Behavioral programs have to fit with the workplace and higher management. Hein appeals to both.

‘The hein approach is different: it comes from within, it’s personal. In the very first round we saw surprising results come out from within the organisation’, the Board of directors and the EHS (Environment, Health & Safety) department agree.

‘The force field employees encounter in the workplace is a direct result of decisions made by people higher up, so behaviour programmes require an approach that addresses the workplace, as well as higher management. Hein appeals to both, and that’s pretty unique.’

By Jurjen de Jong

We installed the ‘Safety app’ on company smartphones, an idea put forward during a hein session. You can now find a hein calendar next to the coffee machines and the toilets, showing a new cartoon of a situation brought up by Siemens Nederland employees during the hein sessions every week. It’s hard to imagine that no one here knew who hein was just a year ago, because now we’ve not only teamed up with hein, we’re giving hein something extra as well. And our bottom-up approach hasn’t even reached the top of the organisation yet.

The board of directors and the EHS (Environment, Health & Safety) department structurally communicate about hein, and this cooperation is one of the main factors of success. Bernard Fortuyn and Stephen van Bree share their enthusiasm for hein’s ‘different’ approach, when compared to standard behavioural programmes.
Their description of these programmes is a familiar one: ‘Behavioural programmes often boil down to describing and communicating what behaviour is desired, observing behaviour in reality, and zooming in on where these two differ. They often focus on areas decided on by higher-ups. True: rules are important, and you can’t do without them. But what’s often missing, is a focus on the force fields that employees work in. The hein approach is different: it comes from within, it’s personal.
Why do you do what you do? Which obstacles do you encounter? Which dilemmas do you face on a daily basis? Do you speak up easily, and when you do, how do others react? These are the things you have to know in order to opt for a specific approach that addresses familiar problems. That’s why we chose hein.’

For Siemens, it started in the workplace. How did the people there react to discussions about obstacles and dilemmas?

Van Bree: ‘the workplace needs open communication. The toolbox meetings, for example, just aren’t functioning anymore, the way they were being structured now. Many of them are nothing more than “another compulsory safety meeting” that tries to explain yet again how to use a ladder, for instance. After the meeting, that topic is considered done and dusted. But it isn’t. That’s when the real discussion should begin: what do people think about it, what are their experiences? In which situations do problems arise, and how do people respond?

This is how you find the real dilemmas. Now we’ve decided to change our approach to the toolbox meetings; just one of the measures taken in the light of the hein workshops and management sessions.’

How does this work in practice?

Van Bree: ‘Our solution is making all standard information, such as safety instructions, web-based. One advantage is that it allows our employees to look them up whenever they want, but more importantly, it has given the toolbox meetings a whole new feel. We want open discussions about practical situations and dilemmas to be the focal points of the meetings, because it gives them a much more personal character. This is one of hein’s practical results, and it’s one that many people will enjoy.

Hein is also involved with the Siemens Safety app. How did it come about and what does it do?

Fortuyn: ‘The idea to create an app came up in the very first hein sessions. Many people remarked that there was too much bureaucracy in our organisation: if you wanted to report a dangerous situation or a near miss, for example, you had to fill out a form first. That was a major obstacle for people, and it meant that many of these situations went unreported. How do you make the workplace safer, if you don’t know what’s going wrong? Something had to be done.’

Van Bree: ‘One of the hein cartoons depicted someone visiting the medical officer. His treatment? A massive stack of forms to fill out and two aspirins for the headache that would surely give him. This is how some people felt about what was happening. The app we developed for Android and iPhone is a typical Siemens solution to the problem, and it’s had great effect: reports of unsafe situations have shot up by 40 percent. Half of those are reported through the app, and that’s before we’ve even started our campaign to promote the app.’

It’s clear that the app really helps. But cartoons on a calendar… Siemens is a world-leading company from ever-reasonable Germany. As you would expect, the Dutch headquarters are located in the Netherlands, and you´ll find the people their laughing at cartoons in every bathroom. Cartoons about safety!

Van Bree: ‘We’re not embarrassed about that at all. Siemens can be surprising as well. Of course, safety is seen as a serious theme, which it is, but approaching sensitive topics with a bit of humour can help a lot. With hein, humour occupies a central role, and rightly so.’ Fortuyn: 'The calendars are filled with cartoons produced by artists as a direct response to real situations within Siemens that were discussed during the hein sessions. They’re real and to the point, and you get to see them at the end of the session. They’re a physical reminder of the whole process of the hein session, and they’ll keep returning from then on. In later phases of hein, for example, people use them in pitches during meetings. The cartoons portray a dilemma, and each employee can show how they would act in a situation like that. What can you do to solve the dilemma?'

Was it an easy decision to start working with hein?

Fortuyn: ‘Not immediately, no. Spending money on “changing behaviour” requires some thought first. What are the returns? We weren’t sure whether we wanted to invest, at first, but if you look at the trinity of safety…

Technically, we’ve got it all together, that’s really quite easy. Managing processes and systems is slightly more complicated, but we do well in that aspect, too. Successfully influencing behaviour, that’s the tricky part. But you have to do it one way or another.’

Van Bree: ‘After my role in the company changed, I became responsible for organizing the annual Safety Day. No plans had been made on how to realize it, yet, but there was little time, and I needed something that would “activate people”. After a bit of google searching, I came across Jules Heijneman’s website. Bullseye. Initially, then, we wanted hein for a one-off session.’

Deeper insights, better choices.

‘The Safety Day turned out to be rather popular, but we concluded that a one-off approach to hein wasn’t actually that useful. However, we were also apprehensive about starting a large-scale project with hein, which was still at an early stage at that point.’

Fortuyn ‘We could only look at Linde Gas, and seeing how hein had done there was very important for us. Linde and Siemens make sure to look at what the other is doing: if Linde had opted for hein and liked what they had seen, that would be a good sign for us.

Van Bree: ‘We went for it, and we went for it big. We carefully watched how it was implemented in the workspace in my department, joining in with a large number of sessions. We immediately came across topics that we had never heard about before, a truly unique experience. You can really see the changes in the departments: they become open, leading to deeper insights and better and more conscious choices.’

Now hein is making its way to the top. Management must understand what hein entails from all the reports they’ve read, so is it necessary for them to experience hein first hand?

Together: ‘Absolutely, everyone in the company is part of the programme.’ Van Bree: ‘Of course, hein sessions for upper management will have a slightly different character, because there are different dilemmas at every level. If anything, we’ll be even more thorough for upper management, because behaviour is even more important for them. The people in charge hold the key to behaviour throughout the whole organisation, and this means they also hold the key to safety.’

Fortuyn: ‘You can look at this question from the perspective of the worldwide Zero Harm Culture @ Siemens programme, which we’re connecting hein to as well. The most important principle in this programme is: ‘Don’t compromise when it comes to safety’, not even if our client asks us to. Now you have to understand that Siemens Nederland is also active abroad on a permanent basis. Many of our clients are located in Asia, in cultures where saying “no” is met very differently than here.’

Everyone must feel supported.

'In the field, possibly in a remote location, whole teams of people might be waiting for you, the Siemens delegate, to solve a problem before they can resume work again. Every day of inaction costs a lot of money, but you might have just come off a 12-hour flight, you might have a jetlag, the final part of the journey could be a long stretch on local transport, it could be hot. Getting straight to work in these situations is simply not safe. From a safety perspective, then, you have to get some sleep first, but that won’t be a popular decision everywhere. Nevertheless, safety is important wherever you are, and you have to be able to rely on the people in charge to support you in your decisions. They, of course, have to be supported as well.

For that reason alone, upper management has to talk about behaviour. Many behavioural programmes only focus on the workplace, but the force field employees encounter there is a direct result of decisions made by people higher up, so behavioural programmes require an approach that addresses the workplace, as well as upper management. Hein appeals to both, and that’s pretty unique.'

‘Behavioural programmes have to fit in with the workplace and with higher management. Hein appeals to both.’

Reporting of unsafe situations up 40%

‘Initially, we wanted hein for a one-off session, a Safety Day that turned out to be very popular.’

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