Danny Vara, Chairman of the Board, Houston Area Safety Council
I joined the oil and gas industry in 1977 and moved to Wyatt Field Service in 1985 -- where I still work over 30 years later -- as a part of the field and safety personnel department. At that time, safety was just a part of another department rather than an independent group within a company. We hadn't seen the advent of the full health, safety and environmental departments that we see today. I began volunteering with the Houston Area Safety Council (HASC) the day it opened its doors in September 1990, joining the board of directors in 2000. I'm now on my third term as chairman. I've had the unique opportunity to be on the frontlines, seeing what changes needed to be made and then influencing those changes through organizations such as HASC.
When I started in the industry, a safety team within a company was typically one person who did not play a significant role in daily operations. Subsequent incidents and unfortunate catastrophes were what created the need and formed safety into what it is today. Once it was realized that safety was more than just a box to check, we began to see collaboration amongst local safety professionals. Up until that point, everyone worked in a silo and had been creating what their company felt was the best safety program, going with what they saw as best practices. There was no real standard to operate from at the time. There were basic training and orientation programs that employers were creating and providing themselves, but nothing to ensure that employees had an idea of how to be safe at specific sites.
As the years went by, safety teams grew and separated from personnel departments, and then began to collaborate on safety programs and general industry standards. Owners and contractors began to develop site- and company-specific training in order to ensure that anyone coming into their facilities was trained to the best of their ability on how to be safe, not only according to company standards, but specific site standards as well. HASC was started through peer collaboration after a local catastrophe and provided these trainings to contractors, and we have seen the safety side of our industry grow and get better every year since. The need for continued improvement has led to the creation of interactive customer tools that allow both contractors and owners to be more efficient in getting employees trained and to work. This need also led a culture change toward focusing more on soft skills centered on people, in addition to teaching and maintaining technical skills.
The need for contractor safety spurred the computer-based and instructor- led training that we all use today and will continue to spark future innovation in safety training. The desire to share best practices and highlight the contractors doing their best to work safely in local facilities also spurred the Houston Safety Excellence Awards, which is now going into its 33rd year of evaluations and awards. The evaluation process is strengthened each year due to continued involvement from both owners and contractors who are intent on making the workplace safer every day.
Safety professionals are faced with different challenges both in their work and in the level of inexperience they see in new employees who have never worked in the industry before. It can be difficult to convey the unique things the industry sees on a day-to-day basis. Safety training has come a long way in giving safety professionals a leg up on training green employees, and I look forward to seeing where it takes us over the next 30 years.
For more information, visit www.hasc.com or call (281) 476-9900.
