Safety coaching is a systematic approach to lead safe behavior. Coaches discuss safety with their peers on a one-to-one basis, encouraging everyone to leverage personal commitment on safety. Personal responsibility and commitment to safety are especially highlighted during company-wide Safety Week.
Coaching supports personal responsibility on safety
Stora Enso encourages employees as well as contractors to take responsibility on safety. This is supported by our Safety Coaching program, a long-term initiative launched at the beginning of 2021.
“We all have an important role to play in safety, everyone can improve and make their work safer,” highlights Wolf Willems, Head of Safety at Stora Enso.
“Safety coaching focuses on the individual role and behaviour in creating a safe working environment. Everyone needs to feel responsible and accountable for maintaining strong safety practices consistently. Everyone makes a difference”, says Jani Jumppanen, Safety Director Packaging Materials.
Learning experiences
A safety coach is trained to support safety mindset development and enable open dialogue and engagement on safety-related concerns and ideas. Safety coaches hold one-to-one safety discussions with each employee at their unit according to a common agenda. All feedback recorded in discussions is reviewed together with management and evaluated for implementation. To date, more than 150 coaches have been trained and around 1900 people have been coached at Stora Enso.
“This experience has taught me to listen to others and be genuinely present. I am now more courageous to start conversations. Many people understand that safe behaviour comes from within themselves,” says one of the coaches Ari Peltoniemi who works as shift supervisor at the biggest board machine in Imatra Mills, Finland.
In an office, safety risks differ from those in production, but personal responsibility plays an important role. “In my area there are mainly people working in offices. Coaching is a good way to remind ourselves what we can do to make our work even better and safer,” explains Monika Mierzejewska who works as Administrations Assistant at Kraft Mill in Ostroleka, Poland.
Dry End Operator Liang Shipu is one of the operators coached at Packaging Materials Beihai Mill, China: “Through the safety coaching, I understand the importance of “think before act.” The program is very helpful to improve safety awareness. We need to learn to protect ourselves,” Liang says.
Mill Director Marie Morin from Skoghall, Sweden sees many benefits in safety coaching: “It's healthy to reflect on own behaviour and to be challenged in it. How actively or passively engaged am I really in safety? Being passively involved means that I do what is expected and I follow rules. Taking a step forward and being actively involved means that I look for improvements and new ways of working to reduce or eliminate our risks.”
“I know that we have had good discussions about safety and that we also talk about safety in a constructive way and take responsibility for safety issues,” Marie Morin concludes.
Stora Enso celebrates company-wide Safety Week from 8 to 14 November with the theme “Safety starts with me.” Safety Week is an opportunity to make safety more visible and reinforce existing key activities – and to introduce new initiatives that will continue beyond this week. Safety Week enables us to further build the local safety culture at all our locations.
Source: Stora Enso