Safe work environment

Safety First

Safety First is a concept that is recognized by all Skanska employees throughout the world. A safe work environment is at the top of our agenda. It is unacceptable for people to risk their lives and health at work. Our vision is zero accidents in the workplace.

To achieve our goal, we work systematically to continuously develop and evaluate our way of working and our approach to safety.

Key: Identify and prevent

The key to a safe work environment is to systematically identify risks, carry out preventive measures and subsequently monitor and ensure that this yields results. We involve all staff present in our worksites in safety activities – including temporary personnel and subcontractors. In such a manner, we continuously evaluate and refine our way of working. At the same time, this creates a safety climate in which everybody feels involved.

Pre-task planning, one of our tools

Pre-task planning reduces near-accidents and accidents. We work together to plan a future construction element or a new stage in an operation. We utilize the expertise of our employees and decisions are supported by the group. Pre-task planning provides an open and healthy work climate at the same time as it documents work environment activities.

The world’s largest work-environment event

Each year, Skanska arranges a Safety Week. It involves Skanska’s 53,000 employees at more than 10,000 construction sites and offices across the globe alongside thousands of customers, subcontractors, suppliers and partners. Together, we carry out a number of activities to discuss and improve the work environment.

300 worksite visits in Sweden

Skanska’s management has also carried out 300 worksite visits throughout Sweden with the focus firmly on work environment and safety. In conjunction with the visits, Skanska’s managers were also trained in how to carry out constructive safety discussions.

Each week in 2011, Skanska’s management received reports on the accidents and near-accidents that occurred. The reports were used to disseminate knowledge and the lessons learned internally.

Work generates clear results

In early 2010, we also raised the requirements for personal safety equipment to make the wearing of safety goggles and gloves mandatory. A direct result of this was that the number of eye injuries fell from thirteen cases in 2009 to three in 2010.

We were also the recipients of three of the five work environment prizes awarded by the Swedish Transport Administration in 2010. These were for the Södra tvärleden route in Örebro, the Partihallsförbindelsen Bridge in Gothenburg and Norra länken 11 (northern link 11) in Stockholm, the latter of which received the prize for the second consecutive year.

How we will improve

Based on our knowledge of the most common elements of risk at workplaces, we continuously create new, safe work methods. A few examples of methods include safe earthmoving, safe lifting, temporary structures and vehicle management.

However, we are aware that procedures, methods and work methods will not be enough to help us achieve our vision of zero accidents. We therefore work proactively to create insight and enhance dialogue regarding safety in the company – in all areas from the company’s management to the crew working on the project.

Skanska Sweden is now the first nationwide construction and civil engineering company to certify its work environment. Certification is performed in line with the OHSAS 18001:2007 standard. This is done to provide confirmation that our processes and methods are correct and to continuously drive improvement.