The power of collaboration
5 February 2021
A new initiative between Safety-Improvement Company in the Netherlands and Riskonet Turkey will help a large international energy provider improve safety within its organisation.
Safety-Improvement Company (SIC), an independent partner that helps its clients improve risk management, has been commissioned by one of Europe’s biggest energy companies to help implement a large-scale project to further improve safety throughout its organisation. The client in question is active in many countries, including the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey.
Safety leadership
Guus Koomen, Senior Advisor/Trainer, at SIC, explains that they have been asked to develop a safety leadership programme in which they will provide the necessary training to its various management levels. The aim is to improve occupational health and safety across the organisation, which, given its size and type of operations, is a very important theme.
Human behaviour
There are many technological and hardware-related ways in which you can improve safety within an organisation, continues Guus, but it is also crucial to take human behaviour into account. “And that’s where we come in. One of our specialisations is teaching and developing the soft skills that are needed to improve communication and create an open atmosphere. To this end, the client has asked us to develop and implement a training programme in the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey.”
“Although we have a different focus, Riskonet and SIC work in a similar field and we complement one another when we collaborate on projects such as this one"
Guus Koomen, Senior Advisor/Trainer, at Safety-Improvement Company
Complementary
The training programme will be developed in Dutch and then given in the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey. For language and cultural reasons, such a training programme must be given in the local language by a local trainer. This isn’t a problem for SIC in the Netherlands and Germany because it has in-house Dutch and German native capacity. For Turkey, however, they are looking to Riskonet’s local partner there. “Although we have a different focus, Riskonet and SIC work in a similar field and we complement one another when we collaborate on projects such as this one,” adds Guus.
Adding value
Özlem Emgen, Riskonet partner in Turkey, is convinced that this new collaboration will add value all-round and strengthen Riskonet’s safety-related services there. Working closely with the client, and capitalising on her understanding of the local culture and language, she will start by conducting interviews according to SIC’s intended format. Afterwards, she will collate the findings, issue a document review, customize the training according to the findings and then give the training. She is really looking forward to that part of this new collaboration, as well as building on a working relationship with Guus that spans many years. “The knowhow and experience that this programme brings will help Riskonet Turkey to widen our offering of how we can help clients improve safety performance. I always enjoy adding value for clients.”
Knowledge, expertise and global footprint
The current status, concludes Guus, is that contracts have been signed and the first training sessions are planned to start in a matter of months. “Firstly, we’ll be establishing a baseline measurement, after which we will develop and implement the training programme in the relevant offices of the client. Keywords in this collaborative initiative are joint knowledge, joint expertise and global footprint. It’s perfectly within the bounds of possibility that this cooperation between us could be extended to regions like South Africa and other parts of the world.”
