News |
3 June 2020
We can reduce accidents in industry simply by increasing our knowledge and awareness of risks. This is the opinion of Lena Wiig, head of SSG’s Work Environment business area.
“We can create technical protection and barriers between ourselves and whatever is dangerous, but our own awareness has to take over at the point where the technology stops,” says Lena Wiig. Knowledge and awareness are two important factors in the reduction of accidents in industry. This is the opinion of Lena Wiig, head of SSG’s Work Environment business area. Her contact with SSG’s safety committee and others has given her a good insight into actual conditions in respect of safety at industrial plants.
“People are incredibly creative when it comes to getting round the technical safeguards that we have set out,” says Lena Wiig. “We can create technical protection and barriers between ourselves and whatever is dangerous, but our own awareness has to take over at the point where the technology stops.”
She reckons that increasing awareness of safety and the work environment is a good way to reduce the risk of accidents. Contractors and staff working in production must understand what could happen.
“We have to make people behave more safely,” says Lena Wiig. “And we will achieve this by increasing their knowledge and their awareness of risks. I am a firm believer in this. If you know more, you will behave differently. Rules and lectures do not work – you have to understand the consequences and the factors behind them.”
In industry, where time pressure and high production rates are key, the safety culture may fall by the wayside when there are rapid gains to be had.
“Putting safety first must always be okay,” says Lena Wiig. “Although industrial management teams often have stringent requirements when it comes to safety, it can be difficult to implement them in all respects. If people are working in production and want to see results, taking shortcuts is all too easy. This is where we have to create awareness of what could happen.”
Lena Wiig mentions SSG Entre by way of example. This is a web-based work environment and safety course required by more than 250 industrial plants in Sweden.
“SSG Entre gives course participants a basic knowledge of and insights into safety,” says Lena Wiig. “When it comes to increasing awareness of risks, this is a good beginning.”
SSG has been working for a long time towards its objective: for everyone to arrive home unharmed at the end of the working day; and the company has services and courses that assist with this in a variety of ways.
“We have created a comprehensive solution that we have named SSG Safety. This concept comprises services and courses that make plants safer in various ways and protect the people inside the gates,” says Lena Wiig.