In 2017, Atria was facing serious challenges related to occupational safety. At that time Atria had 300 accidents per year causing sick leave of 8 hours or more. “Safely Home from Atria” is the name of the occupational safety programme which was launched in 2017. The programme was successful: two thirds of the accidents have been eliminated over a five-year period.
– The number of accidents was unacceptably high, and our employees risked being seriously injured at work, which was simply totally unacceptable. Accidents also cause high costs to the company, both direct costs and indirect costs, says Lars Ohlin, Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Atria.
– The first step was, that we started to measure and report everything that had to do with safety in all locations, such as risk observations, minor accidents without sick leave, accidents with sick leave and serious accidents. We launched safety reviews in all factories with employees, foremen, union representatives and safety experts. We analyzed all our equipment and wrote safety notes for all machines.
This type of change would not have been possible without a change in Atria people’s attitude towards safety.
– We started regularly speak about safety with all employees and stress the importance of following our safety rules and the creation of a positive safety culture.
– The number of accidents has been reduced every year since 2017 and will this year be below 100, which means that two thirds of the accidents have been eliminated over a five-year period. The target for 2025 is to have maximum 55 accidents. When we compare our numbers to our similar competitors in the Nordic countries we are now “best in class”, says Lars Ohlin
– This type of change would not have been possible without a change in Atria people’s attitude towards safety. Safety is today an integrated part of how we operate daily – thanks to all employees at Atria.
