Safe working practices

The challenges of the energy transition are putting considerable pressure on safety. Safety risks are increasing due to the growing volume of work, the high workload and growth of the organisation. To enhance safety, we focus on engendering a proactive safety culture. This means that we are improving our existing safety system, safety structure and safety training to ensure that safety becomes an inherent part of our behaviour. Everyone should also feel responsible for contributing to this. We measure performance based on our score on the Safety Culture Ladder.

Serious accident in Dokkum

In October, one of our colleagues was seriously injured while working on a 10kV cable in Dokkum. A nightmare, especially for him and his immediate family and for other Liander colleagues and contractor employees who were directly involved. A thorough investigation into the circumstances of the accident is ongoing. The labour inspectorate is involved. This is standard practice in the aftermath of such a serious incident. In addition, Liander has commissioned an investigation performed by an independent consultancy, with the intention of learning from the incident and preventing a recurrence. For Alliander, every single safety incident involving (physical or mental) injury is one too many.

Accidents

To work safely, we must embed proactive behaviour in our organisation.

Personal safety

The 2024 Central Employee Barometer shows that 87% (2023: 86%) of employees view Alliander as a socially safe workplace. However 6.7% (2023: 6.4%) of our colleagues indicate that they experienced inappropriate behaviour last year like abuse of power, bullying or discrimination. These cases often remain unreported, unlike cases of aggression or violence. Since 2023, our employee satisfaction survey has included questions about experiences of inappropriate behaviour by customers or members of the public. People experienced inappropriate behaviour and aggression in some parts of the organisation. This appears to be a social trend and it has a major impact on our colleagues. One positive thing is that 40% of the individuals involved address the customer or passer-by themselves and 24% of colleagues report it to their manager. The new ‘Through Different Eyes’ interactive workshop helps teams learn to recognise these situations and gives bystanders an understanding of what they can do. The number of reports submitted to confidential advisers increased from 83 in 2023 to 116 in 2024. 

Score on the Safety Culture Ladder

Alliander maintained it position on level 4 of the safety culture ladder in 2024 and significantly improved its score within this level. The audit was conducted across the full breadth of Alliander. Seven projects and four office locations were audited. In total about 40 colleagues from operations (including contractors) and 20 management and staff colleagues were interviewed. Level 4 indicates that safety has priority throughout the company and that investments are constantly being made to raise safety awareness. Employees are encouraged to challenge each other’s unsafe behaviour. Improvements are structurally introduced and evaluated. Forward thinking is applied and initiatives are taken. Consciously working safely is experienced as someone’s personal responsibility: ‘What can I contribute?’