Safety: Unconditional commitment

Valery Krasnikov joined the group in 2015, he is HSE Manager in Russia. Profile of a man who loves his profession.

“Essential”: the word that Valery Krasnikov uses to describe HSE management.

“Safety vitalizes the company”, he goes on to explain. “At BOURBON, safety is about unconditional commitment: it forms the backbone of the group’s operational excellence.”

At Bourbon Baltic, the affiliate based in Saint Petersburg, Valery Krasnikov has set his sights on developing a safety culture. His goal: “To make safety a constant priority, for all.” With 30 vessels under his supervision, he is in contact with many people: crew members, Contracts Managers, local managers... “because we are all responsible for safety, and safety must be an integral part of each step in a project,” he says.

FROM NEAR MISSES TO ZERO ACCIDENTS

How to fuel interest in a safety culture among team members? Answer: by seizing on all educational opportunities. Near miss incidents provide good opportunities to improve: “We analyze these near miss incidents in detail, in order to determine where things went wrong.” By doing so, Valery Krasnikov raises employee awareness about the importance of procedures: “Our standards, among the highest in the offshore industry, are there to ensure human and operational safety. Procedures should be followed automatically, it should be like a reflex. Accidents can always be avoided,” he insists. Like all BOURBON HSE managers, Valery Krasnikov aims to achieve “zero accidents”. In order to do so, a systematic approach is required: defining areas for improvement along with proactive measures, corrective action when needed, systematic performance assessment based on KPI.

SAFETY TAKES ME HOME

With awareness campaigns, Valery has added another achievement to his list of accomplishments. He is deploying the Safety Takes Me Home group campaign on all vessels in operation, and is developing his own initiatives: “I determine which areas need improvement at the internal level, and define a theme to be developed each week over the course of 4 months.” Employee involvement is the key to “collecting their feedback, their opinions, their ideas for improvement... and strengthening awareness.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSMISSION

Even when he’s not working, Valery Krasnikov always remains passionate about the offshore industry and safety. During his free time, he teaches classes at the Saint Petersburg maritime university and advises students who are about to obtain their degrees. “It’s my way of passing on knowledge to the younger generations,” he concludes.