Speeches<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n Keynote Address by Mr Silas Sng,\u00a0
Commissioner for Workplace Safety and Health at
the Opening Ceremony of the Singapore Petrochemical Complex\u2019s Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) Campaign 2022 on Wednesday, 5 October 2022, 11:20am\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nManaging Directors and Chief Executive Officers of Complex Companies
Distinguished viewers, ladies and gentlemen<\/p>\n
Introduction<\/strong>
1. <\/span>Good morning, everyone. Thank you for inviting me to be part of the opening ceremony for the Health, Safety & Environment Campaign 2022. The Singapore Petrochemical Complex has been a strong advocate for Workplace Safety and Health (WSH), holding a HSE campaign on an annual basis. I understand that it has been two years since the last in-person campaign, and I am glad to be able to join you physically today.\u00a0<\/p>\nPersonal Story<\/strong>
2. <\/span>The organiser have chosen \u201cMental Wellness \u2013 your story matters, speaking up helps<\/strong>\u201d for the Complex\u2019s HSE campaign slogan this year.<\/p>\n3. <\/span>So I would like to begin with a personal story that\u2019s almost 2 decades old.\u00a0 It was 2003 the year of SARS.\u00a0 I was then responsible for putting in place all the prevention measures for the Ministry at Havelock Road (a bit like the SMO for MOM-HQ).\u00a0 Back then we had thousands of customers turning up at the HQ for various transactions including foreigners who arrived from countries where SARS were detected (there were no border closure then).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n4. <\/span>It was stressful and tiring period as I recalled often being the first car in and last car out.\u00a0 Back then thermal scanner was not commercially available, and my team and I had to take the temperature of our customers individually.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n5. <\/span>One of my most poignant memories was about being tasked to draft a warning \/ alert message to be displayed at the various service counters to customers who visited us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n6. <\/span>It was a relatively straightforward task, so I drafted the message and fired of the email. Almost immediately after sending I spotted a substantive error.\u00a0 I quickly corrected it, resent, and apologised.\u00a0 Within minutes, one of the recipients called me to enquire if there was another error.\u00a0 Unfortunately there was and the third round of email, apologies went out.\u00a0 You can imagine the frustrations of my colleagues and that of my own.\u00a0 Then another call came in informing me of yet another error!<\/p>\n7. <\/span>It was then that I realised that something was wrong with me.\u00a0 I was somehow not able to think straight.\u00a0 I was reading but the brain was not processing the information properly.\u00a0 Even some of my concerned colleagues called me to ask if I was alright as it was not typical of me to make multiple mistakes like this repeatedly.\u00a0 So, I told my boss that I needed a break to rest.<\/p>\n8. <\/span>On hindsight it was most likely due to a combination of stress and fatigue, but I remained thankful for that episode because it reminded me that I am not invincible but fallible.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n9. <\/span>Fast forward to 2020, when the pandemic struck, many of my colleagues experiencing an even harsher cycle of stress and fatigue with no end in sight then.\u00a0 My experience two decades ago allowed me to empathise with my colleagues and together we rally each other on to pull through the crisis of our generation.\u00a0I am sure you too have your fair share of \u201cwar-stories\u201d in the past two and a half years of the pandemic.\u00a0 Such crisis or stories build bonds and strengthen personal as well as organisation resilience.<\/p>\n10. <\/span>I would like to take this opportunity to now share some perspective with respect to personal and corporate ownership of Mental Well-being.
Personal Ownership of MWB<\/strong>
11. <\/span>First, I believed at its core, everyone has to take individual ownership of his or her MWB.\u00a0 From a WSH angle, an employer can \u201cforce\u201d employee to follow a certain SOP or wear a requisite PPE.\u00a0 But you cannot force an individual not be stressed or maintain a certain level of MWB.\u00a0 MWB is a multi-faceted manifestation.\u00a0 What happened at home can affect your performance at work and vice versa what happened at work can affect your mood back at home.\u00a0 If you have a big argument with your spouse and you can still come to work feeling zen and performed at 100%, pls share your secret with all of us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n12. <\/span>On a more serious note, let me share a more tragic story.\u00a0 In the process industry, purging is a high-risk albeit fairly common activity which is why governed by various PTW or SOP.\u00a0 In 2020, two technicians were tasked to purge a unit for subsequent maintenance and so they connected the nitrogen hose to the unit\u2019s outlet line.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the moment the purging commenced, the nitrogen hose burst due to the ingress of high pressure ethylene gas from the outlet line.\u00a0 This resulted in pressurised ethylene gas being discharged and subsequently ignited into a flash fire. Sadly, both technicians died from the extensive burns.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n13. <\/span>Our investigation revealed that a critical step of opening the valve to depressurise ethylene gas in the outlet line prior to the nitrogen purging activity was missed.\u00a0 This could have been easily accomplished in the central control room by a boardman.\u00a0 Unfortunately on that fateful day, the communication broke down and the boardman was not aware of the purging activity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n14. <\/span>On hindsight, it is easy to attribute the primary cause of the accident to failure to abide by the SOP.\u00a0 However, I wonder about the deceased state of mind prior to the accident. Were they distracted by something weighing on their minds such that they forgot that critical live saving step?\u00a0 Unfortunately, we will never know.\u00a0 This case highlights the need for workers engaged in safety critical jobs to not only be competent in what they do but also the need to be mentally alert.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n15. <\/span>At the end of the day, your colleague is unable carry the burden that is in your mind for you although they can be your listening ears and a shoulder to cry on.\u00a0 Therefore as your campaign slogan suggest, your story matters, speaking up helps. If you are in a privilege position to be the one offering the listening ear, do so intently.<\/p>\nCorporate ownership of MWB<\/strong>
16. <\/span>Second, organisations and employers do have a role to play looking after the MWB of your staff.\u00a0 This includes engendering a psychologically safe work environment.\u00a0 In advocating for your workers to speak up, it is a sign that the industry is committed to creating a safe space for employees to share their challenges and will be supported.\u00a0<\/p>\n17. <\/span>To find out how well your employees are doing, you can leverage on your company\u2019s employee\u2019s engagement survey to get a sense.\u00a0 Alternatively you may also use the WSH Institute\u2019s iWorkHealth tool, which is a validated and self-administered online survey to identify your employees\u2019 common stressors. I understand from my colleagues that only one of the companies within the complex had participated in the iWH tool.\u00a0 May I encourage the rest to try it out, you can even use it for a specific department or branch and not necessary the entire company.\u00a0 I give you my assurance that data collected will be hosted securely and access to the data are tightly controlled.\u00a0<\/p>\n18. <\/span>Beyond knowing the state of MWB of your staff, many of you have already put into place initiatives for your employees\u2019 mental well-being. Resources such as the Tripartite Advisory on Mental Well-being at Workplaces and the Playbook on Workplace Mental Well-being provide practical guidance on how to implement workplace mental well-being initiatives, such as setting up a peer support system, Employee Assistance Programme or establishing a policy on after-hours communications.\u00a0<\/p>\n19. <\/span>While MWB initiatives are good and necessary especially in today\u2019s context, but genuine corporate ownership of MWB must be rooted in a culture of care and trust<\/strong>.\u00a0 It is a fallacy to assume that a company that preaches and practices MWB are devoid of crisis and fire-fighting.\u00a0 But how the leadership team and colleagues respond and support each other especially in times of crisis will serve as the litmus test to the espoused organisation\u2019s culture.\u00a0 That is how a great organisation will differentiate itself from other organisation.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\nConclusion<\/strong>
20. <\/span>Recently Dr William Wan, the General Secretary from the Singapore Kindness Movement shared a book he wrote entitled \u201cMaking Kindness Our Business\u201d with me.\u00a0 In that book, he advocates that spreading kindness at the workplace is good for business.\u00a0 Many of the messages he shared in the book resonated with me as it is very much aligned with the WSH culture of care, trust and prevention and I leave you to source for the book from SKM to tap on Dr Wan\u2019s wisdom.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n21. <\/span>But let me conclude with a message from Minister Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth who provided an opening to the book.\u00a0 He said \u201cThis means creating a culture of kindness with supporting policies that protect workers and reinforcing networks of care and support within our organisations, in order to respond to the stresses and precarity arising from complex challenges like the pandemic.\u00a0 Many businesses are already finding out, at a large cost to themselves, that kindness is not a luxury, but a necessity.\u00a0 In turn those who have found strength in kindness have grown stronger<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n22. <\/span>With that thank you and I wish you a fruitful campaign.\u00a0
\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
05 Oct 2022
Speeches
Keynote Address by Mr Silas Sng,\u00a0Commissioner for Workplace Safety and Health atthe Opening Ceremony of the Singapore Petrochemical Complex\u2019s Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) Campaign 2022 on Wednesday, 5 October 2022, 11:20am\u00a0 Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers of Complex CompaniesDistinguished viewers, ladies and gentlemen Introduction1. Good morning, everyone. Thank […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"dipi_cpt_category":[],"class_list":["post-368175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speeches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/able-alert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/able-alert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/able-alert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/able-alert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/able-alert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/able-alert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/able-alert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/able-alert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/able-alert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368175"},{"taxonomy":"dipi_cpt_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/able-alert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dipi_cpt_category?post=368175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}