I had lunch today with my friend Murray Sunstrum. He recently started a new job with a major producer that is an owner-client of ISNetworld
TM. He responded to a couple of our blogs in the past about how ISNetworld
TM and the Certificate of Recognition programs can be complimentary… I was sceptical.
I spent years running an energy services company that had satisfied it’s COR requirements, I had not been a fan of the ISNetworld
TM system for the following reasons:
1. ISNetworld is making most of their money off of the service companies, who are being forced to use the software by their clients. These subcontractors have little input into the process and usability of the ISN system.
2. The process for energy services clients to become compliant is a lot of work, and it may not even improve their safety program. There are questions in ISNetworld that often have nothing to do with a company’s business.
3. ISNetworld’s standards are not determined by the industry and are partly driven by their internal process. (Read the comments in our blog for more ISNetworld complaints)
A few things have happened in the last week that softened my stance about ISN.
Earlier in the week, I read an article about a young person who was killed the second day on the job, which reminded me why I am constantly driven to improve safety. Ten years ago my cousin died from injuries in a drilling rig accident after spending 10 days in a coma. Those 10 days changed my life. I watched his family arrive at the hospital for the first time, and I will never forget the fear in his mother’s eyes. It has always being my belief that his death could have been prevented if a better safety management system had been in place on his worksite.
Yesterday I was talking with the new CEO of the energy services business our family used to own. Just a few months ago she had been frustrated at having to update their safety policies and answer the endless questionnaire. Having now completed that exercise, she feels that ISNetworld will give her company a business advantage moving forward; their safety program is now getting recognized by producers. (In the past, we had always been frustrated that the work we had put into our safety program was not being acknowledged by our clients.)
Finally, after I got back from lunch with Murray, I got a phone call from my brother-in-law. He owns a small energy services company (5 employees) that also happens to contract to Murray’s company. He has no safety background and little safety education, except Enform’s Safety Program Development course that is required to initiate the COR process. At different times over the last few months I had encouraged him to move forward with his safety program development. Although he is concerned about the safety of his employees, other pressing issues of a new company indirectly caused safety to get pushed to the back burner. Today, he was in a panic because he needs to get his company ISNetworld compliant before June 30! We quickly mapped out a plan to get his company SECOR compliant, which I am confident from the fear in his voice he will complete. (He decided to go with
SAFETYSYNC… good choice!)
[Note: If I didn’t know better, I would have thought Murray set my brother-in-law up to phone me to reinforce his point at lunch.]
Safety should be a business’ highest priority, at least equal to all other activities. But we all know that important tasks, like safety, are often put off at the expense of urgent tasks, like making sales or processing payroll. ISNetworld provides a system for prime contractors to track their service companies’ safety system, which results in an incentive (remaining on the vendor list in this case) for the service company to get serious about safety. If it is going to force companies to implement or improve their safety programs, which will make worksites safer and prevent accidents like the one that caused my cousin’s death… maybe ISNetworld
TM is a good thing after all.
*SafetySync is in no way endorsed, sponsored, approved by, or otherwise affiliated with ISNetworldTM.