SINCE entering the Saudi market in 2004, the National Occupational Safety and Health Centre (Osho) has established a sound reputation for its occupational safety and health solutions and enhancement systems, having worked with many Saudi companies to provide work safety analysis (WSA) and the latest occupational safety and health (OSH) products and applications.

Its list of Saudi clients include some of the leading names in the corporate and institutional sectors, namely Almajdouie group, Amiantit, Canadian Learning Centre, and CCC, which is represented by Kharasaniya gas plant project for Aramco.
Osho Centre has conducted a WSA for the headquarters of Almajdouie group in Dammam, which included services such as assessing fire evacuation plan, safety of tenants, visitors and employees. It is also managing WSAs for all plants of Amiantit across the kingdom. It is working with the Canadian Learning Centre to improve its OSH performance.
For Aramco’s Kharasaniya project, Osho has managed OSH procedures and systems by training 845 workers in the field.
Osho Centre is now poised to start work on an impressive array of prestigious projects for both the public and private sectors in the Eastern Province, which will comprise conducting a WSA and rehabilitating safety engineers.
Detailing some of the services the company offers, Mohamed Alawi, business development manager at Osho, says: “A WSA is a systematic evaluation of facilities for all applicable factors of life safety and business continuity. This covers a detailed evaluation for all the potential hazards that can cause loss of life, injuries or illnesses, business disruption or shutdowns, property damages and environmental pollution.”
He continues: “A WSA is of great importance as it helps in determining the company’s current status and compliance to regulations and legislations, lowering insurance cost, improving working environment, preserving assets and people, setting up relevant safety programmes, increasing productivity and quality, and identifying all the good and safe practices to sustain and areas for improvement. It also helps align with Ohsas 18001 and ISO standards, making one a preferred vendor to clients, and a preferred employer.”
While lamenting the fact that implementation of OSH standards in many Middle Eastern companies, and particularly in Saudi Arabia, is “still in the early stages”, Alawi, however, indicates that the Saudi market is beginning to witness increased awareness of the importance of OSH programmes and solutions in protecting a company’s human resources and material assets.
“Hence, our presence in Saudi Arabia is crucial in improving or creating an OSH culture among Saudi companies that are looking at building a strong base and applying the most modern rules of management.
“To ensure a lasting reputation in today’s competitive market, companies must uphold OSH measures and principles more than ever,” he says.
Osho Centre is committed to improving OSH standards in Saudi companies by providing comprehensive services in all plants, constructions sites and provinces of the country and conducting holistic studies to put things on the right track in terms of OSH principles.
“In that regard, Osho Centre has introduced another new product – the Scaffold Safety Inspection (SSI). It is carried out by an expert scaffolding team to evaluate all safety aspects applicable to scaffolds, including the design and erection, based on accepted standards,” says Alawi.
The organisation has a proven track record amongst domestic, regional, and international clients and has worked with major companies undertaking multi-billion-dollar projects worldwide.
In the last three years, Osho Centre has trained more than 20,000 people worldwide in safety, ranging from top management to shop-level workers. The centre participated in the Second Occupational Safety and Health conference in Riyadh at the end of last month (April 26 to 29), following its recent participation in the Sabic Annual Technical Meeting and Exhibition, where it presented the latest technical safety solutions and health issues for oil and gas companies, manufacturing, plants, factories, and construction.
“Osho has highly knowledgeable and professional tutors with specialised experience in diverse industries, including construction, oil and gas, petrochemical, manufacturing, healthcare, and IT,” Alawi says.
True to its image, Osho has also exerted efforts to ensure that it has the relevant certifications to prove its commitment to quality as well as health and safety. In line with this commitment, it was recently awarded ISO 9001:2008 certification, for its quality management systems and Ohsas 18001:2007 certification, for its OSH management systems. These two certifications make Osho Centre one of the best for Osh services in the region, he points out.
“The results of the initial and main assessment of the two certifications revealed that Osho Centre systems conform to known standards. This has been achieved, thanks to the company having its own set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business, monitoring processes to ensure they are effective, keeping adequate records, checking output for defects with appropriate and corrective action where necessary, conducting regulatory reviewing of individual processes and the quality system itself for effectiveness, facilitating continual improvement and compliance to specific requirement for an OSH management system,” he explains.
Among other developments within the centre, Osho recently launched new certified calendar training course programmes in various fields of OSH. These courses will be conducted in Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain (which covers Saudi Arabia as well).
Osho works around the Gulf region and has extended its reach all the way to Russia. As part of its expansion strategy, the organisation opened recently an office in Kuwait to cover the needs of its widening client base there.
Osho was established in 2004 to provide quality services to both the government and private sectors in the field of occupational safety and health. The centre has gained wide experience on many projects around the world and has provided customised solutions resulting in great safety achievements. Many organisations have recorded millions of hours without lost time accidents or incidents with Osho solutions, he says.