Givaudan globally reduces injuries with SafeStart

Givaudan is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of flavors and fragrances. With operations in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the company is the largest in the world in its industry. Operating in Brazil since 1927, Givaudan is headquartered in Jaguare, Sao Paulo.

 

Challenges

Since 2008, Givaudan has undergone several restructures in the areas of environment, health and safety (EHS). In 2009, when assessing rates of global accidents that led to lost-time injuries and benchmarking them against the main competitors in the industry, Givaudan realized that its performance was not satisfactory.

In order to achieve the world-class standard desired by their global EHS team, Givaudan established an executive committee for EHS in Latin America to find ways to improve the number of incidents in the region and to engage the entire executive leadership in decisions related to this issue.

 

 

The mission of the EHS team was to produce significant results in eco efficiency and security in Brazil, thus reducing the alarming number of accidents. For this purpose, they created the “Zero is Possible” program, which aimed to change the safety culture through education, workshops for leadership, research for diagnosing safety culture, the creation of action plans and the implementation of the behavioral safety awareness program, SafeStart.

In 2010, Givaudan began the SafeStart program, educating more than 1,000 employees in six plants in Latin America. The pilot program was held at Givaudan in Brazil.

 

Safe behavior brings benefits such as a higher quality of life at work, at home, driving or anywhere you are.

– Charles Schiavinoto
EHS Director for Latin America

 

Foundation of the “Zero is Possible” program

• Implementation of behavioral safety concepts for company executives
• Research and diagnosis of EHS culture with employees
• Leadership self-assessment in relation to Bradley Curve
• Creation of action plans
• Implementation of SafeStart for all employees
• Creation of long-term goals for EHS
• Safety alignment workshop with Latin America leadership
• Settlement of basic rules
• Solid organization of EHS management system

 

We made sure to monitor the company’s participation in the entire training, session by session, and we held a new communication process in each new module.

– Charles Schiavinoto
EHS Director for Latin America

 

One of the first steps to implement SafeStart was to hold a training program for the internal ambassadors who would then take the program forward inside the company. These train-the-trainer sessions were held first at the Brazilian units, and were later rolled out in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia. At the end of the program, more than ten thousand employees had been trained. The entire process involved the active participation of the EHS technical team.

 

Results

One of the unique benefits of SafeStart compared to other behavioral safety training programs is that it involves employees’ families in the learning process. Each trained employee takes home a kit with DVDs to share with their family and friends. Each DVD contains a different theme, from safe driving to the Boo Boo Bandits—a movie to encourage children to watch out for safety items in their homes.

At meetings on safety at work, there were situations in which the employees openly told their leaders about their families and how valuable safety awareness had become for them. They stated that although they knew they needed to go to work, their safe return home to their children and family was more important.

 

During the training sessions, the employees demonstrated their satisfaction with having their leadership addressing such an important topic for them.

– Charles Schiavinoto
EHS Director for Latin America

 

A year after conducting SafeStart safety training, it became apparent that the greatest value of this process, apart from reducing the number of accidents, was the behavior of employees and leaders. Leading by example has been practiced by the entire leadership group, which started a healthy competition across departments in the pursuit of the best performance. Since launching SafeStart, Givaudan has noticed a significant reduction in the number of accidents.

Following the completion of five modules of the SafeStart program in 2011, the number of accidents was reduced by 50% in Latin America and 66% in Brazil when compared with the previous year. At the end of December 2014, Givaudan achieved a 65% global reduction of accidents. Latin America had a reduction of 92% and Brazil had a reduction of 85%, when compared to the 2009 figures.

 

Givaudan has noticed good results that have significantly reduced the number of lost-time accidents in the organization.

– Charles Schiavinoto
EHS Director for Latin America

 

Givaudan’s current strategy is to strengthen the SafeStart program at their plants around the world, following the excellent results in Latin America. The focus on behavioral safety and safety awareness should strengthen globally over the coming years.