We believe all harm is preventable. That’s why Zero Harm is an enduring priority for us. This ambition means making sure our workplaces are safe and healthy for everyone: our employees and anyone working on our behalf.

More than 10 years since we made it a priority, Zero Harm is part of our culture and the way we operate. We launched the ambition in 2007, following tragic fatalities which made us determined that safety needs to be a 'non-negotiable, enduring priority.' Everyone deserves to go home from work unharmed.

We take a rigorous approach to risk and have introduced innovative programmes. For example, we start every meeting by discussing our Daily Safety Message. This keeps Occupational Health & Safety at the forefront of all our minds, all day, every day.

We are now industry-leading when it comes to our safety performance. Many of our sites go long periods without a recordable safety incident. 

Our people's safety

Our people's safety is our top priority.

The safety and wellbeing of our people is our top priority. Our goal is to remain at the top of our industry for safety standards and performance and to support a healthy workforce. We will achieve this by having industry leading safety indicators and a suite of wellbeing packages to support our people.

Our programmes

CODES OF BEHAVIOUR

We have codes of behaviour in place that help us improve how we handle the significant hazards we face every day in our work.

 For example:

5 simple actions. These were introduced in 2012 and are ‘How we act every day to help ensure a harm-free workplace for everyone.' For example, always holding the handrail when using stairs. They are mandatory for everybody working on an EDF Energy site.

10 life-saving rules. In 2015 we introduced 10 Life-Saving Rules to reinforce vital precautions that could save lives, such as never using a mobile phone while driving. We all have a responsibility to intervene if we see a Life-Saving Rule being breached and report it as an incident.  

LEARNING FROM NEAR MISSES

We track High Potential Events – where very serious or fatal injuries could have happened, but were avoided – so we can learn from them.

IDENTIFYING NEW RISKS

We work closely with our people and with our contractors to address any new risks. We expect  to use our processes to control and minimise a significant number of new risks in 2018 as two major projects pick up speed: building a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C and rolling out smart meters.

ASSESSING OUR SAFETY CULTURE

Our strong safety performance relies on having zero harm embedded in our culture. This means that our people take personal responsibility and accountability for their safety and that of others. It is something we need to continually develop.

How we measure our success

GOALS and TARGETS

To continue to deliver industry leading safety performance:

• By 2020, total recordable incident rate target <0.68 million hours

What we measure: Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR). This measures the number of recordable safety incidents for every million hours our people worked. We also consider Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) as part of our Hinkley Point C Project.

 

How are we doing

We have seen a slight decline in our Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR*) in 2018 compared to our best ever annual safety performance in 2017. We have experienced 38 Total Recordable Incidents in 2018 compared to 21 in 2017. The change is consistent with our increase in field based work including a higher volume of smart meter installs and an intensive outage programme at our generating sites. 7 of the 22 Lost Time Incidents we have experienced this year were Road Traffic Incidents caused by third party drivers. Despite this decline in performance, we continue to maintain our industry leading position against the safety record of our main competitors. At Hinkley Point C (HPC), we are well ahead of our key safety target at this stage of the project with a rolling month Accident Frequency Rate (AFR)** of 0.07 incidents per 100,000 hours worked.

Our Priorities for 2019 include: ensuring that our top safety & health risks are optimally controlled through effective arrangements that reflect best practice and align with the new EDF Group Expectations - Building Excellence in Safety Together (BEST); utilising digital innovations and analysis of leading metrics and data to deliver improved safety performance; learning from High Potential Events to prevent recurrence; and ensuring that our major projects (e.g. HPC, and Smart Metering) continue to deliver industry leading H&S performance.

* Company TRIR excludes HPC TRIR events as these are included in the HPC performance measure                                                                   
** On basis of reporting, i.e. UK, Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)

                                                                                    

Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR)

Our people's wellbeing

Our goal through to 2030 is to support a healthy workforce. Our people are our most important asset. Healthy, engaged people are the basis of a sustainable business. 

Our ambition is for all our people to:

  • be mentally fit and resilient, especially during times of change
  • be physically fit, healthy and safe in their working environment
  • feel connected, cared for and supported by others at work.

Our programmes

As part of our health and wellbeing strategic plan, we offer a menu of programmes – such as a flu vaccination programme – so each of our people can choose the ones that best fit their health and wellbeing needs.

We also focus on supporting managers, who hold the key to delivering a Health Like Safety approach (where health and wellbeing is taken as seriously as safety).

MENTALLY FIT

Everyone responds differently to the stresses and strains of modern life. In the UK, one in four workers experiences poor mental health.

EDF Energy offers a free and confidential Employee Assistance Programme which offers support, by phone or online, on a wide range of life/work issues. We also have the Zero Harm Less Stress site and a stress based risk assessment tool which can provide immediate information to help recognise and manage the signs of stress.

PHYSICALLY FIT

Being physically fitter can help prevent ill health and improve mental well-being.

We run education and awareness campaigns to encourage people to improve their health and wellbeing. For example, our Fit Clubs help teams of people to get together and exercise regularly.

Working in an office or living a sedentary lifestyle can cause musculoskeletal pain such as back or neck ache. Our Musculoskeletal Action Framework shows what support is available for the prevention, awareness and treatment of musculoskeletal pain. This includes our Every Body site, which highlights the symptoms and causes of common musculoskeletal pain, and top tips for prevention.

FEEL CONNECTED

Feeling engaged as an employee in the workplace is an important element of our employee well-being vision.

EDF Energy has been recognised for its culture of inclusion and we also promote the support our people can get from our Employee Networks:

  • Disability and Carers Network 
  • Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Network 
  • LGBT Supporters Network 
  • Women’s Network
  • Working Parents Network
  • Forces Support Network
  • Young Professionals Network
  • Cancer Support Network
  • Mental Health Supporters Network

HOW WE COMMUNICATE THIS TO OUR STAFF

All health and wellbeing programmes are promoted via a Health and Wellbeing Hub on MyCampus, our employee e-learning platform. Our intranet, Pulse, carries health and wellbeing-related news and encouragement. 

How we measure our progress

GOALS and TARGETS

To support a healthy workforce:

• By 2020 employee sickness absence rate of 8 days/employee/year

What we measure: rate of sickness absence – how many sick days a year do our people take on average?

 

How are we doing

Our sickness absence performance stands at 8.24 days lost per employee per year. This is a slight increase on 2017 performance but overall our absence levels remain stable around the group 2020 target of 8 days per employee (DpE).

We have seen a steady improvement in work related ill health cases since 2017 (down by 43%). This is due to raised awareness levels via education and awareness campaigns, together with continually improving reporting and management focus stressing the importance of pro-active use of support such as early referral to Occupational Health.

We launched our new Company Health at Work Standard; the standard ensures a more consistent approach to health and well-being (traditionally separated under Health & Safety and HR process) and so will help us raise the bar on Health. It also provides the ‘umbrella’ for us to push for efficiency savings via our Occupational Health Transition programme where we are standardising core occupational health practices and supporting business processes to provide a more flexible platform for our people and the business.

Health & Well-being dialogue has continued to gain momentum – In early 2018 a companywide CEO Health & Well-being Improvement Challenge resulted in a number of ideas being implemented. The focus on Mental Health has continued following the 2017 participation in the MIND survey. A companywide steering group has been formed to drive forward actions which are aligned to the ‘Thriving at Work’ report. Additionally we are pushing on less traditional approaches; during 2018 we worked with the City of London University to research our Agile and Remote working population. We have implemented a number of actions and the research has been published on the CIPD website.