Workplace safety is an issue that demands attention, especially for operations that deploy personnel in the field who often have to work alone in hazardous or isolated conditions.

In Canada in 2004, more than 900 people died as a result of work-related accidents or diseases, according to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. That means, on average, that close to four workers are killed every working day.

It goes without saying that workplace safety is a constant focus for oil and gas operations. An integral part of any safety program is establishing call-in guidelines and processes to monitor the well being of personnel working in the field.

This is no easy task in a world where communications can be sporadic at best and where there is considerable margin for human error that in many cases is rooted in simple absentmindedness. Meeting legislated safety check-in mandates is difficult for operations where field personnel are simply too busy to call in at designated times.

Even if a program is in place to page or call field personnel on a scheduled basis, they will often delay responding if they are involved in a complex task or in a location where call-outs to home office are inconvenient. This places the onus on operators to not only make the calls and track responses, but also to implement the correct escalation processes when required and log all activities associated with the event, from initial call-out to response times and action items.

However, having enough human resources on hand to monitor and log worker responses at all times from all locations is both costly and complex for oil and gas operations who can have hundreds of individuals out in the field at any given time. Given there is absolutely no margin for error, operators need to consider alternative safety check-in services that ensure consistency and maintain procedural integrity.

One option that has proven highly effective from both a safety and efficiency standpoint is outsourcing of Integrated Voice Response (IVR) services. This allows oil and gas operations to ensure that legislated safety check-in requirements are met at all times and field personnel responses (or lack thereof) are tracked and dealt with quickly and in keeping with agreed upon procedural guidelines.

In an IVR system, each person in the field is assigned a number to call when starting a job. A dedicated system works in a similar fashion to voicemail, where the caller is asked to identify themselves, their current location, their next destination, and the type of job they will be performing at that site. At specified intervals (up to four hours depending on the nature of the job, location and legislative and/or company requirements), employees are required to call into the system again. Alternatively, where organizations feel a more proactive approach is necessary, the system can be programmed to provide automatic call-outs in the form of pages, text messages or calls at designated intervals.

If the employee has not called into the system at the scheduled time, or did not respond to the automatic page, the system will wait a predetermined number of minutes and then automatically send an alert to the employee via pager or cell phone. If there is still no response, within another predetermined time frame, the alert is automatically escalated to a live service representative who can instantly retrieve the required information (employee’s name, last known location and time of last call-in) and initiate the appropriate procedures. These can range from additional call-out attempts to contacting an on-site manager or even calling 911.

With IVR services, oil and gas operators can specify their own parameters, including frequency of check-in, acceptable wait-time limits and approved escalation procedures and contacts. In addition, since the services are billed on a pay per use basis, they can be scaled to fit operations with less than 10 workers in the field or those with 500 or more. All that is required is a low set up fee and a monthly fee of $5 per employee.

In addition to the security of knowing employee check-in requirements are followed to the letter, IVR services also alleviate the worry of loss of communication as a result of power failures or other disasters. AnswerPlus operations for example, have built-in redundancy as well as established contingency plans to ensure that in the event of any interruptions at the operator’s location, employee safety is never at risk. All activities associated with check-in procedures are also accurately documented to the smallest detail, providing a valuable resource for demonstrating compliance or for conducting investigations.

There is no question that safety check-ins are integral to the health and safety of workers performing day to day field work for oil and gas operations. At the same time, managing call-in procedures for a large contingent of workers on the move is a process that often falls victim to human error.

Having an IVR service with a dedicated staff that is focused solely on monitoring the safety of workers in the field is one way to eliminate the complex logistics and costs of performing this critical function in-house. After all, worker safety depends on knowing where they are at all times and having the resources to be able to respond as quickly and effectively as possible when the need arises.

About the author: Barbara Bradbury has been in the Call Centre business since 1984. Currently Vice President of Major Accounts at An-swerPlus, she coached her team to develop the customer service skills required to earn them the #1 ranked call centre in all of North America in 2004.