The workforce for this projects changes frequently, so you don’t have much time to influence behaviour. Is that possible?
Beljaars: ‘ We asked the hein team to produce a three-minute video tailored to our situation, explaining their core message in a humorous way. Everyone involved with the project will be shown that video.
Afterwards we ask everyone whether the video was recognizable. People share their own examples of unsafe situations and start discussions about safety and how to speak up to one another.
After this session, everyone gets a hein sticker for their helmet, which works two ways. First of all, you can see which employees have already met hein, and second of all, it’s a great reminder.’
Who supervises the discussions?
Beljaars: ‘We did. Hein shouldn’t be another story told by an external advisor telling us how to do our work. It should come from us: we’re all in the same boat. The most important thing is that we can all go back home safe, but we also have to build something, of course. How can we make that happen together?’
So BAM employees suddenly become hein trainers. Do construction workers have the right skills to lead their own training sessions?
Beljaars: ‘Not all of them will be able to, so we brought in supervisors from the hein team, such as Kim Reuser. She gave feedback to our trainers, and that’s important, because asking the right questions and giving the right answers is an art, if you want to maintain an open conversation.
The discussions revolve around personal experiences and try to explain why you make some decisions even when you know they’re not right. You can only have discussions like that in small groups of 20 people at most.’
Hein produces lively conversations, that’s nice. Does it help in practice, too?
Beljaars: ‘For starters, management has to pick up on what people have their hein say. In our case, the dressing rooms were too small and this was commented on. We took action immediately, so people realized that they were actually being heard. We also promote “letting your hein speak up”, during our regular meetings with the construction crews. In those meetings, we discuss some of the risks and explain how we think they should be handled, but we also want our employees to speak up if they have other ideas. Another important practical facet are the hein ambassadors in the workplace, the “friends of hein”, enthusiastic people who occupy a central role in the group. They are our eyes and ears and always make sure to have their own hein speak up, as well as helping other people to do so.’
Are hein’s effects limited to practical issues, such as the changing rooms, or can you also see a shift in mentality?
Beljaars: ‘Mentaliteit is niet iets wat van de ene op de andere dag verandert en al helemaal niet met zoveel personele wisselingen. De vaste kern is nu een jaar bezig en bij hen leeft het echt. Dat is ook objectief vastgesteld.
De bouwwereld kent een zogeheten Safety Awareness Audit. Die meet het veiligheidsbewustzijn. Op dit project hebben we een score van 74. Ik heb nog nooit gehoord dat iemand 80 heeft gehaald, dus 74 is al heel hoog. Zo’n hoge score kun je nooit helemaal toeschrijven aan hein. Maar het is ook zeer onwaarschijnlijk dat hein daar niet aan zou bijdragen. Ik constateer vanuit eigen waarneming dat hein voor een groot deel aan die hoge score bijdraagt.’
Humour is one of hein’s central elements. Isn’t humour and safety a strange combination?
Beljaars: ‘Apparently it isn’t, because humour creates an environment in which you can admit to your own mistakes. Everyone recognizes their own mistakes, as well, and we can laugh about it as a group, which is very liberating.
During the hein sessions, cartoon artists rework the topics that have come up into drawings. You can be sure that you won’t forget the cartoon referring to your story.
We also use the cartoons to keep hein alive, as it were, by selecting a “cartoon of the month” After each project meeting we find a relevant cartoon and discuss it. Afterwards, we put it in our emails and hang them all over the construction site.’
‘They’re all grown-ups, right? Surely they can tell each other what’s on their mind?!? However, things just work better when hein is involved.’
In conclusion, introducing hein isn’t the easiest task.
Beljaars: Not yet, but hein is known in more places around BAM. We can share our experience throughout the organization, and make it easier to introduce hein in future projects. Moreover, lots of people from BAM and our partners have already met hein, so it’s possible that hein will only get bigger. We’ll be working on Nieuw Hoog Catharijne for another three years, so at the moment we’re concerned with keeping hein in place.
To ensure everyone remembers hein, we’ve created a poll that is taken by all employees. It consists of a number of statements that they can let their hein address. We collect all responses with an iPad, so we can get an idea of the situation on the construction site and what needs to be done. This allows us to take action, so that our people feel they have been heard. When everyone’s opinion truly matters, that only increases cohesion, which means that everyone starts feeling responsible for safety on the construction site. Looking back, I remember a time when some people in the company weren’t sure about hein, thinking: “They’re all grown-ups, right? Surely they can tell each other what’s on their mind?!?” As it happens, though, things just work better when hein is involved.’
