ARU Safety Manager Independent But Collaborative Discussion Reply

please respond to Tracie:

Hello everyone.  My name is Tracie Hecht.   I currently reside in  West Texas where I work as a Safety Manager for small service company in the oil and gas industry.   I previously worked remotely for a large pharmacy/retail corporation and recently decided to get back into HSE in the oil and gas sector.  My goal is to use the knowledge gain  while completing my masters as well as the experience working in my current company to allow me to sit for my CSP  and ultimately move into a safety role for a larger corporation. 

I have worked for both large corporations and mom and pop businesses and seen where safety was it’s own division and also seen where there is one person  who is does it all.  In the company I currently work for,  safety falls under operations.   The main benefit to this structure is that there is a direct line to managers in order to make changes faster.  However, the main drawback is that safety often takes a back seat to the priorities of operations. 

I think that safety being a support unit independent  of operations is best. When it is structured this way,  the safety department provides input and guidance but  operations must take ownership of the safety culture within their departments.    The dotted line allows for collaboration with operations but also the freedom to make decisions independently of operations. The main drawback I have seen from this is that getting alignment between the two takes longer because the decisions must go up the chain and back down on both sides.