BrazilDSS supports Perstorp with improving safety management
Swedish multinational Perstorp has rolled out a new safety protocol for its seven international manufacturing sites, following a two year research and pilot programme which uncovered that enhanced safety leads to higher motivation and productivity.
Founded in 1881, Perstorp is a specialty chemicals company that provides materials and properties for every day products, including mobile phones, kitchen products and nutrition, as well as products found in airplanes and wind turbines. The Malmo-based company has approximately 1,350 employees, generating sales of around €1.4 billion.
As part of its health & safety strategy, Perstorp has set itself the goal of reaching a very high level of safety across its operations. The goal is to be among the top quartile of companies for safety performance in its industry, which includes peers such as AkzoNobel, Clariant, Evonik, Cabot, Chemtura, Cognis, Huntsman, Kemira, Lanxess, Lubrizol, Rhodia and Wacker.
With the help of DuPont Sustainable Solutions, a global safety and operations management consultancy, Perstorp has designed and implemented best practice safety protocols across its manufacturing units in Asia, Europe and North America.
According to Jan Secher, chief executive officer of Perstorp, the safer way of working not only enhances employee well-being, but ultimately adds to employee motivation, in turn improving the overall success of the company. The chief executive officer based his statement on an in-depth programme ran by experts at Perstorp in conjunction with DuPont Sustainable Solutions.
“When we realised back in 2017 that we needed to improve our safety culture, we wanted to do this in the fastest and most efficient way and so asked DuPont Sustainable Solutions to assist us with developing a good self-assessment tool and protocol for identifying continuous safety improvements. Interesting to see is that those areas that performed well in safety, were also the ones where employees were happiest.”
He continued; “That indicates that a company with a mature safety culture, in which employees feel appreciated by and cared for by their employer, as well as empowered to act with self-determination, is likely to achieve greater levels of employee satisfaction and motivation, as well as improved results in other areas.”
Raising the bar
The self-assessment tool asked all of the company’s employees to assess their perception of safety at the firm, and with the input (85% of respondents participated), a baseline of the current situation was obtained. A benchmarking exercise against industry best practices provided insight in (potential) improvement strategies.
“The survey tool informed the creation of a tailored safety protocol,” said Cédric Parentelli, Managing Director for Europe and Northern Africa at DuPont Sustainable Solutions. Built on eight focus areas, action plans were then rolled out, and now some 24 months down the line, the OSHA incident rate has dropped by more than half since the start of the so-called ‘Project Dolphin’ programme.
However, Secher added that the company will not rest on its laurels. In the coming months, Perstorp will continue to work on enhancing the overall safety culture as part of its continuous improvement philosophy, and introduce a health and well-being initiative for the contractors it works with.
