Safety awareness and preventive measures in our Opole factory

In addition to food safety, workplace safety is a top priority for What’s Cooking? The basis for effective occupational safety management is that each employee is aware of both its importance and of their (co)responsibility for keeping the workplace safe. In our factory in Opole, Poland, the safety culture is built on meetings with employees, a special safety platform where they can submit suggestions for improvements, safety patrols and the so-called “Lucky 13”-checklist. In 2022, we specifically focussed on employee behaviour and building awareness around work safety.

An important pledge

During meetings with the entire Opole staff, we stressed the importance of the 3S safety principles: See-Say-Stop. We analysed the causes of accidents and discussed possible preventive measures. Each employee explained what they thought they could do to avoid accidents or to protect team members when something does go wrong.

Together, we arrived at two important conclusive statements. First: “I can prevent any accident”. And second: “I am responsible for my safety and that of my colleagues”. The meetings ended with a pledge from the attendees to take those two statements seriously at all times: the statements were written on a board that 170 employees signed and that is now installed at the entrance to the production area to remind everyone of the importance of safety.

Our safety platform

Moreover, HSE Manager Michal Stahlberger successfully launched the idea of a user-friendly tool where Opole employees could submit their suggestions to improve on-site safety. The “HSE Opole Podio Safety Platform” was born. In June 2022, we announced a competition for a new, more attractive name for our platform. We set up a promotional campaign to get everyone interested and involved, and we ended up with 26 names to choose from.

We organised a poll, and 60% of the voters opted for “Apka BeHaPka”, two rhyming words that refer to “application” and “health & safety”. The employee who came up with the new name, as well as those who invented the second and third most popular options, got a reward.

Each employee received a sticker on their batch with the 3S icon and a QR code that provides access Apka BeHaPka, so they can submit their ideas to improve safety at any time. Thanks to the tool (and a series of introductory meetings to further familiarise the team with it), we saw a 65% increase in the submission of safety improvement ideas. Only three months after the launch of Apka BeHaPka, we already had more submissions than in the whole of 2021. We continue to encourage employees to report “near misses” via the platform.

Safety patrols and audits

Thirdly, Managers, Shift Managers and Specialists are involved in building and maintaining a safe working environment through the implementation of safety patrols. These patrols are carried out in thirteen areas of the factory, and each area is audited every three weeks by different people, with different question cards.

The people who perform the safety patrols show an interest in the working conditions and equipment; they encourage employees to share their knowledge with them or via self-reporting; and they are curious, asking questions and writing down topics that are important to the team. From November 2022 onwards, we have been asking a production employee to participate in the patrols.

Safety patrols are an effective means to improve both safety and team integration – it is each department’s daily connection to the topic of safety, and a useful reminder of its importance.

“Lucky 13”

As a final example, the daily checklist called “Lucky 13” that we introduced in July 2022 is worth mentioning. The items on that list were determined by analysing all the accidents that have occurred and all first aid treatments that have been administered since 2014. The resulting document allows us to quickly check the most important points that ensure safe working conditions.

The observations gathered via Lucky 13 are processed, and the HSE Manager discusses them in the Monday morning meetings, where joint actions are taken to eliminate the non-conformities that were spotted. Everyone has access to the Lucky 13 data, which are posted on the safety patrol communication board in the form of charts and an action plan.

Keeping up the good work

For 2023, we obviously want to keep up the good work. The measures we took in 2022 provide the foundation for keeping working conditions in Opole safe, or making them even safer, in the years to come.

Jaroslaw Szarzewicz Plant Manager Polska

A concern for every day and everyone

We firmly believe that prevention is the key to success. It goes without saying that we insist on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and that we do everything in our power to ensure optimal working conditions. In addition, we regularly launch awareness and information campaigns to engage the entire team, including temporary workers, visitors and partners – in short: everyone who is on site.

We want to actively involve all employees in our HSE policy. To motivate them to follow the rules and procedures – and thus to reduce the risk of accidents – we provide internal training sessions and engage in continuous and constructive dialogue.

The daily presence and support of our Operations Managers heightens our employees’ commitment to the HSE policy and allows us to analyse and improve the working conditions.

These on-site observations lead to technical and organisational measures, as well as to actions on the level of individual employees. The 3S principle that the Opole team applies (as you can read elsewhere in this report) also underlies our daily operations at Stefano Toselli. The motto “See-Say-Stop” encourages everyone to take responsibility for their safety and that of their colleagues. We analyse every risk and intervene as soon as an employee reports a dangerous situation.