1,000 Days Without Workplace Accidents: How Palsgaard Spær Cracked the Code for a Safe Work Environment

Courses, safety assessments, and above all, a high level of employee engagement. This is the recipe for a significant reduction in workplace accidents at Palsgaard Spær, based in Hampen, Central Jutland, with production sites in various parts of the country. In the departments at Kliplev and Ugilt, they can even celebrate 1,000 and 500 days, respectively, without a single workplace accident.

In 2023, 49,050 workplace accidents were reported nationwide. Although this is a substantial decrease compared to a record high number of workplace accidents in 2022, there has not been a notable change in the overall number of accidents in the past 10 years.

However, at Palsgaard Spær, which has production facilities across the country, they have found the formula to drastically reduce the number of workplace accidents. To such an extent that the departments in Kliplev and Ugilt have been without workplace accidents for more than 1,000 and 500 days. According to John Sandholm, Production and Procurement Director at Palsgaard Spær, these impressive numbers are achieved thanks to the high level of employee engagement in creating a good work environment across all production units.

“We have had a sharpened focus on workplace accidents for a long period, including courses for employees that have provided them with tools to assess and avoid workplace accidents in their daily work. We also conduct constant safety assessments in each department, and if there has been a workplace accident or near-miss, they are evaluated so we can learn from them. But in the end, the management’s strategy can only succeed in collaboration with the employees, and I must say, we experience a very high level of engagement,” says John Sandholm.

Thomas Jonasson, the Production Manager at the Kliplev department, fully agrees that employee engagement is the key to avoiding workplace accidents. Together with the department’s local safety representative, it is his responsibility to ensure that the employees in Kliplev are well-prepared and take ownership of maintaining a safe work environment.

“The work environment is very much employee-driven, and they are good at providing feedback and reporting safety risks to the management. We share that feedback across our departments, just as we share our experiences with near-misses and workplace accidents, so the task of avoiding workplace accidents is tackled collectively. We have also set up information screens, for example, showing how many days we have had without a workplace accident. The employees are very engaged in these statistics, and it provides constant vigilance to maintain a high safety standard,” explains Thomas Jonasson.

A Good Work Environment as a Strategic Goal

To continue attracting qualified labor, Palsgaard Spær has developed a strategic plan on how the company remains an attractive workplace. The strategy includes, among other things, a goal that the work environment should be top-notch, says Tobias Smith, CEO of Palsgaard Spær:

“A good work environment is important in all companies, but when it comes to a production company like ours, I believe that prospective employees pay extra attention to numbers such as the number of workplace accidents. As part of Palsgaard Spær’s strategy for the work environment, we have established an academy for employees, where they can expand and strengthen their skills in areas such as the work environment,” says Tobias Smith, adding:

“It is quite clear that our focus has borne fruit, as it is not every day in our industry that you achieve 500 and certainly not 1,000 days without a single workplace accident, and they should be especially proud in Kliplev and Ugilt. Employees in all our departments create impressive results, and they all make a great effort, which I would like to thank them for.”

The employees in Kliplev and Ugilt will mark the many days without workplace accidents with a dinner later in the year.