After being scrutinized of not taking in consideration the safety of its employees BCL mine management in Selibe Phikwe introduced Behaviour Based Care (BBC) project aimed at improving the risk management performance of the company.
The project address a wide array of risk exposures by focusing on the behaviour of all persons associated with the activities of BCL, both at operational level and the managerial level.
Speaking at the BBC stakeholders breakfast briefing International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA) representative Maine Mulder said when eliminating at-risk behaviours not only employees are involved.
“ we have to remember that at-risk behaviour includes the so called non-caring behaviours, it is important for managers and supervisors at all levels in BCL to demonstrate to employees that they truly and genuinely care about them,” he said.
Towards the end of 2013 IRCA conducted a perception survey in that highlighted that leaders and employees in BCL are willing to exert effort to make safe production a value they live by; leaders in BCL communicate safety related issues to employees and that BCL employees are committed to take accountability for their own safety and that of their colleagues.
The survey also pointed out that there were challenges related to behavioural issues in BCL by both employees and management, which are now being attended to and addressed by the BBC process.
Statistics shows that 87 percentages of injuries are caused by at-risk behaviour. BCL has managed to reduce number of employees who suffered injuries from 800 employees in a year in 1999 to a 100 in 2012.
BCL general Manger Daniel Mahupelo said BCL is the integral part of Selibe Phikwe, “Selibe Phikwe is ours, everything good or bad in this very town affect us. We believe in sharing and creating awareness to our stakeholders on what we are doing. We are here to share with our stakeholders what we are doing on issues of safety. After being scrutinised for not putting in consideration the safety of our employees the truth of the matter is that is that we are taking safety seriously,” he said.
BCL Divisional manager- Resource Planning Harold Van Zyl said BCL is aiming for zero harm now and then, “after our successfully reduction of injury rates we want and we are determined to achieve a zero harm in near future. We know it will be a journey that will require time and commitment and cooperation between the employees and the BCL management but we can assure that we will achieve this goal,” he said.
Van Zyl emphasised that there are certain elements that can lead to at-risk behaviours. The elements include: Taking a short-cut or omitting steps in a procedure; Continuing with task while distracted, improper manual handling, Ignoring or contravening a Cardinal Rule and using alcohol or drugs on the job.
