Safety Partnerships with Contractors: A Hoover/Diana Project Success Story
Authors: Toellner Jack 
Published: October 2008

ExxonMobil has an objective of an injury and illness free workplace that extends to all contractors performing work for the Company regardless of location. We understand that those processes that drive and positively impact safety (e.g., planning and communication) will also have a positive impact on quality, schedule, and cost. ExxonMobil has an internal safety principle that states that building partnerships with contractors is essential to improving safety, and that a partnership approach to safety benefits not only ExxonMobil and the contractor, but most importantly the worker. ExxonMobil also recognizes that contractors have varying cultures and other customers; and changing a contractor's safety program to meet ExxonMobil's specific needs may not optimize safety for the worker. The Hoover/Diana Project utilized a partnership approach to contractor safety and rather than change a contractor's safety program for the project, we worked with the contractors to improve their current processes and implement new processes. This approach not only benefited the Hoover/Diana Project but also future projects that the contractor may be involved in, be they ExxonMobil or competitors' projects.

The Hoover/Diana Project team recognized that there was no single solution (or magic formula) for safety; and that different organizations and cultures required different solutions. Discovering and developing these solutions were best accomplished by implementation of a Project Safety Management Steering Team. This Steering Team consisted of representatives from both the contractor's management team and the ExxonMobil Management team. The Steering Team was supported with a written charter and met monthly to specifically manage and lead the safety program. A partnership approach was utilized to identify hazards, develop systematic solutions, and resource safety. ExxonMobil provided onsite safety advisors to facilitate improvement in contractor processes such as job safety analysis (JSA) programs and safety walkthroughs.

ExxonMobil worked hand-in-hand with contractors to implement the use of leading safety indicators. These indicators served as a driver for focusing resources on incident prevention processes, allowed management to actively demonstrate commitment and leadership, and allowed the workers to get involved with measurable processes. The utilization of a partnership approach to contractor safety on the Hoover/Diana Project resulted in both short-term and longterm improvements in owner and contractor safety processes with a project safety performance that was approximately six times better than U.S. construction industry performance. Safety partnerships also have long-term benefits. Brown & Root, Saipem, and other contractors continue to maintain high levels of safety performance while working on other projects for other customers.

Safety -- It's All About People

Safety is a core value at ExxonMobil. This value is reflected in our objective of becoming the safety leader in the Corporation and industry, and our belief that all injuries and illnesses are preventable. ExxonMobil recognizes that safety performance is a key ingredient to a project's overall success, and that while outstanding safety performance alone cannot define complete success for a project, a project cannot be defined as successful without a strong safety performance.