Step Change in Safety has received a prestigious commendation by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work for its efforts to improve workforce engagement in the offshore oil and gas industry.

Step Change in Safety’s Workforce Engagement Toolkit – which promises to positively transform the way oil and gas companies interact with staff and improve safety at worksites – was shortlisted for a European Good Practice Award.

The first of its kind, the toolkit was designed to help companies measure workforce engagement at individual worksites, identify areas of improvement and provide practical guidance on how to make these improvements.

The accolade came at the 11th Good Practice Awards in Dublin on 29 April. The awards attracted nominations from several hundred companies of all sizes from 29 countries in the EU and beyond. This year’s awards focused on the best examples of cooperation between managers and employees in risk prevention.

Step Change in Safety team leader Les Linklater said: “We know that worksites which demonstrate positive engagement with their staff on safety matters are the ones which have the best safety records, therefore the Workforce Engagement Toolkit was designed to help companies measure and improve how they do this.

“It’s an honour to receive such commendation at a European level and it is testament to the passion and drive of Step Change in Safety’s Workforce Engagement Steering Group which led the project. I believe using the toolkit will benefit not just individual worksites, but could transform workforce engagement across the UK Continental Shelf if widely adopted. Other industries across Europe and the rest of the world will undoubtedly find good practice within the toolkit which could be adopted across a much wider spectrum.”

RMT regional organiser and member of the Workforce Engagement Steering Group, Jake Molloy commented: “This is great news for the whole Step Change team but I think in particular for the Workforce Engagement Steering Group leaders, Ian Sharp and Mike Bowyer. Without their drive and commitment it might not have made it off the drawing board. It is a great initiative and, with the right input from workers, the toolkit has the potential to make a real difference.”