Oversight or out of sight: the intersection between talent management, OHS governance and the issues for boards*
L. BarryDeloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
The APPEA Journal 51(2) 724-724 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ10104
Published: 2011
Abstract
In the wake of the Montara spill many companies have renewed efforts to review and implement leading safety and environmental performance; however, the issue is conceivably even more fundamental. With the recent Deepwater Horizon spillage, BP has booked a $US 32.2 billion provision to cover the costs of the spill—with the result that the company recorded the worst quarterly loss in British corporate history.
What would a board need to know, in what form, and by when, in such a situation? Does the governance of such issues need to be strengthened? And in what way? How material and how effective is the oversight exercised by boards over operations of high technical expertise and remote location? What are the questions that boards should be asking about safety and environmental performance? And what are the real lead indicators of risk and performance shortfall? This presentation will draw from research by Deloitte’s Centre for Corporate Governance, as well as from interviews with Australian directors.
It will also explore the issue of safety and environmental risk from the human capital perspective of talent management and shortage—mindful that the very impetus for the recently released report by the National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce was the decision to sanction the Gorgon LNG Project now underway. Finally, this presentation will outline some of the latest data analytics available to boards and management to gain insight into OHS and environmental incidents so that they can design measurable interventions to minimise risk.
Lisa Barry is the national partner in charge of Deloitte’s Human Capital Practice—the largest dedicated practice in Australia. She is also a member of the Asia Pacific lead team and the co-chair of Deloitte’s global development and research team concentrating on the talent debate and people-centred economics. She is considered to be one of the most revolutionary and practical thinkers in the field, championing the need for business to seize the opportunity to create powerful people-centred strategy and operating models to protect a company’s growth trajectory and unlock valuable discretionary effort. She talks about an economy where leaders who become human capitalists will dominate their market. A true citizen of the globe, in her 20-year career, Lisa has lived and worked in the UK, Europe, the US, southeast Asia, New Zealand, and Russia. |
References
In Australia, the risk review process had begun before Deepwater Horizon, with APPEA itself instrumental in driving the industry’s renewed efforts to review and implement leading safety and environmental performance as a consequence of the Montara incident in 2009.BP, Deepwater Horizon Accident Investigation Report, 8 September 2010: http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/downloads_pdfs/Deepwater_Horizon_Accident_Investigation_Report.pdf.
Op cit, pages 10–11.
For more detailed discussion see Deloitte, The people side of Risk Intelligence: aligning talent and risk management, Risk Intelligence Series, Issue No. 18, March 2010. http://www.corpgov.deloitte.com/site/us/board-governance/risk-oversight/;jsessionid=hPX4N3GYRTZgv567Xcvy9YQNJvs1JMhL3S64QpKWhYzclJJJ8hty!1485044505!NONE
