Health and Safety
The safety of everyone, everywhere, is always our number one priority. That is why, a specific track has been dedicated to it in our Act Now programme. We continuously invest in safety and work in a responsible and safe manner.
Together, we go for ZERO
As a company, Elia always puts safety first and applies the highest safety standards for its own employees, contractors and anyone coming into contact with our infrastructure. Our ambition is to see all our employees and contractors go home safe and healthy every day.
Elia is committed to continuous investment in the intrinsic safety of our installations, working methods and safety culture. Likewise, we expect all our employees to always work safely and securely, promote a safety-oriented attitude and responsible behaviour and never compromise on safety. We strongly believe that this focus on health and safety goes hand in hand with high quality and efficiency standards.
Safety concerns everyone and responsibility must be shared to achieve our goal of zero accidents. This means encouraging all our employees to recognize and take ownership of unsafe situations, act appropriately and show concern for their colleagues’ and contracted workers’ safety and wellbeing.
Safety is at the heart of our company culture. Our ambition is zero accidents. ‘That is why Elia joined the European Union’s Vision Zero health and safety initiative to actively promote benchmarking and peer learning.
Elia’s management will be actively involved in the further development and implementation of the plan. We are committed to guaranteeing that the necessary priority and resources are allocated to realizing our ambition, and are counting on all Elia employees to actively contribute to a healthier and safe work environment.
Safety culture
We firmly believe that health and safety issues are not the responsibility of any specific individual or position within Elia, but instead need to be central considerations in everyone’s activities. Safety concerns everyone and responsibility must be shared to achieve our goal of zero accidents. This means encouraging all our employees to recognise and take ownership of unsafe situations, act appropriately and show concern for their colleagues’ and contracted workers’ safety and wellbeing. Awareness-raising initiatives will be taken to foster a uniform attitude and encourage everyone to buy in to the measures adopted.
Right from day one, Elia personnel are given thorough safety training to ensure that they respect their own safety and that of their fellow workers and the environment at all times. Special training is always provided when new working methods are introduced.
For Elia, it was important to measure our safety culture – the way safety is experienced at Elia – to know where we are and what we can still improve. Elia obtained “Safety Culture Ladder level 3” certification. The Safety Culture Ladder measures the maturity level of a company’s safety culture. This exercise shows that we must continue to strengthen our H&S management tools, in line with the Go4zero project, by focusing more on aspects related to the behaviour of our employees.
We are all safety leaders
Elia’s safety performance depends on our people, so we invest in inspirational leaders who drive our safety culture forward. At the same time, we expect all our employees to always work in a safe and secure way, to promote a safety-focused attitude and behaviour and to never compromise on safety.
In the framework of the Go4Zero program, the goal was to raise awareness and create behaviours that inherently incorporate safety.
We expect our contractors to share our deep commitment to a safe and healthy work environment. For this reason, we only want to partner with contractors who share our safety ambitions and commit explicitly to embarking on this demanding journey.
Elia has also signed a two-year-partnership with VIAS, the Belgian road safety Institute, in order to promote road safety among its employees and raise their awareness of risks and good practices as road users (motorists, cyclists and pedestrians) in their professional and private travel.
We strive for health and wellbeing for our staff
Health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being in which disease and infirmity are absent (WHO). Elia aims at realizing this ambition through various initiatives that aim at strengthening the working environment and the support of the employees, and above all to act preventively to improve Happiness at Work. Various initiatives are proposed or organized in order to make all our employees aware of the possible risks and to inform them about the solutions to be implemented in order to guarantee the well-being of all employees by targeting their mental, emotional and personal development.
In the new and difficult context of the Covid-19 pandemic (and subsequent lockdowns), Elia regularly invited its employees to fill in surveys in order to better understand how they were coping with the situation and to determine what could be done to better support them. Some initiatives like Online relaxation sessions or teleworking webinars were also organized.
We are exploring the introduction of a health and safety management system
We are also constantly developing a strong Health & Safety management system with integrated safety standards and a clear approach that prioritises the health and safety of our employees, contractors and the general public.
