We strive for zero harm – our actions in 2020

As for most of the world, year 2020 posed challenges as the Covid-19 pandemic quickly spread around the world with unprecedented effects. Metso Outotec’s first priority has been on securing the health and safety of our employees, customers, and partners by doing our best to control the spread of the virus. We have been forced to adapt to changes quickly and to support our employees in working remotely and in staying safe both physically and mentally. Our leaders and employees all stepped up to the challenge.

Redefining strategy and priorities

Along with the new Metso Outotec strategy, our top priorities in sustainability were redefined. Safety is one of these priorities and is critical to the success of the company; accordingly, we continue to ensure that safety is top of mind for everyone. We also set new ambitious targets that challenge the whole organization and our partners to take actions to protect ourselves and our colleagues.

Our new health and safety organization was established to ensure that we are able to provide excellent support across the business. We introduced a new safe working behavior model called Modus Operandi, which establishes our core behaviors and sets clear expectations for all levels of the Metso Outotec organization – these behaviors are not optional. We also implemented the “My role in safety” training program, which focuses on safety roles and responsibilities throughout the organization and educates all our employees on how to make safety part of everyday work.

Immediate response to LTIF results

In 2020, our LTIF was 1.6 (2019: 1.4). LTIF of our own employees continued to decrease, but the total LTIF for employees and contractors increased. In response to this, we established specific actions to improve and support the health and safety of our contractors. Our serious accident review process includes participation by top management and ensures that each serious incident is thoroughly reviewed, learnings are shared, and corrective actions are taken to ensure that similar events do not occur.

Empowering employees to improve safety

Risk observations and safety conversations are part of our employees’ personal targets, and Covid-19 forced us to look for alternative ways to carry on with practices that usually require a physical presence. The number of reported risk observations increased to approximately 89,000 (2019: 52,000). 

We also track the corrective actions and the closing of risk observations. Approximately 55,000 safety conversations were reported; this equals 55,000 great opportunities and good touch points to make a difference in the safety and wellbeing of our people. Safety conversations are one of the best and most effective ways for managers and leaders to work together with their teams to make a real difference and promote safety as a priority.

Safety audits followed by corrective actions

Our internal safety audit practice is about reviewing the level of safety, but, more importantly, it is also about sharing good practices. This was also a practice that had to be modified for the pandemic restrictions, and therefore we started to conduct remote audits. 10 locations were audited during 2020 and hundreds of corrective actions were taken to improve the level of safety.

In 2021 we will continue working towards zero harm and introducing new ways to improve safety and the safety culture.