Safety
We want to provide all of our employees and partners with a healthy and safe workplace where everyone has a high level of well-being. Our occupational health and safety targets and principles are defined in our People Policy, which was published in 2023.
Continued implementation of established management practices
In 2023, we continued the implementation of systematic occupational safety management and improved our resource allocation with regard to experts. We harmonized our procedures as regards risk assessment and the reporting of observations, for example. In our labor-intensive industry, the most significant occupational safety risks are associated with employee movement, traffic, and work ergonomics. We developed closer cooperation between safety, occupational health and well-being at work. In the latter part of the year, we finalized our long-term occupational safety targets and plans at the Group level and the business-specific level.
We performed well with regard to our goal of reducing accidents and sickness-related absences. Our overall accident frequency (LTA0) decreased from 56 to 39, which means that 300 fewer accidents were reported than in the previous year. We achieved our targets in each business group.
Although the overall development has been positive, there was a tragic traffic accident in our working community at the beginning of last year, which resulted in the death of one of our mail delivery employees. The accident was caused by an external individual. We paid special attention to the monitoring of serious accidents. We introduced a new practice, whereby all Leadership Team meetings start with a review of serious incidents during the preceding month. We have found that this is a good practice for maintaining shared awareness of the situation.
In 2023, the number of serious accidents that caused an absence of over 30 days (and/or required hospital care) increased by 34% when compared to the previous year. They represented approximately 4% of all reported accidents. Most of the accidents in question were classified as serious due to the prolonged absences involved. We monitor this trend closely, as the age structure of Posti employees engaged in physical labor can make them susceptible to prolonged absences.
We also made progress in the area of preventive occupational safety. The number of safety observations reported in 2023 was 20% higher than in the previous year. The common reporting tool that was previously used in Finland was also deployed in the Baltic countries and Sweden. This increases transparency in the monitoring of our common procedures, such as observations and safety walkabouts.
We invested in competence development in all of our personnel groups. For example, our employees completed over 1,500 Occupational Safety Cards in Finland. We also started Caring Leader training for supervisors. Occupational safety was established as an agenda item for the Leadership Teams of our business areas, and the Leadership Teams also organized training and workshops on occupational safety.
We invested in communications on occupational safety, talked about 2023 as a year of occupational safety, and highlighted achievements in our various business areas during the year.
Well-being
The well-being of Posti employees is an essential element of our social responsibility. Our aim is to shift the focus of work ability management towards an increasingly preventive direction so that work ability problems are avoided entirely or identified in a timely manner. We engage in cooperation with our businesses to influence the typical work ability challenges in each business.
Work ability is an occupational safety issue
Most of Posti’s employees engage in physical labor, and musculoskeletal disorders cause most of the sickness-related absences in our organization. Posti employees who suffer from musculoskeletal disorders have been primarily referred to occupational physiotherapists who are familiar with the nature of their work. This has improved the timeliness of counselling and treatment.
We familiarized even more of our employees with occupational physiotherapists by organizing informal briefings and grip strength measurements as part of the Our Posti tour of our various operating locations in spring 2023. We also increased awareness of safe and ergonomic working practices during workplace visits by occupational physiotherapists at our terminals.
In 2023, we paid special attention to the well- being and health of our drivers. Our occupational health care provider invited transport employees over 55 years of age to complete a health survey. The results made it possible to focus on the issues of relevance to each employee’s work ability during their health examinations to support and maintain work ability.
A sharp decline in the number of long sickness-related absences
Work ability management involves close cooperation between different parties. Our work ability specialists support supervisors in individual cases and issues, and solutions for supporting work ability are developed on a collaborative basis. In 2023, long sickness-related absences exceeding 90 days decreased by 43% when compared to the previous year. This is a major achievement that stems from long-term cooperation.
Developing the competence of supervisors has been one key factor behind this improvement. We have built a learning path to train supervisors and ensure their competence with regard to work ability. The learning path starts from the orientation of new supervisors. Many supervisors have also developed more in-depth competence through Master of Work Ability training, which is implemented in cooperation with the pension insurance company Ilmarinen.
Training on Well-being at Work Discussions
In spring 2023, we experimented with training that involved addressing difficult issues through theatre. The aim was to strengthen the competence of customer service supervisors with regard to Well-being at Work Discussions. The supervisors had simulated conversations with an actor to provide them with concrete tools on how to adapt their discussion approach to each situation. At the same time, the training provided an opportunity to see how others would bring up a difficult topic.
