Expectra News Release
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NEWS RELEASE

Expectra (Pty) Ltd

IMMEDIATE: Tuesday, 28 February 2012

THE NEXT SHIFT HAS BEGUN!

Integrated solution launched to address Occupational Risk Management in SA’s mining and manufacturing sectors

Expectra (Pty) Ltd, a supplier of risk and safety management services and products to industry in South Africa today (Tuesday, 28 February 2012) launched a comprehensive and long-term business solution, both locally and globally applicable across all industries, to inter alia address the ongoing safety challenges in South Africa’s mining and other high risk industry sectors.

The service offering, known as Expectra Organisational Behaviour Modification (Expectra-OBM™) is aimed at achieving a safer mining and manufacturing environment by offering a behavioural solution at all levels in South African organisations, to think and behave differently when it comes to safety and risks associated with the relevant industry.

The Expectra-OBM™ team spent three years to adapt and develop Expectra-OBM™ to suit indigenous mining and manufacturing conditions in South Africa and will be taken to market in association withUSB (University of Stellenbosch) Executive Development Ltd (USB-Ed) as the Academic Partner.

Lebeaux Mulder, Managing Director of Expectra OBM says the need for Expectra-OBM™ stems from an ongoing need not to only raise South Africa’s safety standards to those of other major international mining and manufacturing economies, but to completely eradicate fatalities and serious injury.

The Expectra-OBM™ process as adapted for South African circumstances is explained in a new book which was also released today and which, the Expectra-OBM™ is promoting as part of the company’s intention to introduce innovative, yet more simplistic and workable solutions specific to high risk industries in South Africa.

The book, entitled "Terra Firmer: Organizational Behavioural Modification was written by Professor Philip Frankel, together with Lebeaux Mulder who provided the technical input.  

Mulder says South Africa’s mining industry has committed itself to Zero Harm by 2013. “Yet we had approximately 126 deaths last year and 300 injuries per month. If we are to reach the 2013 milestones we have to improve our safety by 30 percent each year. This is especially problematic in the gold and platinum sectors as we can see from a casual glance at the newspapers any day of the week. Behavioural competence on our mines must be developed at every level – mining personnel are good at moving rocks but should also be moving people.’

“While motivated and fine-tuned by extensive research over many years in the mining sector, Expectra-OBM™ will also be used to accelerate and develop sustainable safety in other complex high risk organizations such as the petro-chemicals industry, manufacturing industry, the public transport sector and others” says Mulder.

“As much as 90 percent of industrial accidents world-wide have behavioural origins and it makes  little sense to invest the greater majority of our time, money and energy into technical solutions only that deal with 10 percent of the problem.”

Expectra-OBM™ emphasizes that issues must be dealt with on a strategic and integrated basis if safety is to drastically improve. “Too many safety initiatives in South Africa fail because they involve random patching as problems arise or tactical adjustments - putting plasters on the patient - as reactions to accidents” says Mulder.

“What is required is to make a quantum leap forward in safety through a holistic approach since the root causes of all organizational incidents – leadership, risk-management, communication and culture – are inextricably interconnected in itself, as well as in the organization. This represents a new view of the safety market and will support governments, unions and key figures in industry to achieve stellar safety performance standards.”

END

EDITOR’S NOTES


About the Expectra OBM’s™ future positioning

The mining industry, high-risk manufacturing sectors, unions, government and workers all stand to benefit from improved risk and safety performance.

While industry leaders have taken great strides in improving safety standards and minimizing risk, we have taken a further step towards improving safety performance standards by focusing on the embedding of mechanisms within the actual structure of the organisation, fusing the virtues of business with integrated safety.

With this, our aim is to create a culture of safety at every level of an organisations’ hierarchy, thereby inculcating a sense of proactivity that integrates safety as an intrinsic part of everyday activities. In this way, safety becomes a journey guided by methodological implementation rather than a set of ad hoc courses of action undertaken in the event of something going wrong.

We believe that each step in the process towards safety is integral to the success of the entire journey. We are, therefore, proud to say we provide a total solution. In the same way it takes a village to raise a child, it takes every individual within an organisation to raise the safety record of an entire industry.

Our holistic perspective allows us to identify root causes stemming from organisational inefficiencies, while continuous monitoring makes it easier to begin determining leading organisational safety indicators. Our assessments, using modern scientific principles of safety and risk management, are conducted in partnership with a credible, well-established tertiary institution that provides valuable academic support.

This ‘World Best Practice’ model is a South African-developed solution. In addition, it is the first and only comprehensive and long-term business solution, both locally and globally applicable across all industries, from mining to manufacturing, effectively improving the management of your business – supporting government, unions and key figures in industry to achieve stellar safety performance standards.

We invite you to be a part of history in the making. To become the case studies and success stories that legacies are made of. To shift the way you think and make the change to save even more lives.

More about Expectra-OBM™ and Mine Safety in South Africa

The mine safety crisis in South Africa can be explained in two ways. Technically we need better systems, technologies, procedures and enforceable rules. Behaviourally there are problems with the mind-sets in the industry. People do not follow the rules, they don't know the rules, and they are encouraged not to be rule-compliant by their peers and above all by their leaders – supervisors and managers going after maximum production with safety as secondary considerations.

Expectra-OBM™ believes that accelerated and sustainably safer South African mines need to address their behavioural problems above all else. As much as 90 percent of industrial accidents world-wide have behavioural origins and it makes no sense to invest the greater majority of our time, money and energy into technical solutions that deal with 10 percent of the problem.

Traditional Behaviour Based Safety Models has produced limited results because the models, drawn from the experience of places like Canada, the USA or Australia, have little relevance to the indigenous conditions of mining in South Africa.

Expectra-OBM™, on the other hand is tailored to the exact circumstances of each mine to which it is applied. It is not off the shelf and based on the principle behind BBS that one size fits all.

Mining leadership can now   affirmatively commit to safety as a normal part of the business process. This means recognizing the business case for safety, more meaningful managerial contact in  the workplace and a level of care that goes beyond lip service to ‘safety first.’

Risk management processes, normally focused upon technical risk, need to give far more attention to human behaviour and propensity for risk-taking in South African mining conditions.

South Africa’s mining culture, traditionally based on hierarchy, aggression, blame and workplace disempowerment needs to be changed to a participant culture that emphasises care, fairness, accountability and trust. Only then will it be possible to engage the workforce in safety initiates that are driven throughout the organizational structure.

Expectra-OBM™ emphasises that issues must be dealt with on a strategic and integrated basis if safety is to drastically improve. Too many safety initiatives in South Africa fail because they involve random patching as problems arise or tactical adjustments - putting plasters on the patient - as reactions to accidents.

What is required is a holistic and integrated approach since the root causes of accidents – leadership, risk-management,communication, culture and human behaviour – are inextricably interconnected. This represents a new view of the occupational risk management platform.

Behavioural competence needs to be developed at every level – mining personnel are good at moving rocks but should be moving people too.

The Expectra-OBM™ concept and process advocates five key issues that drive organisational behaviour – leadership, integrated risk management (technical),Safe human behaviour,culture and communication.

Both vertical and horizontal communication in mining operations needs to be improved so that HIRAC, performance observations and reporting can support organisational learning on a continuous basis.

Expectra-OBM™ has a massive suite of tools to deal with critical safety issues. These include programs to repurpose leadership, to scientifically assess mining organisations in the process of ensuring that interventions develop traction, to improve risk management, planned task observations, HIRAC, behavioural capacity, Visible Felt Leadership, fatigue management and worker engagement. All of these are not stand-alone interventions but take account of the holistic nature of mining organizations in an integrated way.

Expectra-OBM™ is not meant to replace existing systems and programmes in place at any organisation, but aims to add-value to what is already being done to address occupational risk management challenges.

It is not a checklist approach – [‘yes, we have already done this and ticked the box’] –but rather an impact based initiative that has its focus on   organisational behaviour in the first instance and supports a holistic business performance objective.

About Expectra

Expectra (Pty) Ltd, world class provider in occupational riskmanagement solutions,offers consultancy, training and system implementation in numerous industry types, with the Expectra-OBM™ process as the basis to it all.

As such Expectra is a pre-eminent supplier of occupational risk management services and products that are distinguished from its competitors by innovation and quality.

The company is backed by the best consultants in the industry, bringing experience and fresh perspectives to every day challenges. Their experiences cover the Mining, Chemical and Industrial Business sectors and collectively, have extensive practical experience in their respective fields.