“I have worked for over twenty years in the offshore industry and I love it. During my time in the industry I grew to appreciate that as a team you develop close friendships, that relationships are formed on a professional and personal level. We form a kind of family. This is what drives my commitment to NINA: to protect my ‘family’ and to make sure they come home safe to theirs. When something happens to a colleague across the industry, this affects us all, you wonder ‘what if it was me’. I go around my vessel, and people who work with me know my ethos, saying: ‘I care for you and that is why I want you to be safe’. This is what I try to hammer home. There is nothing worse than co-workers saying ‘this is not my job, not my problem’.”

Strive for gold
Gardline is specialized in marine survey and was taken over by Boskalis in 2017. Last year NINA was introduced to the management and after the kick off in April, the programme will now be rolled out across the fleet. The company’s safety standard is high, with zero LTI’s in 2017 and 2018. What can NINA add? James: “At Gardline we were safe and we did everything required, but our culture felt at times as a blame culture. SHOC cards (GL30A) were counted to indicate which ship was the safest and this was not always indicative of the safe culture we strived for onboard a vessel. At Boskalis SHOC-cards are meant to support the fifth NINA Value, to inform and learn: What can we, together, do to avoid this from happening again within our organisation? It is this attitude that makes the difference. For me NINA is the instrument to strive for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: no injuries, no accidents. It helps to create an open, transparent and honest culture.”

It's up to me
“NINA gives me the bricks, now it is up to me to build the house. One of the obstacles is the old mindset and prejudices of long serving employees. Trust is of huge importance. What I can do is enable people to speak their mind, to listen to them and take their suggestions seriously. I believe we are on the right track: since Boskalis’ take over I see people’s perception changing and this is having a positive impact on the further improvement of safety on our vessels. When people experience that the management cares for their individual safety; they start believing that the safety programme is actually there to protect them and take a more invested approach on their day to day activities.”

“NINA gives me the bricks, now it is up to me to build the house.”