Katarina Kangert, Head of Sustainability and Safety Ovako Group, shares her thoughts on the importance of safety at Ovako.
Safety is the highest prioritized area in Ovako’s strategy. Our long-term goal is to completely eliminate accidents, which means that no work should be carried out at Ovako unless safety can be guaranteed. The company’s employees should not be worried about harming themselves while working at Ovako.
Systematic safety efforts
We work systematically with a number of different activities to completely eliminate accidents at Ovako. This includes our group-wide safety program, called Safety at Work, which intends to further integrate safety into daily operations in order to eliminate risks and accidents. Our annual Safety week forms part of these efforts, and Ovako’s employees participate in various activities linked to enhancing the safety culture, including training and safety rounds. This year’s theme, “Dare to Care – Dare to Act”, is especially important since the company is actively working to ensure that employees act if a colleague is in danger of being exposed to a risk or hazard.
A culture that always prioritizes safety
An important part of our safety work is to enhance a culture that always makes safety a priority. Accidents resulting in absence have decreased by almost 70 percent in recent years following a number of measures and a high level of employee engagement. This can be attributed partly to preventive risk reporting and remedial measures conducted within the Safety at Work program, as well as a clear focus and commitment from the company’s management.
We focus on safety every day at Ovako, not just during Safety Week. We want this year’s theme, “Dare to Care – Dare to Act”, to highlight the importance of taking care of each other and daring to act to create a safe workplace for our employees and colleagues. Safety always comes first at Ovako.
