Fingrid Oyj
NordSafety for Fingrid Oyj:
✔ Delivered a new mobile way of working
✔ Reduced paperwork and manual practices
✔ Brought convenience to remote site locations
✔ Revolutionised site diary system
✔ Easy and engaging to use
✔ 3X increase in near miss and hazard observation
For nationwide electricity transmission company Fingrid Oyj, safety is a serious business. Responsible for maintaining and developing the Finnish power system, contractors are an integral part of operations, and ensuring that these suppliers adhere to health and safety practices is a key part of the company’s EHSQ management program.
As Karri Koskinen of the Occupational Safety Management Program is aiming to realise his zero accident goal. As he explains,
“We have responsibilities as a client, so we have to ensure that our suppliers take care of their occupational safety. It’s very important for us to prevent accidents.”
Going mobile was a priority
With so many sites of activity and workers on-site, Fingrid Oyj began to consider the way it monitored and reported its safety performance, knowing improvements could be made to its system of relying on manual paperwork – an approach that was far from ideal.
“Before NordSafety, we got accident and near miss notifications by paper. We didn’t have any kind of a mobile application, so it was quite old fashioned, paper forms mainly. NordSafety has taken out the paperwork, we can now do reports online.”
For Fingrid Oyj, partnering with NordSafety represented a long awaited progression towards a mobile HSEQ platform. Having made the decision to source a service that could offer a mobile application and also deliver a comprehensive reporting system for all aspects of health and safety, NordSafety soon emerged as the solution that could fulfil multiple needs.
“The possibility to go mobile was a priority for us, and it was easy to use. It looked very simple, and also fun.”
An essential daily tool
Today, NordSafety is in use in every project at Fingrid Oyj, with around 500 users. The company’s decision to go mobile was well founded, as the on-the-go nature of the app has proved to be invaluable at the brand’s more remote locations.
“Our construction sites, such as our transmission line sites, can be in the middle of the forest, which makes it very difficult when reports are written on paper. You have to transport them to the office, you have to scan them and then send them by email. But with this system in use we just do the report on-site and immediately send it through the system.”
One of the main applications of NordSafety for Fingrid Oyj is in the recording and checking of site diaries. Previously compiled on paper, the new digital approach has revolutionised this essential daily task.
“The site diary is done on a daily basis, noting what has happened on site, how many people are working on the site, what kind of machines they are using and what kind of weather there has been, with comments and pictures. It is signed and put on the system and our own Fingrid supervisor checks it has been done properly, from site or from their own office. They will then also sign and post the site diary.
This has been a very good improvement for us because before that the site diary was done on paper, with the supervisor visiting all sites and signing the diaries with pen. Now they can just do it immediately.”
Real-time monitoring
Karri feels that NordSafety has given Fingrid Oyj over all aspects of its safety efforts, not just those of the site diaries, including the monitoring of accident and near miss statistics and the undertaking of site inspections.
“The biggest benefit is being able to check what is happening on-site online and in real-time. We can check their statistics from the system to know how many accidents have happened, or how many near misses.
Another good thing about accident and near miss notifications with the NordSafety reporting system is that we can do the whole investigation process. We specified our process for investigating incidents to NordSafety and they created a feature according to that.”
Impressive results from an engaged workforce
In fact, ease of use and improved convenience has been noted company wide, and has been credited with producing a dramatic increase in the frequency of reports that are being made.
“We have had a lot of very good feedback from our suppliers that it is very easy to use the NordSafety reporting system. I believe it has increased safety on-site; people are actually using this, which has helped us a lot to catalogue occupational safety at Fingrid sites.
Near miss reports have dramatically increased; in 2016 there have been around three times more near miss and hazard observation reports compared to 2015.”
Lighting up an electric partnership
Impressed with the practical benefits the software has brought them, Fingrid Oyj enjoy a supportive working relationship with NordSafety. Of the process, Karri says
“It has been very easy to work with NordSafety, the co-operation has been very good. Communication has been very open, and they have created all the features we have wanted them to do. They are a flexible company.
And they are very quick… if we need any changes in the defaults, small changes or a complete overhaul, I just send an email and it’s taken care of.”