sharing on major occupational accidents, as well as on common audit non-conformities.

In 2021, 73 projects sites and fabrication plants across CTCI Group have completed communication sessions, which saw around 6,600 participants in total.

IV. Annual Selection of Subcontractors with Outstanding HSE Performance
A successful safety culture not only depends on the participation of employees, but also the effort of all subcontractors. To motivate subcontractors to invest resources into HSE and build a safe and healthy working environment together, CTCI would select and commend domestic and foreign subcontractors who have excellent HSE performance, as a way of influencing other suppliers. 

In 2021, HSE Management Department joined forces with the Procurement Department in holding an online global supplier conference. At the conference, CTCI gave awards to subcontractors with outstanding HSE performance as a way of giving recognition and conveying CTCI's "Safety First" principle and "HSE Management Requirements" to all participating subcontractors. By working together, CTCI and subcontractors can create a high-quality and a safe working environment.

V. Group Annual HSE Meeting
Globally, there are over 40 affiliated companies across CTCI Group. Since every company plays a part in projecting CTCI’s brand image, we have been promoting “Alliance Lead” since 2017 to ensure that all companies apply the same health and safety management standards, despite differences in size and other characteristics between companies.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Annual CTCI HSE Meeting 2021 was held online. The meeting provided a perfect ground for HSE managers from all companies to share their experience and expertise as well as learn from each other.

Conclusion

Organizational health and safety is the foundation for a business to build sustainable operations. At CTCI, we continue to advance our management mechanisms to ensure the working environment is safe. We also hold various HSE activities to increase HSE awareness among employees so that HSE practices can be carried out smoothly. We constantly improve safety culture and are committed to integrating HSE into the daily work and lives of employees. 

We believe that employees are CTCI’s most valuable assets, and therefore have always prioritized workers’ safety. We will continue to pursue HSE excellence and provide safer and more reliable engineering services, so that every worker and their family can be assured that their loved ones will come home safely at the end of the day.