Empowering Employees to Speak Up is the Foundation to Creating a Safer Workplace

In 2022, there were more than 4.5 million work-related, medically consulted injuries, according to NSC Injury Facts. These injuries are estimated to cost U.S. businesses more than $1 billion per week. But what’s not reflected in these figures is the toll they take on employees, whether it prevents them from coming to work or missing out on family activities because they are in too much pain. 

That’s why at Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy management and automation and an NSC and Campbell Institute member, we take workplace safety extremely seriously. More than a principle, our safety culture is a core business directive and everyday practice. This is also true for our suppliers, contractors and partners. It’s because of our forward-thinking approach that we have been successful at reducing all safety incidents over the last decade and we’re outpacing our competitors. In fact, we’re proud to lead the electrical manufacturing industry with less than one medical incident per 1 million hours worked. 

While we’re pleased with this progress, we recognize there’s always more we can do to improve safety at our company. Over the next three years, our goal is to cut our medical incident rate in half. Further, as the number of lacerations, fractures and electrical events have gone down, musculoskeletal disorders, or MSDs, have unfortunately risen. As part of our efforts to combat these ailments, we were one of the first organizations to sign the NSC MSD Pledge in June 2022 to reduce MSD risks and enhance the physical and psychological wellbeing of all workers. 

One of the core tenets of the pledge is to share learnings that improve safety practices, so all workplaces can benefit. To help broadcast some of what makes our safety culture successful, we recently took members of the NSC MSD Solutions Lab on a tour of our Lincoln, Nebraska, facility to showcase how we’re putting safety into action. Here are some of the key takeaways:   

Involving the workforce is the foundation of building a safer workplace. Whether it’s employees working on the facility floor or directors in the office, it’s critical to speak with people at all levels of an organization about their safety experiences. Encourage them to speak up and listen closely to any concerns or potential changes they believe can have a positive impact. At Schneider Electric, this starts on a worker’s first day at new employee orientations, where we promote early reporting and saying something if they see something. We also have safety and ergonomics committees at our facilities, which include a range of employees at different levels. We rely on them to bring ideas and solutions based on their work firsthand or observing colleagues. For example, when a new line was introduced in the Lincoln facility, the committee shared some ideas about how to eliminate bending and twisting by simply adding a lift cart, which helped resolve many of these issues. The bottom line is, empowering employees to share their opinions freely without fear of retribution leads to greater collaboration and accountability by everyone, and ultimately contributes to a safer work environment. 

Focus on being proactive and not reactive. Three decades ago, when our safety program was still in its infancy, our approach to safety was more reactive and centered on making improvements after someone got hurt. Since that time, we’ve evolved vastly and are looking to stay ahead of any issues. We do this in several ways, including training on proper body mechanics, developing a safety database that helps us gather all safety-related information and monitor if there are any trends to reduce accident rates, and constantly exploring different technology to prevent injuries, whether it’s tools like wearables or exoskeletons.   

Not all safety initiatives require a major investment. While we’re fortunate at Schneider Electric to have the resources to implement leading-edge technology, like AVGs and robotics, in addition to offering physical, trigger point and massage therapists on site for employees, not all safety initiatives require a large investment. In fact, some of our most impactful safety efforts don’t require any additional budget, including soliciting input from employees on job design, stretching at the beginning of a shift and throughout the day, establishing job rotations so no one is in the same position all day, and instituting a 26-pound weight-lift limit to minimize strain.

Safety is all about continuous improvement. We’re always looking for ways to enhance our safety efforts, and a major part of that is looking inward. Each year, we strive to raise the bar. It starts by doing a self-evaluation, where we come up with goals for each site, and then have directors from outside the facilities come in and validate them. We also do a corporate audit on our safety, environmental and ergonomics programs every three years. Regularly evaluating ourselves and giving an honest assessment allows us to improve upon areas of opportunity and build on where we excel. 

A culture of safety starts at the top. When safety is the first thing the CEO mentions during organizational meetings and by making bold statements like, “safety will define us as a company,” that speaks volumes to employees. As an EHS professional, a lot of our work starts on the ground level and, when the top of an organization stands behind safety, then we can meet in the middle and truly implement the improvements we need to move the needle.   

At the heart of our safety philosophy is the desire for our employees to leave work in the same or better condition than when they arrived. We will not be fully satisfied until this is achieved and there are zero work-related medical incidents. We know we have more work to do to accomplish this, and joining the MSD Pledge community is yet another way we can advance along our safety journey. 

To learn more about the safety initiatives at our Lincoln facility, check out this video. To join the growing pledge community or learn more about the MSD Solutions Lab and resources to reduce MSDs, visit nsc.org/MSD.