2019 HPRCT Conference

How do you engage a company of 5000 employees in becoming an HRO? What is the first step? How to create awareness that soft factors have strong impact? These are a few of the questions Stedin is dealing with since the beginning of its HRO-journey in 2016. Stedin is a Distribution System Operator providing critical infrastructure for 2,2 million customers including the second largest port in the world and the Rotterdam metropolitan area with its complex infrastructure. We have a highly responsible and high risk societal obligation as we provide gas and electricity behind front doors of families, entrepreneurs and companies. We operate in an ever-changing environment; policies, sustainable ambitions – which we encourage! -, safety requirements and an 24/7 alert media. We simply need to be reliable. That’s why we invest in becoming an HRO. In this poster session we will share our journey so far. The first step was an assessment by the BR- Group based on delta 5TM to learn about the gap between our current behavioural patterns and the HRO principles. Then we took a step back and started a dialogue with the BR-Group. Only after an extensive exchange of thoughts, possible scenarios and sharing ideas did we conclude that HRO was the way to go. A project board was formed with experts from various departments: Board Members, Communication-, HSSE- and Training experts, Company Lawyers, Work Council representatives, our Line management, and consultants from the BR-Group. By bringing together a wide range of expertise on a monthly basis we made optimal use of knowledge within the organisation and were we able to create widespread engagement. This board agreed upon a set of ground rules: 1. We aim for a positive approach, based on the psychology that rewarding good behaviour is more effective than punishing undesirable behaviour. 2. We realize the difficulty of changing behaviour – we are lenient towards colleagues and ourselves. 3. We allow every colleague their own learning curve and realise there will be differences within departments, groups and individuals. In 2017 Stedin started raising awareness on a large scale; in one-size-fits-all HRO-sessions for up to 12 people, every employee experienced that having procedures alone is not enough to reach goals: it was time to look critical at the impact of our own behaviour. Simultaneously Communication launched a campaign with the slogan; ‘Veiligheid – goed voor elkaar!’, which loosely translates as both: ‘ Safety - Good for each other’ and ‘Safety – well arranged’. The combination of workshops and the campaign created the buzz we needed: it shifted the conversation from ‘if you follow all the rules, you will be safe’ towards ‘safety outside begins at the office’ and ‘everyone has a part’ . In 2018 we were able to engage with different groups using gamification and tailor-made learning. Depending on the training question it could be a conversation starter or a HRO deep dive. In 2019 we will intensify the dialogue and challenge employees even more to share their HRO-story and truly grow towards a reliable organizational culture.