Employee and Contractor Safety

Understanding the principles of behavioral safety and implementing well-planned interventions is an excellent way to continually improving work-place safety performance. The Behavioral Observation Program is aimed at proactively identifying and eliminating hazards at the workplace through active participation by line management and frontline staff and contractors. Qatar Steel utilizes an IT-enabled reporting and action planning platform for employees to record observations. The program is based on monitoring the quality of observations as opposed to quantity of observations, with the necessary analysis and determining of trends to improve the workplace. Periodic analysis of these observations enables effective follow-up and improvement projects where necessary. In order to encourage active participation in this program, individual and team engagement is tracked through the relevant KPIs.

Occupational Health and Safety

A number of supporting measures were also implemented in 2020 in order to enhance the quality of behavior observations and to maintain the engagement of workforce. These included, but not limited to the following:

• Each worker and contractor employee working with Qatar Steel has been made aware of their right and responsibility to observe, intervene and stop unsafe work through their induction training and annual refreshers. Training are provided to workers by the in-house BBS specialist to enhance their skills on Hazard Recognition and Effective Safety Interactions which are essential to the process of conducting Observations and providing feedback.
• Analysis and trending of safety observation data is carried out to monitor the healthiness of the program, providing actionable insights to decision makers on a real-time basis. The output of HSE observation data analysis is made available to concerned stakeholders in the form of an interactive business intelligence platform. The enables identification of specific issues, and effective tracking of improvement actions on a live basis.
• Implementation of Stop Work Authority (SWA) procedure in 2020, provides the requisite empowerment for staff to effectively conduct safety observations and interactions on the frontline.

Safety Culture Survey

The HSE Department also conducted an Online Safety Survey for Qatar Steel Employees in August 2020. The
objective of this anonymous survey was to obtain candid feedback from employees regarding the following;

• Effectiveness of on-going safety initiatives;
• Perception of overall safety management and performance;
• Prevailing safety cultural norms and patterns in employee and team behaviors, and
•  New ideas and suggestions for improvement in safety

Key results and insights received from this survey are summarized below.

Contractor Safety Management Audits

Internal audits were conducted in December 2020 as part of our on-going efforts to implement and maintain an effective Contractor HSE Management system at Qatar Steel. The audits were led by our internal auditors (selected by QS CSM Committee) and involved the review of performance by 5 of our long-term contract partners working at Qatar Steel. Audit recommendations include the provision of refresher training and updating of the third-party training certificates, improvement in housekeeping levels at laydown area and periodic maintenance and upkeep of porta cabins and associated fire protection measures.

HSE Rewards and Recognition System

At Qatar Steel, we believe that lasting improvement in Safety is impossible without a motivated workforce. Our HSE Rewards and Recognition system is designed to identify and recognize excellent HSE performers (both individuals and teams) and to enable positive reinforcement of safe behaviors among our workforce. Below is a list of various opportunities available for our staff and contractors to be recognized for remarkable HSE performance.