Safe working environment

The safety and wellbeing of our employees is our top priority. To honour our employees, our global production facilities and service stations are all built to the same high standards, regardless of geography.

We never compromise on our work environment, even if local conditions in some places allow it.

In 2023, safety continued to be a top priority across our organisation, personified by our mascot Safety Bob, who travels the world to raise awareness around this important topic in a motivating and engaging way. We have also continued to host our ”Global Safety Hour” events every 6 months where we gather employees and managers to discuss current issues, roles and responsibilities in safety, as well as how to uphold our safety culture.

ISO 45001 efforts

In 2023, we continued to include sites under the ISO 45001 certification in supplement to ISO 9001, which covers all our production and service sites. Among other requirements, ISO 45001 obliges us to systematically identify risks and hazards to occupational health and safety, as well as to determine the necessary controls in collaboration with our employees. The management principles are based on the well-established Plan-Do-Check-Act improvement cycle that supports continuous improvement.

We expect to continue adding sites under the ISO 45001 certification in 2024.

New Safety Committee in 2023

In 2023, we saw a slight increase in reported safety incidents across our global production sites. It is difficult to know whether these numbers are based on an actual increase, or whether they are caused by increased awareness and a more transparent process for reporting.

Whatever the case, this development prompted us to launch a VIKING Safety Committee in mid2023 with the clear purpose of building and adjusting the roadmap for avoiding safety incidents through targeted process optimisation, effective communication, knowledge-sharing and other local or global measures. The decided efforts are based on detailed data analysis, and the methods used mirror global best practices.

The Safety Committee consists of five experts and is chaired by a member of our top management.

Continued focus on safety

In a world that is constantly changing, so is safety. With the ongoing introduction of new products, new facilities, new materials and new production equipment, we are committed every day to ensuring that VIKING stays at the forefront of health and safety.

Going forward, we will continue to train all our managers and employees in safety procedures and safety behavior, just as we will continue to expand our robust system for reporting safety issues.