The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Making a live issue of workplace safety
It is Friday morning, around 10am and I am sitting having a coffee with a press officer of the energy giant SSE in its Perth canteen when suddenly, two men dressed head-to-toe in high-vis and hard hats burst in, shouting about getting a dock cleared.
It is the start of an immersive health and safety training exercise.
I watch an argument unfold with staff, drawn in by the explanation of one chap, “Stuart” of why he is so tired: His six-month-old has been keeping him up and his digs while on duty are “not exactly the best”.
His colleague, “Mac”, an older loading technician – long in the tooth with a gammy knee – could not care less. He just wants to see Friday through and get home for some leave.
Supervisor “Billy” then thunders in. He is under pressure to get his site cleared. He shouts his way through the impromptu meeting, telling them to “get a move on” and threatening them with a delayed home-time if the work is not done.
We leave the canteen and are ushered through to the site manager’s office before landing on the dock.
Things don’t end too well for young Stuart, who is killed by a falling gas canister he is hastily loading on to a tug boat without the correct equipment.
And all this before lunch. “It is just a scenario”, I have to remind myself, as Stuart’s distraught wife buckles in grief as she is told of her husband’s demise.
Coupled with the appearance of his daughter, who will grow up questioning the word “accident” and a doctor who tells us “there was nothing left to resuscitate” it becomes apparent this is no ordinary health and safety briefing.
By the end, I am questioning the behaviour of everyone involved – Mac, Billy the supervisor, CEO Mr Banks and poor Pete, the put-upon site manager.
Which is, of course, the point.
SSE has spent £2.5 million developing the training facility in Perth.
Named after the old site near Pitlochry, the Faskally Safety Leadership Centre is the first of its kind in Scotland to use immersive training techniques.
Stuart, Mac and the rest of the gang are all fictional characters, of course, ably played by local actors using scripts typed up by local writers.
The energy giant has collaborated with the award-winning Active Training Team, which uses “neuroscientific and psychological learning principles” which it says ensure lessons are “remembered better, for longer”.
It is certainly something I will remember for a long time, but what do SSE’S staff think of it all?
I sit down, after grabbing a restorative cup of tea, with Marshall Stirling, an apprentice cable jointer.
He has completed the training programme and tells me it is one of the most intensive things he has done.
“I thought the whole experience was really interesting.
“It gives you a better insight into how everyone’s actions can have such massive consequences if the correct procedures are not carried out.
“What we have seen is only a small part of the programme, as the training takes a full day. It is really intense.
“It teaches us to stand up for the correct procedures. It is great for younger staff and apprentices who might be worried about standing up to management. It gives them that confidence.
“It is good to know we are being supported.
“Being in this immersive training pulls you into the story and it is a lot better than just watching a DVD and signing a sheet to say you have done so.”
The scenario is designed to help staff – from apprentices to the chief executive – understand how their own behaviour can impact others, as well as teaching them the communication tools needed to positively challenge corporate behaviour and bring about change.
The centre hopes to usher more than 7,000 people through its doors every year, with one-day-aweek availability for other businesses which want to book the training programme on offer.
SSE carries out thousands of high-risk operations every day and it wants to make sure everyone involved in its projects across the world gets home safely at the end of the working day.
Investing in programmes like this one and making sure staff feel supported in challenging decisions which impact on their wellbeing, are more important than any profit and loss report.