HSE Community Insights - Adrian Black
We spoke with Adrian Black, Asia Pacific HSEQ Director at Altrad Services, the integrated business of Hertel Modern and Cape PLC who specialise in providing industrial services to the Mining, Oil and Gas and Construction sectors, to gain insights into Adrian’s HSE journey to date, what opportunities the sector are faced with and advice on future HSE capability requirements.
What do you think the 3 biggest opportunities that the HSE profession are faced with in the constantly changing world of work?
1.Creativity
“Creativity, we have never lived in a time where people have been able to think as freely as they can now. There’s no such thing as a bad idea anymore, sure some ideas need enhancements, for example, who would have thought ten years ago that you would be able to get your breakfast delivered to your door via a bicycle! We can now look at initiatives, opportunities and ideas that we would previously have turned away from”.
2.Technology
“Technology, we have an increased opportunity now for using technology both for the measurement of effective operations and how we communicate with people. On a personal level, a lot of the communications I send out goes through various channels including, social media, instant messaging and so on. I can quickly communicate with my workforce of 7,000 people around our region”.New Paragraph
3. How we engage with contractors
“Engaging Contractors, I work for a contracting organisation, that contracts to others. I now have the ability to get specialised contractors on an as needs basis – so access to better people far quicker than ever before”.
What are the top 3 capabilities required in your view for success in the future?
- Effective Listening
“We need to listen to understand as opposed to listening in order to respond. I think a lot of people jump to solution mode in a conversation far too early as opposed to taking the time to explore and really understand the root of the issue and discovering where the opportunity lies”.
2. Enabling people to generate ideas.
“I quite often think of myself as a farmer, I am happy to plant the seed, and then get others to water it. What that means is that I get a better level of buy-in, I help people to generate their own ideas and that means a better outcome for all involved”.
2. The ability to lead and manage great people.
“Good people employ great people, I’ve surrounded myself with great people on my team and that presents the challenge around how to manage, lead and motivate those people. We need to move away from the fear of having others around who are in a lot of cases, better in the work environment than we are. In my case, I understand the business and my team understand the task, therefore, collectively we work well together. Its about adjusting your management style in order to get the best out of our people”.
Looking back over your career, if you could change one thing, what would that be?
“I would have put a stronger focus on Mental Health many years ago. There has been a lot of focus over the last 5 years around mental wellbeing, this is probably attributed to the fact that we neglected to focus on mental health 15-20 years ago and we are now seeing the affects. We’re still being reactive in this space; we need to build resilience and confidence in order to manage mental health better”.
What is innovative about the organisation you are working for?
“We have a Program in place at Altrad that seeks ideas on innovation in our workplace. It took considerable effort to put together a framework that could offer reward and encourage the sharing of ideas in a safe space without feeling threatened. The program has proven to be successful as we’ve been able to generate substantial savings, increase morale, increase safety and productivity by asking our people what changes they would make”.
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