Living Up to Our Social Commitments

Albian’s BEST Observer Training reinforces safety

Shell Gives Supply Chain Management Students a Glimpse of Work After Grad

Albian Supports Community Leadership program

Work Gloves’ Value is Proven on the Job

Shell Helps Alberta Children’s Hospital

In 2006, Albian introduced training designed to increase employees’ awareness and intensity around safety. The Barrier Elimination Support Team (BEST) program trains participants to be acutely aware of at-risk behaviours and helps reinforce Albian’s safety culture.

BEST training takes place over three days, including a full day in the field to practice observations. Observers watch for potential safety hazards or behaviours in the work area that may put team members at risk.
 

The Steering Committee, made up of 15 Albian team members, designed the BEST process by reviewing reports from the last two years and using injury or near-miss situations as a basis to establish evaluation criteria. The compiled the most common risk behaviours into a checklist that observers use to evaluate everything from proper body positioning to the use of tools and equipment.

Albian achieved its goal to train 300 Albian team members and contractors by February 2007. Eventually, 100 per cent of Albian team members, including contractors, will be certified BEST observers.

In 2006, we flew 25 supply chain management students from Calgary’s Mount Royal College to see the oil sands development in Fort McMurray and the kind of work that could await them when they graduate.

Students saw our Albian Sands facility in operation and learned how supply chain management supports the industry. Seeing how the mining, processing and supporting supply chain functions operate at our oil sands project, and hearing from employees about the skills needed to work there deepened their understanding of their area of study.

The relationship between Mount Royal’s Bissett School of Business and Industry Advisory Committee partners, like Shell, assures students that their studies are relevant to the local, regional and national economies.

The tour was an example of how we demonstrate our long-term commitment in the well-being and economic viability of the Alberta economy, and supporting the Mount Royal program is a part of this. We believe that making opportunities like the tour available for students is vital as students are important to Canada’s future.

Albian Sands is supporting a regional program that will train its own team and other community members in the vicinity of our oil sands operations to become effective, long-term community leaders.

Leadership Wood Buffalo is a community-focused program designed to identify and motivate aspiring leaders in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in northern Alberta. As a member of the community, Albian views the Leadership Wood Buffalo initiative as an excellent way to identify and train the next generation of community leaders.

The eight-month course began in late 2006 and continued with monthly meetings until May 2007. A diverse group of 18 people from around the municipality, including two Albian employees were the first to participate.

The program aims to increase participants’ understanding of the region’s history, issues and activities while cultivating personal leadership qualities and awareness of community challenges and opportunities. At the same time, it seeks to establish a cross-sector network of leaders and motivate people to take action in their community.

About one out of every three injuries among our workforce involves hands. Hand injuries account for the biggest proportion of injuries, totalling 32 per cent in 2005 Slipping/tripping incidents accounted for 24 per cent of injuries, and 22 per cent resulted from being struck by an object.

Two years ago, several of our central Alberta gas plants – Caroline, Burnt Timber and Shantz – adopted a mandatory glove policy in an effort to reduce hand injuries. Those sites haven't had any hand injuries since the policy was put in place.
 

Beyond the physical protection that gloves give, wearing them seems to make workers more aware of the dangers. That’s why our Exploration and Production business now promotes the mandatory use of gloves at all its sites. If a task requires bare hands, employees must do a quick risk assessment before removing their gloves. That not only lowers the risk of injury, it reinforces the idea that the normal procedure is to be wearing gloves.

Employees and supervisors match the right type of glove to each task. It’s difficult to find any one hand covering that works universally as gloves can be designed specifically to protect against cuts, heat, chemicals, vibrations or other hazards. We continue to research the market, as we did to locate the ideal work boot.

The new Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary opened its doors in 2006, thanks in part to Shell Canada’s $200,000 donation to its construction.

As the first freestanding children's hospital built in Canada in 20 years, the hospital is important to the city of Calgary and to our employees and stakeholders in the Calgary area. Our donation, pledged five years ago, specifically went toward the hospital's Family & Community Resource Centre, which provides support for families to a much greater extent than before.

The Centre features a library and computers, and a system set up so that families can get in touch with other families who have gone through similar experiences. There is also assistance for families who speak English as a second language, if they require help. It is very valuable facility for parents and children, especially the ones involved in long-term care, such as oncology.

Shell's donation towards the Family & Community Resource Centre helps provide information to families, service providers and community members throughout southern Alberta.