Faisal Kazi is the president and chief executive officer for Siemens Canada.
When I talk about Siemens Canada’s goal of having zero safety-related incidents, I often face questions about how we intend to achieve this target and how investing more in safety will ensure a return on investment.
On occasion, people have also asked me if this goal is even realistic. Is it possible, particularly for a global company with massive manufacturing and logistics operations, to have no safety incidents at all?
My answer to this question is always: Zero is possible – if we truly commit to it.
Safety should be a top priority in any organization, regardless of size. According to the latest study by the Institute for Work and Health – a Toronto-based, non-profit research firm – each work injury on average costs manufacturing employers $39,000. This takes into account expenses such as wage replacement or supplement as well as health-care services. It does not consider indirect costs for items such as damaged property or equipment replacement or repair, administrative costs associated with injury event investigations, productivity costs from work interruptions and legal costs.
On the other hand, manufacturing employers that spend on workplace safety see a return on their investment of about 24 per cent, largely from productivity gains and reduction of workplace injury costs. They also enjoy intangible benefits that are hard to quantify, such as improved employee morale and retention, better production quality and a stronger corporate reputation.
To anyone who doesn’t think zero safety incidents is possible, these findings should provide enough incentive to make it so. But there’s a more important incentive for us at Siemens Canada: We believe that every employee has the right to return home as healthy and safe as they were when they reported for work.
Turning this belief into reality requires more than policies or procedures. It demands a culture of care, accountability and continuous improvement. It starts with leadership and extends to every employee.
For instance, we’ve established a “walk-and-talk” culture, where leaders visit worksites regularly to engage with employees about safety practices. These visits, combined with digital tools to document and address safety concerns, encourage pro-active problem-solving and foster open dialogue. The latter is particularly critical: When employees feel safe speaking up about hazards, we can address them before they lead to incidents.
Technology plays a crucial role in enhancing workplace safety at Siemens. In one of our factories, we recently launched a fully automated storage system to replace manual, high-risk tasks like climbing ladders to retrieve parts. This change eliminates potential fall hazards while increasing efficiency. Instead of having to manually pick from our vast parts inventory, our employees can now key in a part number and the item comes out automatically from the storage system.
We’ve also created digital twins for our factories. The industrial metaverse, which simulates factory layouts in a virtual environment, allow us to identify safety and ergonomic risks so we can optimize workflows and employee safety. The benefits from these digital twins apply in both existing and new factories.
For example, the technology showed us how the height of employees working on factory lines could affect their well-being because parts of their job required them to reach for a part. In the virtual factory, we saw that employees with a shorter stature had to stretch more, potentially leading to shoulder issues over the years. With our ergonomics-by-design approach, design adjustments included height-adjustable workstations.
Better structures and processes are only part of the solution. The human factor is critical to safety, and that’s why we’ve also focused on changing behaviour. At Siemens, we empower every employee to take ownership of safety. In practice, this translates to reporting hazards, bringing forward solutions, participating in training and supporting co-workers. Our motto, “We take care of each other,” underscores the importance of collective responsibility.
We also recognize the role of mental health in employee safety and well-being. In recent years, we’ve launched our “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay” campaign, which encourages employees to seek help for their mental health and to support colleagues who may be facing mental health challenges. We’ve also expanded our health benefits to include services such as mental health therapy and virtual health care.
Some may argue that incidents are inevitable in the industrial world. I beg to differ. Our factories and offices worldwide implement rigorous safety protocols and many have achieved years of operations without a single lost-time incident. For example, our Concord, Ont. manufacturing facility has gone 10 years without a lost-time incident. This success isn’t coincidental; it reflects a collective commitment to making zero harm a reality.
Zero is possible. We’re always working to achieve it at Siemens and I encourage my fellow business leaders to do the same.
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work.