V.Group has been nominated for the SAFETY4SEA Initiative Award, to be awarded to any organization or association that sparked, realized, or significantly contributed to any initiative fostering safer and sustainable shipping.

V.Group is committed to achieving the highest level of safety and sustainability excellence and is proud of its extensive ongoing safety training. In order to measure colleagues’ attitudes and beliefs around safety, V.Group collaborated with Lloyd’s Register to conduct a Safety Climate Assessment in 2019. This was a repeat of an assessment carried out in 2015. It was recognised that safety performance demands behavioural change from the top down, and therefore 11,000 colleagues at all levels were invited to take part.

Focus on fostering safer shipping

The results of the 2019 Assessment allowed V.Group to focus on the strongest safety climate performers and those with the most improvement opportunities. It provided targeted recommendations and highlighted the most safety aware groups so that initiatives could be launched, specifically targeting those that require improvement. The 2015 Assessment highlighted that 50% of respondents did not believe a serious incident could occur, showing a possible lack of vigilance.  In the 2019 Assessment this fell to 30.2%. In the 2021 data it improved further to 27%.

Pandemic planning

In 2021, planning and preparation, implementation and data gathering, and analysis and reporting took place over a three-month period. The pandemic meant data collection had to be carried out remotely. Assessment results were analysed independently by Lloyd’s Register. The 2019 survey showed overall improvement in safety awareness compared to 2015.

2021 showed further improvement in safety awareness, specifically, V. Group has:

• A better than marine industry average for safety awareness overall.
• Much higher safety awareness for the effectiveness of controls than comparable groups.
• Higher awareness of supporting systems when compared to other Tanker companies.
• A better safety awareness for the basic principles of risk awareness.

The safety of crew and colleagues is at the heart of everything at V.Group. Investment into regular Safety Climate Assessments allow V.Group to focus on the strongest safety climate performers and those with most improvement opportunities. The Group can then address targeted recommendations to promote continuous improvement.  As a result of the surveys, initiatives have been rolled out across the business which have a long-term impact. Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, V.Group carried out the initiative in 2021 as a mark of its commitment to achieving the highest safety standards.

The winners of each category will be determined by an online public vote, which is now live, and will be announced during the SAFETY4SEA Virtual Forum on 20^th October 2021. To cast your vote, visit the 2021 SAFETY4SEA AWARDS website.