Why Safety Culture Matters More Than the Lowest Bid in Contractor Selection
BRENT OBERLINK, CEO, Lanracorp and The Better Contractor; and SHAWN GALLOWAY, CEO, ProAct Safety
(P&GJ) — In the oil and gas sector, safety is preached as being more than a requirement—it is a core value that should define how companies operate and protect their people. However, when it comes to contractor selection, many organizations still rely heavily on self-reported safety metrics and low bids, rather than prioritizing cultural alignment and real-world performance. This can destroy long-term safety goals, increase liability and harm culture within the organization.
This box-checking mentality may satisfy compliance checklists, but it often fails to deliver meaningful safety outcomes. In contrast, companies that invest in contractors with a strong safety culture see fewer incidents, better quality work, greater cost savings, enhanced reputation and less liability and risks.
The fact is, investing in efforts to achieve noteworthy performance in quality and safety, as well as a culture to sustain these results over time, costs money and time. When companies choose the low bid, aligning with an organization with inferior priorities and values, they knowingly sacrifice their own values and long-term objectives for short-term gains.
Beyond price and paperwork. It is standard practice to evaluate contractors using metrics such as total recordable incident rate (TRIR), days away, restricted or transferred (DART) rates and experience modification rate (EMR). While these figures serve a purpose to call out poor results, they fail to tell the whole story, and they fail to provide insight into what the organization is doing to affect safety performance. These metrics also do not speak to the maturity of the organization’s culture and common practices when no one is looking.
These numbers are self-reported, frequently audited for compliance rather than context and, in some cases, unethically manipulated to present a cleaner record to win business. A low TRIR doesn’t necessarily indicate a safe work environment—just as a high one does not automatically signify poor performance. Numbers without culture and context are simply data points, not indicators of future behavior or results.
Selecting contractors purely on these figures can create a false sense of security. Companies that want to prevent incidents—not just respond to them—must look beyond the spreadsheet and into the daily life of how contractors operate. Are they auditing crews in the field? How do they respond to reported near-misses, and how well is the contractor learning lessons from them and implementing corrective actions? How do they respond to incidents with injuries and attempt to keep those incidents from becoming worse?
Unnoticed red flags. In high-risk industries like oil and gas, communication plays a central role in ensuring safety. However, not all communication is overt. Weak signals—those subtle cues that suggest misalignment, deviations or new or increasing risks—are often missed, especially when relationships are new or the focus is purely on deliverables, schedule and price.
These signals may seem minor in the moment, but they can be early warnings of deeper cultural and systemic issues. Examples include:
- Surface-level participation in safety meetings, with no real engagement or ownership.
- Workers that are reluctant to stop unsafe work, even when permitted to do so.
- A reactive approach to safety, where policies shift only after an incident occurs.
- Variations in what is reported from safety observations or audits that are incongruent with the actual working conditions.
- High turnover rates or a large percentage of short-service workers deployed on the project.
- An increase in tooling problems or equipment malfunctions.
- Mixed messages from leadership, where the corporate office preaches safety but field supervisors reward speed over caution. Or a procurement team that chooses contractors based upon box checking and low pricing, while failing to see the contractor's actual performance in the field.
This performance, or lack thereof, can destroy landowner relationships, quality of work and safety records. When companies overlook these indicators, they not only increase risk on the job site, but also undermine their safety culture. Effective cultural alignment between organizations and their contractors is crucial for clients to achieve optimal safety outcomes. High-performance organizations recognize that both contractors and clients share the responsibility for harmonizing safety cultures to mitigate emerging risks. Recognizing and addressing weak signals early fosters accountability, strengthens contractor relationships and protects long-term performance, while reducing liability.
The business case. Investing in contractors with strong safety cultures isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s a smart business decision. When organizations prioritize safety culture and employee well-being over mere cost and compliance, they attract desirable contractors and make it significantly more possible to achieve superior and sustainable safety outcomes.
Companies that select partners based on culture, core value alignment and proactive leadership, not just cost, consistently report:
- Lower incident rates and reduced lost time
- Higher-quality work and fewer delays due to rework, callbacks or landowner complaints
- Improved public relations and perception of the company brand
- Reduced legal exposure and liability
- Long-term financial savings, through increased efficiency, fewer shutdowns needing safety and field personnel involvement and quality of work needing to be fixed.
Investing in contractors with a strong safety culture is not only a matter of ethics but also a strategic business advantage. By emphasizing the importance of contractor safety and employee well-being, organizations can foster relationships with contractors that align with their core values and commitments to proactive leadership.
This practice yields significantly better outcomes, including lower incident rates, higher-quality work and improved public perception. Additionally, the reduction in legal risks and long-term financial savings further underscores the value of prioritizing safety culture.
Evaluating contractors. So, how can companies assess a contractor’s true safety culture? Here are five key strategies:
- Go beyond the metrics: Self-reported data is a starting point, not an endpoint. Companies should conduct site visits, observe crews in the field and interview frontline workers to get a real sense of how safety is prioritized day-to-day. Allow your field team to pick contractors they know and trust, with a proven track record. Get references for contractors and call them.
- Assess leadership alignment: Strong cultures are built top-down and reinforced bottom-up. Evaluate whether the safety messages from leadership are being received, preached and reinforced by supervisors, foremen and workers.
- Encourage open communication: Open multiple communication channels and create environments where contractors feel comfortable discussing concerns, sharing lessons learned and reporting near misses without fear of punishment. Encourage your safety team to work with the contractors’ safety team and then share data and findings with all contractors. This promotes a culture of improvement and shared lessons learned.
- Look for continuous improvement: Top-performing contractors don’t settle for “good enough.” They’re actively improving training programs, embracing innovation, and adjusting industry best practices to advance their ability to reduce risk. Look at their websites, social media, job sites and participation or presentations at industry and safety conferences. Most importantly, take time to get to know them and what their behaviors indicate they truly value. Once you begin looking, you can quickly tell the difference between a box checker and a doer.
- Empowerment at all levels: The best contractors give their workers the authority to stop or pause work, ask questions and suggest improvements because safety is viewed as everyone’s responsibility. See if they have employees who are not just bought in but personally involved in a safety committee or other efforts, helping to improve safety programs, performance and safety policies to ensure they can be applied practically in the field.
Takeaway. Culture is the real contract. Selecting the right contractor is about more than cost efficiency or compliance checklists. It is about building partnerships rooted in trust, transparency and shared values. Culture drives behavior, and behavior determines outcomes. When companies prioritize safety culture in contractor selection, they protect more than project timelines and cost overruns: they protect lives, reputations and the future of their business.
If safety is truly a core value, it must be reflected in where financial resources are spent and who is invited onto the job site. Box-checking is not a safety strategy; investing in culture is. Choose contractors who practice what they preach, because when their culture aligns with yours, everyone wins. Want long-term success? Make the right decision now and choose safety. Better yet, choose safety culture.
About the Authors:
BRENT OBERLINK and his wife, Aney Bailor, own four successful companies: Lanracorp, The Better Contractor, Obling Properties and Dapper Gents. As CEO at Lanracorp, Oberlink focuses primarily on right-of-way clearing at pipeline sites, as well as doing midstream work in excavation and drone services.
SHAWN M. GALLOWAY is the CEO of the global consultancy ProAct Safety. He has more than 20 yrs of experience in safety systems, strategy, culture, leadership and employee engagement. Galloway is the author of several bestselling books and has produced more than 400 articles and 100 videos. His safety podcast, Safety Culture Excellence, has more than 800 episodes.