‘Vita Towards Zero‘ Behavioural Safety Programme
The Vita Group is a manufacturer of flexible polyurethane foams. Vita had deployed a "Vita Towards Zero (VTZ)" programme which had enabled safety engagement from shop-floor staff, and focused on 'unsafe conditions', rather than ‘unsafe behaviours'. The company wanted to strengthen skills in managers and supervisors to ‘see safety’ and ‘say safety’, build commitment and reinforce existing safety systems and management routines.
Solution
dss+ worked with Vita to assess its culture and designed and developed a behavioural based safety programme to embed behavioural change at every level of the organisation. After conducting a Safety Perception Survey (SPS) across all Vita sites, focus groups were established to discuss findings and implement a programme of continual safety improvement. This led to the creation of the VTZ Behavioural Safety programme, which focused on reinforcing positive behaviours.
Every manager and supervisor was trained by dss+ on behavioural safety and safety observations. dss+ also trained over 70 Safety Champions throughout the workforce, so that they could deliver Vita’s ‘Caring for Each Other’ programme to their colleagues. This course raised employees’ safety awareness and encouraged an environment in which everyone was consciously alert to potential hazards, to both themselves and their colleagues, looked out for one another and “cared for each other”. Over 3,000 employees have been trained across Vita’s global facilities in 15 languages.
“dss+ have helped us to embed safety into the fabric of Vita. We’ve put ourselves on a path of continual improvement which I’m confident will ultimately see us achieve our goal of zero harm and ensure that our workforce is protected.”
Vita executive