News |
4 June 2020
SSG has worked for a long time to achieve the vision that everyone should come home unharmed at the end of the working day, and this has now resulted in an overall solution for the industry called SSG Safety.
Many people are familiar with SSG because of the SSG Entre course – through which more than 300,000 contractors have acquired basic knowledge on safety and the work environment – in order to reduce the risk of accidents and near-accidents at work. However, SSG Entre is only one element in the drive to make the industry a safer place to work.
– With SSG Safety, we want to make it easy for the industry participants to meet agreed-to requirements and create better conditions for receiving up-to-date information when they need it regarding safety, personal competence, or important company information, says Mats Jakobsson, CEO of SSG.
See examples of how SSG Safety works
Swedish industry demonstrates high ambition when it comes to workplace safety. The visions often advocate zero accidents, and management emphasizes the importance of working safely. But inefficient procedures and time-consuming working practices can cause people to rush and not pay attention, which is a classic recipe for accidents.
“Statistics from different industries show that we still need to improve safety work and reduce the number of accidents,” says Mats Jakobsson.
Lena Wiig, head of the Work Environment business area at SSG, is experienced in industrial safety work. She sees room for improvement since there are still instructor-led briefings, manual competence checks for site access, and the collection of supplier details on paper. “Everyone is busy working on health and safety issues,” says Lena. “Some have come a long way in their work, and others have a way to go. We’ve sought to make things simple with an effective and modern solution in the form of SSG Safety, which provides a ready-made foundation for safety work. The facility thus saves time and money from not having to develop its own systems and procedures.”
“We have developed our current services so they communicate with each other. We hope that the concept will facilitate communication between the departments that have set requirements on contractors and employees, thus helping them to make the industrial facility a safer place,” says Lena Wiig, who continues,
“The concept includes safety courses, which increase risk awareness and knowledge for those working on site. At the same time, our digital services help you check that those who spend time at the facility are complying with your requirements; for example, that the employer is adhering to agreements and the employee has the right proficiency. The SSG On site app is a communication hub where important information is collected and made available on a smartphone.
Increasing knowledge about the risks that exist and how you should go about reducing these is a central part of the work, believes Lena, who adds that contractors and those who work in production must understand what could happen. “We need to increase safe behaviors. We do this by increasing knowledge and risk awareness, something I deeply believe in. If you are better informed, you will act differently. Rules and pointers don’t work; you need to understand the consequences of your actions.”
In an industry characterized by time constraints and high production rates, quick wins can have a detrimental impact on the safety culture. Lena is pushing hard to get the message across that putting safety first should always be okay. “Although industrial management teams often set strict safety requirements, it can be difficult to get everyone on board at every level. If you work in production and want to see results, you can easily find yourself taking shortcuts. So, we need to create awareness of the risks and what could go wrong,” concludes Lena Wiig.