AVK CSR 2023-24 web - Flipbook - Page 37
Management systems and work
environment organisations
In the largest of our manufacturing companies,
the internationally recognised occupational
health and safety standard, ISO 45001, has
been implemented to ensure and improve
employee health and safety. The aim is to
support our systematic efforts to maintain
a positive work environment while ensuring
ongoing evaluation and improvement.
The ISO 45001 occupational health and
safety management system ensures, through
established procedures and processes, that our
management remains focused on minimising
occupational accidents and their negative
consequences. This happens through causal
analysis and the establishment of action plans
on security as well as ongoing improvement
activities.
At both office and manufacturing facilities,
internal work environment organisations
perform local evaluations and improvement
throughout the company to maintain attention
to security and reduce the number of accidents.
The number of ISO 45001 in management of
occupational health and safety has increased
this year from 31 to 33.
Safety First
Several AVK companies operate within the
process industry or involve varying degrees
of manual labour, making workplace health
and safety a particularly critical focus in these
areas. The processes are not considered high
risk, but accidents can occur. Therefore, Safety
First is a priority at AVK.
Through various initiatives, we want to maintain
and improve security behaviour among our
managers and employees. Our goal is to ensure
that no one takes unnecessary risks and that
everyone reports unsafe conditions, unsafe
actions, and near-miss incidents, actively
contributing to accident prevention.
In workshops, we focus on how to proactively
identify safety risks, developing a strong safety
culture, and implementing measures in our
factories to enhance employee safety.
Locally, we have focused on the implementation
of frequent safety walks as part of a proactive
approach to safety. Some of our latest
initiatives are safety walks that focus on
communication, training, and visibility of safety
and improvements.
It is an important parameter to learn from
previous accidents. Therefore, we use SQDIPP
boards (Safety, Quality, Delivery, Inventory,
Productivity and People) in the ongoing followup.
We continuously work with selected companies
within the AVK Group to implement local
processes such as ensuring registration of
near-misses and unsafe acts. Ultimately, to
create the right level of safety.
In 2022/23, our focus has been on
implementing preventive safety activities,
and our dedicated efforts within this area will
continue in 2024/25.
Safety First
“Safety First” is a programme designed
by AVK Holding as a way of working
with workplace safety for the individual
companies within the AVK Group. The
programme focuses on improving workplace
safety by reducing accidents and enhancing
the safety culture within the organisations.
Through targeted workshops, the Safety
First programme promotes proactive
identification, reporting of risks, and
ensuring employees are engaged in
maintaining a safe work environment.
The programme includes analysing the
current safety situation, verifying safety
activities, and collecting staff input on risks
and unsafe practices.
Via continuous safety improvement,
the goal is to establish a strong safety
culture, minimise accidents, and reduce
absenteeism caused by injuries.
Work environment
Everyone deserves a safe workplace, and we
remain dedicated to our goal of minimising
accidents. In the coming year, we will focus
on reducing the frequency rate of occupational
accidents. Our goal is to achieve an accident
rate of Lost Time Accident Frequency Rate
(LTAFR) below 3 by 2030, and efforts and
improvements are still needed to reach this
ambitious goal. To reach this goal, security
work will be further intensified during 2023/24
and in the following years.
Sick leave
To strengthen our focus on global well-being,
we will begin collecting standardised global
sickness absence data starting in 2024/25. We
anticipate that this data will enable us to set
goals and share targeted global initiatives in this
area moving forward.
Lost Time Accident (LTA) is an injury
sustained by an employee that results
in loss of productive work in the form of
absenteeism or tardiness (> 8 hours of
absence).
Lost Time Accident Frequency Rate
(LTAFR) is the number of LTAs that occur in
a workplace per one million hours worked.
An LTAFR of 7 shows that there have been
seven cases of lost time due to injury in
a workplace for every one-million hour
worked.
Safe physical work environment and
improved ergonomic
Ensuring an economically efficient and safe
physical work environment is a top priority
for AVK when planning and establishing new
or refurbished manufacturing and warehouse
facilities.
At AVK, we prioritise minimising repetitive
tasks and reducing injury risks by implementing
solutions such as overhead cranes for lifting,
height-adjustable tables in manufacturing
areas, warehouses, and offices, as well as
other measures to limit monotonous work.
While we always comply with local regulations,
AVK adheres to its own set of standards.
For instance, we install overhead cranes
when handling items weighing more than 15
kilograms. As a rule, the stricter of either local
regulations or AVK standards must always be
followed.
The AVK Group Project Department assists in
the process of planning and setting up new
manufacturing and warehouse facilities and
finds solutions that can aid the employees in
their work. Likewise, good work procedures are
incorporated into our warehouse management
system.
Employee well-being
The AVK Group operates with a decentralised
structure, comprising many companies
worldwide, each managing its own business.
As a result, a diverse range of initiatives is
implemented across our companies to enhance
employee well-being. This ranges from creating
meaningful and interesting tasks, well-being
policies, mental health promotion activities,
employee benefits of various kinds, sports
activities, team building events, and social
activities arranged by staff associations. In
addition, we actively participate in charitable
giving with a diverse focus, supporting a wide
range of causes that align with our values and
demonstrate our commitment to making a
positive impact in the community.
AVK Sustainability report 2023/2024 | 37
