Zero Target

"Coor has a lot of very safety conscious customers, and it's on these deliveries that Coor's work on safety has always been at the leading edge. But now, we're raising the level for all Coor staff with a new, group-wide health & safety platform," commented Mikael Karlsson, who heads up HSEQ issues at Coor.

Coor's business has always been driven by innovation and development. And this mainly in-house initiative, supported by Coor's extensive customer base, has been the primary development driver of its new health & safety platform. Companies like Borealis, Statoil of Norway, Volvo AB, EON, Fortum and Sandviken, class leaders in occupational health & safety, obviously set high standards on their suppliers.

"What I really want to emphasize is that this is all about collaboration. Usually, our customers' health & safety work is completely transparent, and we've used them as sounding-boards and references in the development of our proprietary platform. We can go further together and we're all working towards the same goal—reducing and preventing accidents at work," continued Mikael, who heads up HSEQ issues at Coor.

"Due to the fact that Coor's services are delivered in the customer's environment, the risks vary between workplaces, and this assessed risk complexity sets the framework of health & safety. However, Coor employs a group-wide platform, setting a minimum standard of health & safety work. All staff should feel safe, wherever they work."

"Because we deliver services in the customer's environment, we have to collaborate on issues affecting health & safety. Usually we match our customers, and sometimes exceed them. Now that we're working from our new platform, our experience increases value for the customer's staff and business," adds Mikael.

One clear trend is that companies not in traditional industries, which have been long- time leaders, are increasingly starting to demand systematic approaches to health & safety. Usually, these are companies that work strategically on sustainability and the environment themselves, like Telia, Vasakronan, ICA, Ericsson, NCC and Skanska, and want to apply a high level of awareness in all parts of their business.

"A clear health & safety profile adds to our attractions as a service management provider, with employers and collaboration partners," says Mikael.

As in any change process, the new behavior starts at the top. Clear leadership sets the agenda for the whole company. Mikael regards this as a matter of thoughtfulness.

"We have to raise employee awareness of their conduct. We have to talk about a health & safety culture, and what this means. But first and foremost, we have to speak up if someone isn't conducting themselves as we've agreed. We have to take care of each other."

Coor's health & safety platform builds on everything from good leadership practice and conduct to follow-ups and analysis, organization and networks, as well as processes and instructions. Follow-ups and analysis are critical for enabling us to group the biggest risks and most common accidents together, in order to prevent them.

"It's very rare that processes and instructions aren't in place, but for various reasons, sometimes people choose not to follow them. So it's everyone's responsibility to ensure compliance with them," concludes Mikael.

How will you achieve your objective of reducing the number of work-related accidents?

We've established a clear working method group wide, involving regular reporting and analysis. We'll be compiling results at an aggregate level each quarter, which will then be considered by the EMT for analysis and discussion.

In parallel, we're conducting activities across the group, extending from training and activation processes, to progressively raise knowledge and awareness levels.

We have established processes that utilize our overall experience. We work cross-functionally in the group on these issues, compare against other companies and identify best practice. We also share what we find, to help achieve a collective approach and commitment.