Keeping your employees safe in the work place should be a top priority. This is especially true in the oil and gas industry.  To that end, today’s post will discuss why HSE management is important and some techniques you can apply to your business plan.
 
Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) involves creating processes for identifying workplace hazards, reducing accidents and minimizing exposure to harmful situations and substances.  This is accomplished by developing detailed operating procedures and then effectively communicating the information to your team. It is important to ensure that the information has been internalized and must be monitored to verify that it is followed.  The main goal is to maintain a safe and productive work environment. 

Why HSE Management is Important

• It prevents your business from being fined for unsafe environments.
• It will help you keep production levels up.
• It protects your company from liability and a bad reputation.
  

How to Get Employees to Comply

Employees must complete hours of training that many people find boring and useless. To keep them interested, you should develop a safety compliance plan that is interactive, interesting, and to-the-point.

• Design the training to help your employees, keeping in mind their backgrounds and what they already know.
• Keep the training session short. Break up the information into several sessions if necessary.
• Use bullet points for large amounts of information.
• Choose carefully which topics you want to cover, to avoid information overload.
• If possible, add humor to your lessons. This will help employees connect on a different level and make the training more enjoyable for everyone.
• Make the trainings available online. This will allow employees to work on it from virtually any location, encouraging faster completion.
  

Accupoint Software provides a variety of HSE management solutions that improve operations and help businesses sort through complicated and ever-changing safety regulations. To learn more about how can help, contact us.

Per the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), every business must keep records and safety information about the chemicals they use. These records, called Material Safety Data sheets (MSDS) or Safety Data Sheets (SDS) list many types of information about the chemicals, including toxicology, ecological information, and fire-fighting measures. As part of the petroleum industry, properly organizing and managing your MSDS is important for many reasons.
 
To Comply with OSHA

OSHA requires efficient management and organization of MSDS. If OSHA decides to perform an audit, they will check to see if you have MSDS readily available, along with other important safety documentation.  Each chemical used in your facility must have an MSDS and a corresponding label on the chemical container to comply.
 
Many Types of Chemicals

The petroleum industry uses many types of chemicals in oil refineries, especially gasoline, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, and other types of fuels. These chemicals can be dangerous if proper safety procedures are not known. The MSDS for each chemical will list this information so it is readily available to all employees. Efficient management of MSDS is crucial because there are so many types of chemicals used in the petroleum industry.
 
For the Safety of Your Employees

One of the main reasons OSHA requires MSDS is in case of emergency. If there is an accident and a chemical gets into an employee's eye, another employee can look up the MSDS and find out how to treat the affected employee. Another example of an emergency situation is a fire. If a chemical fire breaks out, it is important for employees to know how to fight the fire or alert firefighters about the chemical. Having readily available and organized MSDS is imperative in these situations.
 
Contact us today to find out how Accupoint Software can help you organize the management of your MSDS program.
 
Happy New Year.