4.1 A safe workplace for our employees
Chapter 4
We are committed to providea safe and secure workplace for all our employees, sub-contractors and partners.
Our goal is that all employees, sub-contractors and partners shall return home every day completely free of injuries. Safety is embedded in everything we do, and our approach is formally set out in NRC Group’s policy for health, working environment and safety. The safety and health of our employees is of utmost importance.
Health and safety system certified to ISO 45001
NRC Group Finland and NRC Group Norway are certified to ISO 45001, the internationally-recognised occupational health and safety management system standard. As part of the certified management system NRC Group continuously carries out preventive measures to improve the working environment, including risk analysis, planning, training and safety inspections.
We are committed to provide a safe and secure workplace for all our employees, sub-contractors and partners. Our goal is that all employees, sub-contractors and partners shall return home every day completely free of injuries.
Measuring our safety performance
We measure the Group’s lost time injury (LTI) frequency which is considered the most important KPI for safe work. The LTI frequency rate is defined as the number of injuries resulting in absence per million working hours. We also measure absence due to sickness - the number of working days per annum that employee illness causes them to be absent from work. We include our subcontractors in all our reporting of health and safety data.
Injury frequency rate decreased
Our LTI frequency rate was 6.0 in 2022, which is a reduction from 6.4 in 2021. Subcontractors are included in the figures. We had two serious injuries in 2022 (2021: 0). Sickness absence rate increased slightly to 4.2% in 2022, up from 3.9% the previous year.
Lost time injury rate
Lost time injury rate
0.0
2021: 6.4
Sickness absence rate
Sickness absence rate
0.0
%
2021: 3.9%
Significant health and safety measures
Health and safety is a priority for NRC Group. In 2022 we implemented a number of significant health and safety measures:
- Strengthening and formalizing management’s responsibilities for acting as health and safety role models and demonstrating a critical focus on health and safety performance.
- Increasing management’s and the HSEQ team’s presence and interaction on project sites now that Covid-19 restrictions are being eased.
- Raising health and safety as a critical focus area in 2022, including through existing initiatives such as Health and Safety Awareness Week, Sustainability Week and in our leadership programs.
We believe health and safety is a core function of responsible leadership. We have elevated this principle so that it is reflected in all aspects of our leadership development.
Incident learning to prevent new ones
Learning from all injury incidents is important. NRC Group systematically collects and analyses data through reports and investigations from all incidents. The aim is to identify where the company can implement additional guidelines and routines that work and prevent new incidents from happening. All key learnings from health and safety incidents are shared via company-wide communication channels.
- Strengthening and formalizing management’s responsibilities for acting as health and safety role models and demonstrating a critical focus on health and safety performance.
Increasing health and safety training
We are increasing training provided to employees in all aspects of health and safety. Beginning at introduction and continuing on the job, specific and tailored health and safety training programs are being systematically rolled out across the business. A key element of all training is the focus on continuous learning, which aims to constantly refresh knowledge and embed a strong health and safety culture within the organisation. All training undertaken is recorded and forms an essential part of the Group’s Health and Safety system.
Creating wellbeing at work
We work continuously to ensure that all employees experience job satisfaction and wellbeing, targeting zero sickness related to any work undertaken at NRC Group. A number of specific health and wellbeing initiatives have been created within different operating countries. These include regular medical checks, access to health support services and occupational health care.
Comprehensive approach to health and safety
Ensuring safe workplaces and compliance with regulations across diverse projects at various phases brings its challenges. Many health and safety issues are subject to steadily changing framework terms and conditions, affecting our employees and subcontractor tradespersons, many of whom may be in and out of projects every day. Managing health and safety in this context is complex and requires a comprehensive approach.
Strenghtening groupwide HSE culture
NRC Group has prepared Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) guidelines to establish a joint set of rules for safe work across the Group, including for subcontractors that work on our projects. With acquisitions of several companies in recent years, we have prioritized the establishment of a single groupwide HSE-culture from the same set of guidelines. To support the implementation, we have increased capacity and competence of our HSEQ engineering staff through recruitment and internal training.
We have a set of guidelines for health, safety and work environment for our employees, hired staff and partners. Our handbooks and series of instructions for health, safety and environment are available in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Polish and English, and meet regulatory requirements in each country that we operate in. It can be downloaded on each of our country web pages. To support the implementation of our health and safety program we also run an annual health and safety awareness week. During this week a number of high-profile communications, safety talks and company- wide focus activities are run to engage employees and embed health and safety practices.
A key element of all training is the focus on continuous learning, which aims to constantly refresh knowledge and embed a strong health and safety culture within the organisation.