We recently sat down with Bryce Donaldson, founder of Locstatt. He is well-known to the Marine and Energy industries, and he’s an acknowledged expert in the field of Practical Safety and Management Solutions.
In this Q&A, Bryce shares his thoughts on Locstatt, along with how the time-tested EHS software implementation and analysis models can now be applied by small to medium size companies, thus providing a key strategy for their own business plan value growth.
Founder of Locstatt
Tell us a bit more about your story — the EHS Data Integration Company, with what is now a serious track record in 2023?
The original design idea for the Locstatt system of HSE implementation and subsequent reporting matured as I progressed in my post military oil and gas career. One of the key protocols used was the term Locstat (location and situation), which was subsequently refined and used by all Special Forces units.
We started development back in 1998, and you can see on our website ‘About Us‘ timeline just what a process this has been.
We built Locstatt because we knew we had the right combination of safety knowledge, experience in design, skilled developers, dedicated supporting helpdesk and, above all, an honest and ethical team philosophy. We know that we are now making a difference in the industry, and this is what drives us each day and is captured in our Mission Statement:
To create a safer world by solving industrial system implementation and reporting challenges.
In saying this, it has not been all plain sailing. From a technology assistance point of view, we have spent more than 35 years truly wrestling with solutions to EHS software implementation and data analysis issues.
We at Locstatt knew that we needed to bring the costs way down to a level where we could compete with Excel. If we were unable to do this, we knew the industry would revert back to their old ways and lose the pathway to actual system process implementation and data compression for informed analysis.
During this time, I needed to keep the team on track and would often say:
“Keep the focus – some days we go forward, and others perhaps not so much.”
When we talk about learning operational excellence or heavy-duty data compression today, we often come at it from a point of discovery on projects with major oil and gas companies. This practical project experience looked like this:
- We started on the original design concepts in 1988 and spent more than 17 years writing code and learning.
- The practical process to EHS system implementation solutions are distinctive. Simple enough for your front-line team to use, yet robust enough to handle any situation.
- Locstatt has become a vital tool that assists companies that have a constant desire in the pursuit of not just compliance but operational excellence.
- It is now a totally integrated HSSE management implementation/data integration support system. We gather and compress on-site data and deliver it to high compression dashboards that enable informed operational determinations.
Could you please expand a bit more on what you call ‘The Coalface to process improvement’?
I often use the phrase ‘Coalface.’ The Cambridge English Dictionary describes it as:
“Doing the work involved in a job, in real working conditions, rather than planning or talking about it: At the coalface with a deadline looming, you sometimes feel under a lot of pressure.”
To many senior executives today, this is just another term. However, to Locstatt and my company team, it has more meaning.
I entered the oil and gas industry after my military career. I learned through practical experience why honest, working personnel operate the way they often do, and why they struggle to implement their company safety management systems.
Everything within Locstatt today produces a digital timestamp that assists compliance verification. It is this ‘Coalface Experience’ that has been incorporated into the overall design of Locstatt, especially when it comes to harvesting tools or mobile applications.
We, as an industry, all signed off on an HSE Process of:
Decide how you are going to manage your operations; write it down, and from there verify compliance.
Very easily said, but it’s hard to find true compliance in the technical term. Often, evidence or records of the event become more important than the quality of the actual meeting or historical issues related to the task. Is there even a debrief to capture what when right or wrong? Everyone goes away happy with the paperwork; managers get their weekly or monthly reports, and the point is lost about how ineffective the process can become.
Management should constantly be asking: What is going on, and how did you come to this conclusion? To do this, we needed to be able to ‘harvest’ site information via the workstations.
Once my team understood this, we knew that we were in a step-change type situation. For many years, I would send my development team back to the drawing board when it came to application design. It needed to be simple and intuitive with no separate training required.
If you are going to use technology assistance such as mobile applications, pay very careful attention. You need to know your team will be able to see the path to implementation as relatively simple.
How do we get there? Take them on a walk and show them the application. It is vital that they understand just how these tools are going to make their job easier.
If you realize, at any stage, that your select champions are unsure of how to teach others, stop right there! Re-evaluate and regroup!
In a nutshell, can you tell us how Locstatt assists?
The power of the Locstatt EHS Data Integration System is well-known to clients or industry professional consultants who are seeking compliance, continual improvement, operational excellence and a return on investment (ROI).
The Locstatt EHS Process Facilitation:
- Provides a pathway for company employees and contractors to follow when applying and managing their EHS programs, thanks to the Locstatt Mobile Workstation.
- Real-time feedback from this EHS harvesting tool provides information about actual issues at the work site or coalface.
- This data integration system automatically allows management to monitor the performance of their personnel and contractors.
- Provides a two-way flow of information between managers, supervisors, employees and contractors.
If you were able to give 3 straight-out soundbites to your market management today, what would they be in 2023?
- Be honest with your team – leadership is earned, not given!
- It’s simple – seek the true facts!
- Focus on the actual process of improvement, plus the ROI this will give you. An example of the above is detailed below…
At the end of one of our 2016 projects, the senior Chevron Houston, London and Iraq Management sent out a survey report request.
The illustration of results depicted above were not derived from Locstatt. They came from a highly successful Chevron complex well development team, who focused on one of their major investments focused on a hostile environment – Iraq. Locstatt came out as company #1.
What is keeping you focused on your EHS solution quest in 2023?
We can appreciate the global challenges that would force us to reposition. I have instructed my entire team to simply take a deep breath and focus on the following:
- World markets are changing. We are seeing increased compliance with regulations.
- Inflation: The world economy in 2023 is going into uncharted territory.
- Our applications and API integrations need to be in-line with the new ESG company reporting requirements.
- Australian businesses will be transformed by new sustainability disclosure standards announced by the International Sustainability Standard Board (ISSB). We will deliver a practical solution to this.
- In parallel to the above, we are now starting to consolidate our worldwide operations for a wide variety of reasons — from performance to quality control, data security, customer service and overall transparency. We have formed a new parent company and have called it Locstatt Squizz. The word ‘Squizz’ can be defined as ‘having a quick peek or look.’ It will harvest all company data and convert it to a personal level.
How does the new Recognition Application apply or complement your key Locstatt EHS implementation and harvesting services?
Employee involvement is the key to developing an effective safety program or updating an existing one. Employee involvement is an ongoing process geared toward individual accountability and ownership of the company’s safety program.
The recognition program facilitates the process of giving employees direct feedback on their participation with the safety management elements. This creates a sense of ownership around their personal safety, and they become aligned with the goals of accountability and motivating employees to be active in building the organization’s safety culture.
How do you see the elevation in business pressures, especially in Australia, with the introduction of 2022/23 company Work, Health and Safety (WHS) Enforcements?
We could always see that companies would need to address this. However, in 2022, Australia introduced the new WHS Industrial Manslaughter Act. With this legislation, senior executives or managers can be held criminally accountable for work, health and safety non-compliance, or inability to be able to demonstrate compliance intent.
At Locstatt, we understand what has led to these new manslaughter laws. However, for more than 15 years now, we’ve always asked qualified clients two very simple questions:
- Are your SMS systems in place, and how do you know?
- Do you have accurate information to make informed decisions on your operations? Or are you managing the same by reacting to incidents or unplanned events?
As soon as we have a client who acknowledges the problem, we know that we are off to assist in this industry-wide challenge!
Every company, in virtually any industry, is required to produce a written and documented Safety Management System. This sets out their company commitment to Work, Health and Safety (WHS).
For years, management and safety personnel have written process procedures with associated forms, without really giving due attention to how this would be managed within the daily schedule and resources available.
Safety Management Systems require database process validation. However, in most cases these are still managed by Excel spreadsheets. Validation comes from stand-alone documents, with zero data integration or compression, located on multiple drives or site computers.
The reality is that we have tried our best with Excel spreadsheets, forms, reports and management presentations. At the same time, we have found that vital HSE for making informed decisions are falling off the table every day. In many cases, this creates more tasks than folks have time for on a work site.
At Locstatt, we fully appreciate this situation, and so starting back in 1988, we decided to stop complaining about the coalface and set out on the valuable endeavor to find a solution to the problem.
Final Words?
For us to perform, we know we must form a true partnership. We typically find that our clients struggle to truly understand just how much value we are going to add to their company.
As they start to use more and more applications, and as they see more and more data interpretation, the situation typically changes. Not through a sales brochure, but with real data related to their company!
The Locstatt company philosophy is client-centric. We listen, take notes and then we discuss how we can deliver an improved product or service. To deliver and maintain our products and services, we have developed systems to be a highly reliable organization. These systems are vital to integrate our values or integrity, transparency, ownership and reliability.
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