Mark Divers, VSL Group Manager - Health & Safety: “Each year we take a day to reflect on Health & Safety, on our successes and failures, and on issues where we want to improve. The activities during H&S day are planned to be interactive, engaging and to involve everyone at VSL, including our partners as part of this. This results in a worldwide event delivered locally and adapted to the local needs. Each year around 100 separate events are organized with over 3000 VSL colleagues joining in.” 
 
Be more prepared 
 
This new edition of H&S day was also an opportunity to highlight the Be More approach within VSL. It consists in collectively improving the quality of work, time cycles, working conditions and health & safety. Be More is based on the Lean Management methodology and philosophy to improve performance. 
 
Jean-Yves Mondon, CEO, says: “Our Be More approach is particularly relevant for Health and Safety. To reduce our risks on site, we need to Be More Prepared for our projects.” 
 
Sharing lessons learned and good practices: 43 videos from all over the world   
 
The VSL 2021 H&S Day was also the opportunity for all VSL employees to showcase, via videos, the solutions they have found to improve safety performance, standards and conditions on our sites. 43 videos from around the world were submitted and shared right round VSL.  
 
The videos have been viewed 1000s of time. More than 900 votes were cast, and the winner of this competition comes from our teams in Vietnam about the Automatic Installation of Drill Rods.  
 
Khuyet VU VAN, VSL H&S Manager, says: "Drilling rods were installed manually before with all the associated hazards. Implementing the Be More initiative, VSL Vietnam reflected and found a way to automatically install these drilling rods, reducing the risk to our workers.”
 
Andreas Schwarz, VSL Manager Repairs & Preservation Business Line, says: “I was very pleased to see this video in the competition because we had several accidents with drilling works in the past. So, it’s very good to see that we have a PC which took on the topic and found a solution.” 
 
Jean-Marie Laurens, VSL Manager Civil Works Business line, says: “By improving productivity, the teams have also improved Health & Safety on site:  they achieved both, which is obviously great!”. 
 
Mark Divers (VSL Group Manager - Health & Safety): "We need to keep innovating in how we tackle the challenges we face so that we are improving how we protect health and safety, and more efficient in how we achieve that."