Safety calls for true leadership

At Kalmar, safety leadership is not just a top-down directive but a collaborative effort involving everyone. Safety discussions are carried out across the whole organisation, driving continuous improvement through active engagement between management and employees. This ensures that safety becomes ingrained in the organisational fabric, transforming it into a collaborative endeavour.

"Safety leadership is really about how you behave as a leader. It's about listening and engaging with the workforce, creating a collaborative effort where everyone feels involved in creating a safe environment," notes Marc Duboisset, Vice President of Quality, Environment, and Health & Safety at Kalmar.

Safety leadership is really about how you behave as a leader. It's about listening and engaging with the workforce.

Active listening and collaborative problem-solving

Kalmar is also committed to fostering psychological safety. This means encouraging employees to share their insights without fear of repercussions. Duboisset underlines the significance of cultivating an atmosphere of safety: "Active listening is crucial. We want to create an atmosphere where individuals feel safe and comfortable voicing their concerns regarding safety.

Kalmar's safety leadership philosophy is multi-faceted, but at its core is one key principle: collaboration. This approach requires solving problems collectively. Team members and team leaders come together to identify areas where safety can be improved, and then implement those changes together.

"Collaborative engagement goes beyond compliance. It’s about creating a culture of continuous improvement. It's about engaging employees in the process of identifying and implementing safety enhancements," explains Duboisset.

Collaborative problem-solving goes beyond compliance, creating a culture of continuous improvement.

Setting the benchmark for safety leadership 

Kalmar's Safety Revolution initiative goes beyond rhetoric – it embeds safety into the bedrock of operations. "Safety must be part of every process, not just an add-on," highlights Duboisset. 

"As a leader, you need to do it. You need to start it. It's a long journey of building trust and accountability. Safety is not a checkbox, it's about creating a culture where everyone feels responsible". 

And how do you get started with implementing safety leadership? At Kalmar, safety leadership training plays a key role in creating and maintaining awareness of an all-encompassing approach to safety. To deploy learning, all levels of organisation are brought together to plan practical solutions for a new culture of safety. Further building a sense of common purpose, the solutions are implemented in a way that involves everyone.

Duboisset acknowledges that the journey to safety leadership is not without challenges, but with time and collective effort, any organisation can build a culture where safety is deeply ingrained.

Material handling is a dynamic and demanding field, meaning safety is of paramount importance. Safety leadership marks a significant shift in mindset. By prioritising engagement, active listening, and collaboration, safety leadership can help you foster a culture where safety is truly everyone's concern.