A presentation I presented in SSS Arabia Conference 2014 in Dhahran International Exhibitions Center,I spoke about: Transcending excellent safety standards throughout organization via enhancement of employee competency: Safety/HSE High performance Assurance Strategies through implementing competency models applied to Middle East construction sector with focus on Saudi Arabia

2. HSE COMPETENCY
HSE Competence is the level of ability of various staff to
effectively ensure that health and safety requirements are met
throughout their core jobs, with the ultimate purpose of
ensuring accident and fatality free business operations.
HSE competence assurance is a process designed to provide
(reasonable) confidence to management and other
stakeholders that employees have the competence
(knowledge and skills) to carry out the HSE critical tasks of
their jobs to the standard expected.

3. DIRECT BENEFITS OF HSE COMPETENCE
ASSURANCE
HSE management is all about risk management; recognizing and
working on eliminating hazards on all levels.
Poor Competence (or the lack of it) is a key business risk; if we can’t
eliminates poor competence, we have to manage it.
Poor Competence has been identified as a significant contributory
factor in major incidents; it is a contributory root cause of most
incidents and near misses ( source: www.britsafe.org ).
Companies who actively manage HSE competence invariably have
better overall performance records.

4. COMPONENTS OF HSE COMPETENCY
Education
Skills/Behaviors
Experience
Continual Professional Development
Credentialing
Competent person: Who can Consistently Apply
skills , education, experience to achieve
organizational goals

5. REQUIRED COMPETENCY QUALITIES TO
RAISE SAFETY STANDARDS
Qualities of the highest importance:
Communicating effectively
Accepting responsibility
Business Acumen
+ the ability to integrate safety into business
+ the ability to speak the language of business
4. Leadership
5. Time-Management
6. Performance and Goal Setting
7. Risk Assessment
8. Negotiating and Persuasion
9. Strategic Thinking

6. PERSONAL HSE COMPETENT
DEVELOPMENT
Define
Set / Review
Personal Goals
Assess
Identify Development
Needs
Do
Implement
Development
Actions
Review
Assess Effectiveness
of Actions
Personal Competence Development

7. EXTERNAL FACTORS IN SAUDI ARABIA INFLUENCING
HSE COMPETENCY AND SAFETY PERFORMANCE OF
ORGANIZATIONS
HSE rules and regulations/safety professionals are excluded
Project/site managers define the HSE standards in the company
Costing / Low training budgets. Lack of HSE specialized training
institutes.
Compensation and benefits
HSE inspection and enforcement
Non-HSE professionals(not real HSE specialists) are managing
HSE

8. ACTIONS OF AN HSE COMPETENT
BUSINESS DIRECTOR
If you are a business manager, ask yourself:
•Do you allot a budget for HSE training?
•Do you make HSE part of your projects planning?
•Do you resource HSE professionals for your new projects?
•Do you promote HSE steering committees?
•Do you evaluate your staff based on their HSE commitments and
performances?
•Do you respond genuinely to HSE legal requirements?
•Do you talk about HSE in business meetings?
•Do you lead by example ?
•Do you not allow any workers start without HSE induction?

9. HOW TO IMPROVE HSE
COMPETENCY
1) Identify HSE training needs of various company staff:
a) General HSE training needs
b) Specific HSE training needs
2) Carry out a training programme based on training needs
matrices
3) Assess trainees
4) Establish and implement mechanisms for trainees to use the
new learning in the filed/ along with their core jobs to ensure
effectiveness.

10. Example: General HSE Training Needs
Course Description
Required attendees
(functions)
Duration Frequency Subjects
HSE INDUCTION &
Orientation
All New employees
4 hours per
session
At joining
All HSE subjects, policies,
procedures, risk
assessment, HSE operations
HSE INDUCTION BASE
COURSE at HO HSE
All Project Managers ,
Construction Managers,
Site Managers and
Engineers
8 hours
Session/ Half
day at HO HSE
At Hiring
All HSE subjects, policies,
procedures, risk
assessment, HSE operations
Project HSE induction
and orientation
All project based
employees and workers
To be decided
by project
Upon
commencing
job at project
All HSE subjects, policies,
procedures, risk
assessment, HSE operations
FIRST AID/ CPR Project Emergency team To be decided Yearly Certified course
Fire Marshal Project Emergency Team To be decided Yearly Certified course
Operational HSE training
and for special tradesmen
Specify tradesmen (e.g,
operators, riggers,
electricians, etc)
As required As required
External if certification
needed, and internal if no
certification is needed.

11. Sample Specific HSE Training Needs
Course
Category/
Name
FirstAid
Defensive
Driving
confinedSpace
OHSAS18001
auditor
Lifting
Operations
Scaffolding
Erection
Scaffolding
Inspection
Ergonomics&
manualhandling
FireFighter
Qualification
OSHA30Hours
HSE
Induction/Refres
her
HSELeadership
powerandhand
toolsand
Welding
chemical
Hazards
RiggerLevels
1,2,3
Taught by
External
CorpHSE
Mgr
Internal
VCorp
HSEMgr
Internal
External
External
Internal
External
External
CorpHSE
Mgr
CorpHSE
Mgr
Internal
Internal
External
Project Managers/directors O X X X
Construction Managers O O P X X X O
Site Engineers P O O P X X O
Foremen X P P P X X
Drivers or any employee who drives
own or company cars
X X P X
Riggers X X P P
Masons P P P X
Scaffolders P X X P P X
Tower and Mobile Crane Operators X X
Safety officers X X P X
HO HSE staff O P X
Office/ HO staff O P X
Lifting supervisors X X
Stores personnel P X P X X
SVPs O X
HSE engineers/managers X X P X X
HSE officers X P X
Steel erector P P X P
Workshop Supervisors O P X P X
Heavy equipment operators excluding
cranes
P X
Welders and steel cutting and fabrication
personnel
X X X
Painters P X X X X
Carpenters P X X X X

12. Sample HSE Training Programme
Training Needed When Needed
Approximat
e Cost (SR)
Approximate
Expected Number
of trainees
Responsibility
First Aid 2nd Q /2014 40 Projects
OHSAS 18001 Int Auditor 1st Q/2014 Internal 12 Corporate HSE
Scaffolding Erection 1st Q/2014 30 Projects
Scaffolding inspection
training
1st Q/2014 30 Projects
Riggers training/different
levels
1st Q/2014 20 Projects
OSHA construction 30 hours 2nd Q/2014 50-100 Corporate HSE
OSHA construction 30 hours 4th Q/2014 50-100 Corporate HSE
Defensive driving 1st Q/2014 Internal To be decided
Projects & Corporate
HSE
Confined space 2nd Q/2014 Internal 20-60 Projects
Manual handling 1st Q/2014 Internal 40-100 Projects
HSE Leadership 1st Q/2014 Internal 150-200 Corporate HSE
Chemical hazards 2nd Q/2014 Internal 60-80 Projects
Power, hand tools and
welding safety
2nd Q/2014 Internal 100-150 Projects
Fire fighting 3rd Q/2014 Internal 150-200 Projects
Total

13. Training Assessment & effectiveness
During Class
Written Tests
Group Exercises
Problem solving
Spot the hazard questions
On the job observations
Feedback from employees after training

14. Strategies to Promote HSE
Competency
Baseline:
Good HSE performance is not created by just placing the responsibility
on few people in the safety department.
1) safety has to be integrated in the HR strategy and the safety
strategy must be aligned with classical human resource
responsibilities specifically related to learning and development
a) Employee safety performance evaluation and gap analysis.
b) Strong safety focus on all company’s training programmes
(e.g, project management, leadership, etc).
2) Integrate safety considerations on all HR processes, like
recruitment, retention, hiring and firing, promotion, leadership.

15. Benefits of integrating HSE with HR to
promote HSE competency
1) Employees will comply with HSE requirements as part of HR
requirements and that creates focus on HSE from the moment
employee is on-boarded, resulting in creating good HSE culture.
2) The basis of strong HSE performance is the existence of a culture
based on learning, feedback, knowledge sharing and constant
improvement.
3) it is essential to incorporate the HSE action plan, strategies and
goals in the overall HR effort. This will emphasize the principle
that everyone in the organization, on shore and on board, has an
important role to play and should take responsibility, and that HSE
should be integrated in all work processes throughout the
organization.

16. HSE Organizational Integration Methodology
Checklist
Checklist for areas to ensure integration of HSE in HR KPI –
• Is HSE part of the KPI's of the company?
• Recruitment strategy - Are we adding HSE questions to interview, and give new hires HSE
induction?
• Competency management - are HSE competencies defined and part of the competence
management system?
• Job descriptions - Are roles and responsibility made clear in relation to HSE procedures?
• Appraisal systems - do appraisal processes involve discussions and measurement of HSE
performance of staff?
• Training programmes - Are HSE training needs identified and training programmes executed?
• Leadership philosophy - does the leadership strategy incorporate consideration for leading
HSE from top to down?
• Learning and development philosophy - does the learning and development strategies
reflect best practice for knowledge sharing and learning from the HSE area?
• Communication strategy - does the communication strategy involve an internal
communication policy for HSE communication?
• Retention strategy - Is good HSE performance made part of the retention strategy

17. Concluding Points
• A genuine HSE culture is characterized by employees who show
readiness to take personal leadership at all levels of the
organization, take own initiatives to pull for insight and
development. All these factors have proved to be good for
recruitment and retention as well.
• Organization shall integrate HSE in business processed
• Develop robust HSE training programmes after identifying needs

18. Thank You For Listening