DNV’s purpose – to safeguard life, property and the environment – brings with it the responsibility to pay extra attention to the safety and health of our employees.

In 2007, DNV performed a gap analysis of the safety and health elements of the management system against OHSAS 18001. Processes and activities to close the identified gaps were designed and will be implemented throughout the organisation in 2008.

The People Satisfaction Survey showed that 95% of employees believe DNV strives to maintain a safe work place. There are differences in how safety issues are perceived in different parts of the world, and DNV is taking these differences into consideration when developing local safety improvement programmes.

In 2007, DNV Maritime launched a new safety improvement programme in China. Safety specialists visit the yards to assess local conditions and discuss daily safety challenges with surveyors. Together with the surveyors, the main hazards are identified at each site and preventive and corrective actions are agreed on and implemented.

Car driving is the most common cause of work-related accidents in DNV. Consequently, numerous initiatives have been taken to reduce this risk. Visits to customer sites and offices are an important part of the execution of DNV’s services and sometimes require travel to challenging destinations. Risks related to employee safety are closely monitored in geographical areas suffering from war, terrorist threats, high crime rates, serious epidemics or natural disasters, and this information is shared throughout the organisation. DNV has entered into an agreement which ensures that employees will be evacuated in situations that are critical due to either a medical condition or civil unrest.

DNV supplies malaria self-test kits to employees when they travel to affected areas. The key issue with malaria, however, is not only treatment but also prevention. As part of DNV Angola’s SHE programme, Malaria Awareness Training was given to employees and their family members in June.

2007 was a very busy year in DNV, and employees often felt the pressure. As a people business, DNV depends on the well-being of its employees and is strengthening its processes for protecting them.

Approximately one third of all long-term sick leave in Norway is stress-related. Stress scanning, with the opportunity for individual consultations for employees with high stress scores, has produced positive results. Stress scanning will be implemented for all employees in Norway, and similar programmes are being run in several other countries where stress has been identified as significant challenge.

In 2007, 394 incidents were reported, 352 of which were work-related. Most accidents were caused by employees slipping, tripping or falling, and 40% of the occupational health issues were stress-related. The sickness absence rate has been unchanged over the past two years and is considered to be satisfactory. Of the 394 incidents, 306 have been followed up and closed while 88 are being reviewed.

The number of incident reports per employee is expected to continue growing as the process is embraced throughout the organisation. The number of incidents per million hours worked varies for each region. To some extent, these differences are assumed to reflect differences in reporting culture.

Photo: DNV/Nina Eirin Rangøy