Safety: Driving renewed commitment in SSAB Americas

SSAB is committed to becoming the safest steel company in the world. With this goal in focus, we developed a number of safety initiatives in SSAB Americas that now have been communicated to all of our employees. These initiatives, which exemplify our renewed personal and collective commitment to safety, include the following:

• Leadership training: An initiative to develop the skills of shop floor leaders to help them guide their teams to operate more effectively and safely.
• Cardinal Rules: Safety rules that must be followed by all SSAB Americas employees as a condition of their employment.
• Safety Pledge: A statement describing our individual commitment to taking responsibility for our own safety and the safety of our co-workers. All employees must sign this pledge and they’ll receive stickers for their ID cards to serve as a daily reminder of this commitment.
• SafeStart safety training: Training that helps us understand the human factors that affect us both on and off the job.

SafeStart training was first launched in 2007 at our cut-to-length facility in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Based on the outstanding results achieved there since then, we decided to introduce this training to all Americas’ employees. The training focuses on the common tendencies we all have that lead to injuries and mistakes. For instance, sometimes we rush into things because we are in a hurry, we get frustrated with certain tasks, we get tired and lose concentration, or we get complacent after doing the same job many times. SafeStart teaches us that these conditions lead to simple errors which cause the majority of accidents. Making sure we consciously consider these factors before we do any task will help us avoid needless mistakes and suffering injuries. Our goal is that this training helps improve the lives of our employees at work and at home.

With these combined safety initiatives in SSAB Americas, we are renewing our commitment to making SSAB the safest steel company in the world. By working together with our fellow employees, taking responsibility for ourselves and each other, and paying attention to these simple rules, we can improve our safety performance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Steve Hansen
Chief Technical Officer
SSAB Americas