Workplace Safety: A Core Value at GPI

At General Petroleum, we pride ourselves on three core values:

1. Honest and ethical conduct in all of our business relationships
2. Mutual respect that fosters and promotes the growth and prosperity of our customers, employees, business partners, and community
3. High Expectations and values of our customers, employees, and company

All three of these core values are key to every aspect of our business operations. While this is most often viewed from the standpoint of our customers and our dealings within the broader oil distribution marketplace, these values also hold true when it comes to our own employees and the importance that we place on safety in the workplace.

Honest and Ethical Conduct

Valuing honesty and ethical conduct in the workplace means that we encourage our employees to come to us with their safety concerns. Truly no concern is too big or too small when it comes to the safety and well-being of our employees. This also means that we hold our employees to a high standard when it comes to enforcing appropriate safety measures and embracing our safety policies as an integral part of our company culture.

We can’t in good conscience cut corners when it comes to safety (no company should!), and that’s why we are always looking for ways to improve our processes, training, and tools in order to create the safest possible environment for our workers and our customers.

Mutual Respect

We recognize that our employees are first and foremost:  parents, grandparents, children, friends, volunteers, community members, and much more. As such, we owe it to them and their loved ones to make sure that they are receiving the protection that they deserve. We respect the relationships and community impact that every single one of our employees has, and we feel that it is our responsibility to keep them safe so that they can continue to contribute in meaningful ways to their families and communities both in and out of the workplace.

We also expect the same respect in return. As we introduce new safety policies and practices (even those that may seem excessive or inconvenient at times), we challenge our employees to embrace these changes in respect of our company culture of safety and to help keep their fellow employees safe as well.

High Expectations and Values

The value that we place on safety doesn’t stop within our walls or within our trucks, though; it carries over to our partners as well. We are proud to partner with organizations in the oil and gas industry that place as much emphasis on safety as we do. Partners like ExxonMobil. In their article about creating a culture of safety, Tom Schiff, Global Field Engineering Support Manager at ExxonMobil, wrote the following:

At ExxonMobil, for example, safety is a theme that’s discussed extensively among the company’s leadership. Employees are constantly reminded how safety is core to the company’s identity, and executives continue to champion new programs at industrial sites and within corporate campuses that improve safety best practices.

Mindsets - like that of the executives at ExxonMobil - help raise the expectations of worker safety in the oil and gas industry as a whole. By setting high expectations of our own leadership and employees, as well as the leadership and employees of our partner organizations, we are striving to create a safer work environment industry-wide. It’s a noble cause, and we feel proud to play a part in it!  Why? Because our people (and YOUR people) matter.

Do you have any tips or tricks when it comes to promoting safety within your organization?  If so, we’d love to hear them!