Occupational health and safety are not merely a series of legal obligations, but are also central pillars of the sustainable company management at the Komax Group and therefore key elements of its ESG strategy. The approach is based on a wide range of prevention measures to constantly improve safety at workstations and contribute to the health of its employees. This includes regular risk assessments, identification of potential danger sources and implementation of improvement measures before accidents or damage to health can even occur.

Most production sites at the Komax Group have integrated management systems that include all company processes, the environment, health protection and occupational safety in a holistic approach. Internal processes are regularly assessed for health and safety risks and awareness raised among employees for possible risks at the workstation in a targeted approach. For example via trainings on the topic of occupational health and safety, like those held at the Swiss sites of the Komax Group at least once a year.

Active promotion of health
In addition to the physical safety, the Komax Groups places great value on the psychological wellbeing of its employees. Programs for managing stress, work-life balance and for promoting a healthy lifestyle are part of the operational health management. At Komax in Switzerland, the employees benefit from the health promotion program fit@work, with a focus on movement, nutrition and relaxation, and which includes free sports offerings, workshops and specialist presentations. The contents of the program are continuously adapted to the requirements, which are recorded via the health survey carried out every three years.

In its company strategy, the Komax Group is pursuing the vision of becoming an accident-free company and aims to halve the accident rate by 2028. We spoke with Martin Röösli, Safety Officer at Komax headquarters in Dierikon (Switzerland), and asked him what is being done for the employees of the Komax Group to create a working environment where they feel safe and valued.

Martin Röösli, the Komax Group has over 50 sites worldwide and employs around 3500 workers. What safety principles is Komax following in Switzerland to ensure safety at the workplace?
The Komax company in Switzerland is ISO 45001:2018 certified, which is an occupational health and safety management system. This standard outlines requirement and provides instructions for implementation. Komax is thus supported in systematically and proactively identifying, evaluating and overcoming potential risks and dangers at the workplace. This additionally improves the wellbeing and the safety of the employees. The certification also strengthens the trust among our customers and business partners. Here in Dierikon, we have also introduced the ASA safety system according to the directive EKAS 6508 with the involvement of occupational doctors and other specialists, in correlation with the previously mentioned ISO 45001:2018.

What are the most frequent types of accidents you have seen in your career in the mechanical engineering sector?
The industry evaluations carried out by the EKAS, the Swiss Federal Coordinating Committee for Occupational Safety, provide an extremely accurate overview of the accident causes: Hand injuries or cuts are always a major issue in mechanical engineering. That's why we had the «Protect your hands like a professional» workshop last autumn, offered by the SUVA, Switzerland's largest accident insurer. This workshop instructs employees in and raises awareness for the different areas of hand protection, ranging from wearing safety gloves and using safety cutters, right through to applying hand protection creams.

The Komax Group aims to halve the accident rate by 2028. What is the company doing to achieve this goal?
Developing our safety systems is a central point. This also includes documenting processes, deriving suitable measures from events and implementing them in the system. Another core task is the consistent creation of a safety culture or, in the companies where it already exists, the maintenance of this culture. Our managers act as role models by consistently follow safety regulations.

Furthermore, it is important to integrate the constant stream of new directives and regulations compliantly into the occupational safety systems. In addition, we must ensure that new employees and, due to the shortage of skilled workers, increasingly also employees from outside the industry are brought up to speed on occupational safety and trained on the industry-specific hazards in training courses, instructions and workshops.

How is the safety concept checked and updated?
The standard ISO 45001:2018 is evaluated annually by external auditors. Internally, the evaluation of this system, as well as the ASA safety system, is evaluated constantly via the occupational safety audits, accident and near-accident reports, safety walks and first-aider deployments. The safety systems are interrupted, checked and adapted or expanded if necessary.

How can it be ensured that all employees understand and follow the safety instructions?
Safety in a company relies on everyone. It's therefore essential that the employees are involved in safety instructions and occupational health and safety matters in general. With this approach, the employer can also benefit from the knowledge of employees and support among employees is thus guaranteed. This is sustainable, because it means the employees feel that they are taken seriously and included.

How does the procedure look like if accidents do happen?
Firstly, it's important that, if accidents do happen, they are reported according to their severity. We have therefore developed a process that guarantees this. At Komax in Dierikon, accidents are systematically investigated by using a form. The dangers are then evaluated in a risk assessment and the further measures defined individually or collectively. These dangers and measures then flow into the danger portfolio, which acts as a basis for the team occupational safety audits carried out annually. In an emergency requiring medical support, our first-aiders are deployed as in-house paramedics. Our 16 in-house paramedics all have advanced first aid training.

Can you provide some examples of improvements or successes in the safety record over the past few years?
Of course, the recording of near accidents is one example. Near accidents are sudden, unplanned events that do not result in an injury or damage to property, but which had the potential to do so. It's therefore important to systematically record and analyze near accidents and derive the right measures from these. We have created a separate process for recording near accidents. At Komax in Dierikon, employees can submit these reports directly via QR codes or via e-mail. The near accident is then assessed and the measures defined and introduced with the affected employees. These measures also flow into the danger portfolio.