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Damen Naval’s recently updated HSSE booklet contains cartoon drawings of three new playful characters that will help portray the serious messages regarding Health, Safety, Security and Environment. Although the booklet is intended primarily for the production teams working at Vlissingen-Oost, the HSSE rules and regulations it contains apply to all Damen Naval personnel and third parties who enter the shipyard.
The three characters, called Manneke, Menneke and Vrouwke, can be seen encountering numerous HSSE-related situations.
HSSE Coordinator Arnold van Sluijs has been involved with creating the new booklet. “Our old HSSE booklet contained a lot of text, which we wanted to reduce in this new version,” he says. “But we also wanted to convey this serious message in a way that was more fun.” The amount of text in the new booklet has indeed been edited to contain the most crucial aspects of the various HSSE issues present at Vlissingen-Oost; the 15 main subjects are covered in 40 pages of concise and ‘to-the-point’ bullet points. The aspect of ‘fun’ was achieved with help from Scalda College in Vlissingen. “We asked Scalda media design student Faye Roos to help us create these characters; we wanted them to be tough and playful.”
Readers of the booklet are, among other things, warned about the risks of working with hazardous substances.
A look through the new HSSE booklet (or the images accompanying this article) shows just how effective this more informal approach can be. The three characters, called Manneke, Menneke and Vrouwke, can be seen encountering numerous HSSE-related situations ranging from ‘Working in confined spaces’ and ‘Fire prevention’ to ‘Hazardous substances’ and ‘Waste management’.
Besides appearing in the new HSSE booklet, Manneke, Menneke and Vrouwke can also be found on Damen Naval’s LMRA (Last-Minute Risk Assessment) cards. “We are considering using these new three HSSE ambassadors in our onboarding and training videos too,” adds Arnold. “And – who knows – maybe they will spread to other companies in the Damen Group. If anyone else wants to use them, they are very welcome to contact us.”
