The future of HSE is now. Stay ahead of safety trends, and don’t get left behind!”
The 2nd edition of World HSE Week – an initiative by Verve Management – played out this past week at The Millennium Airport Hotel, Dubai, UAE, and worked towards highlighting the significance of creating a workplace where the presence of a safe and healthy environment is mandated, as rapidly transforming industries continually harness emerging technologies.
The 2nd edition of World HSE Week kicked off with a 3-day Master Class from October 3 to 5, 2022 and was presented by Peter V. Bridle, highly regarded as one of the most competent Change Management and Operational Risk professionals. He has gained a well-deserved reputation for open, candid, and straight-talking leadership that has transformed some of the world’s largest international offshore companies into High-Reliability Organizations (HROs). Top HSE leaders from major industrial companies attended the masterclass, where they learned how to fundamentally change their organizations’ overall advancement and approach to HSSE management and Operational Risk through the use of cutting-edge strategies, tools & techniques, drastically different metrics, and the application of creative ways to handle potentially catastrophic outcomes at work
After the three-day masterclass, the second World HSE Summit, which was attended by many of the most important HSE leaders from various industries, marked the end of the World HSE Week. The summit brought together all-important stakeholders, including government officials, HSE experts, industry leaders, and technical evangelists, to discuss peer-to-peer idea sharing on occupational safety and health and EHS innovation strategies as a top priority for businesses while reiterating the value and financial advantages of doing so. It was an excellent opportunity to advance and network with the top players in the HSE business because the talks were guided by highly regarded and certified professional speakers from within the industry.
“Safety needs to be a top-down process; if we, as a government entity, drive HSE practices, this will allow the passage of viable information through every single level of management.” Jayapregasham Tharamapalan – Project Director of Tunnel Programs at Dubai Municipality – said, honing in on the enhancement of safety on construction sites, where worker safety should remain a top priority, as opposed to a want. He made a point of explaining the responsibilities of senior management and how doing so enables them to set an example for employees and help them understand how important their livelihood is. Risk assessment must still be done by workplace supervisors, who must also maintain efficient but cautious work practices in order to translate the results so that worker safety is not jeopardized.
One of the panelists at the summit, Motilal Chatuverdi, Vice President and Head of HSE & Security at First Abu Dhabi Bank, noted that “the enterprise risk management framework has been brought into the industry of the financial sector, and since the pandemic, the importance of risk management is immense’,” which only serves as an illustration of the future of HSE by demonstrating that it is not just limited to the industrial sector but to all workplaces.
Mr. Saleh Ali Saleh, Head of HSE at Drydocks, moderating the discussions about the role of leadership in achieving excellence in HSE, added some flavor and humor as they had a dialogue about how to ensure world-class HSE performance in the industry while highlighting the significance of leadership and ethics in safety. Salman Dawood Salman Abdulla, Executive Vice President, EHSSQ & BT at Emirates Global Aluminium was on point in his statement during the Q&A session, as one of the participants asked about some sentiments to handle psychological safety within the workplace, Mr. Salman admitted that “generally the HSE team are focused more on physiological safety and less on psychological safety, wherein rushing, frustrations, and complacency have been identified as complete distractors in the workplace which can cause real incidents on-site”, it is clearly understood that HSE covers all aspects of Health issues in the workplace, and not limited to injuries, but includes mental health.
The summit ended with a good fire-side chat among the speakers and propagated a good atmosphere for business networking among all the participants. The 2nd World HSE Week is an initiative by Verve Management, the organizers extend their appreciation to all the media partners, speakers, delegates, and leaders who attended the summit.
