Safety and resilience

Our ambition and objectives

Our ultimate goal is zero harm to anyone working for, or on behalf of DNV, and safeguarding our people is as much about maintaining a healthy and resilient workforce as it is about preventing work-related injuries and illness. One of our guiding principles is that no work is so urgent or important that it cannot be conducted in a safe and healthy way. 

For DNV, resilience is what helps us to tackle day-to-day challenges and thrive in the face of change and uncertainty. We have been monitoring physical and mental health risks that may affect colleagues arising from extended periods of working from home because of the pandemic. Despite the continuing effect of the pandemic on our work environment, our occupational health and safety performance in 2021 continued the positive trend seen over recent years.

Progress in 2021

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• Safeguarding our people

  With COVID-19 restrictions in place in many countries during 2021, we have travelled less and provided more remote services. The reduction in the lost time injury rate may be attributed to this. 

  We maintained our essential-travel-only policy throughout the year, continuing our commitment to protect the health of our employees and customers. Employees traveling for businesscritical reasons were required to conduct a COVID-19 travel risk assessment with formal approval by both their line manager and regional manager. 

  In general, employees in DNV report low overall sickness. However, the global trend is that workforce mental health is a growing concern and we continuously monitor how our employees are impacted by the volatility and uncertainty of the pandemic. We are initiating dialogues within DNV about mental health to enhance our understanding of the fundamental factors contributing to our people’s mental wellbeing. Full details of our performance, are provided in the Metrics and data pages in this section. 

• Developing resilience
  For DNV, employee resilience is as much about our ability to cope with change as it is about thriving and becoming the best version of oneself. Resilience starts with ourselves; taking care of ourselves is what puts us in the best position to support our customers and make a difference together.
• Managing the COVID-19 pandemic

  Across the organization, local crisis management teams led by our country chairs have continued to support our people through these unprecedented times as the pandemic is evolving from a global crisis to one of local flare-ups. 

  We hold weekly meetings to share updates about the pandemic and best practices for keeping our employees safe and healthy. Supported by the Group COVID-19 crisis team, local crisis teams continuously provide employees in their countries with science-based information on what is and is not known about the virus, about measures to reduce the spread of infection and on how to offer psychological support to maintain resilience.

  Together with biomedicine and social science experts, our crisis team has knowledge sessions and guidance on COVID-19 and vaccinations. The sessions focused on preventing infection and keeping employees motivated to uphold with safe behaviours relating to COVID-19. 

  Tragically, we have lost one employee and two subcontractors to COVID-19. Many colleagues have also lost family members due to the virus, and and we have followed-up with them to ensure they receive the support needed to work through these traumatic times. Our crisis management teams have also supported colleagues affected by ‘long COVID’ and helped employees prepare for how to tackle COVID-19 in their households and personal lives by sharing learning experiences. 

• In home office environments
  With an increasing number of employees working from home, we recorded 35 cases of ill-health related to ergonomics in the home environment and local initiatives to mitigate these cases were initiated. In light of changes to working patterns associated with our new flexible and hybrid working routines (see the Our employees section for more details), ergonomics initiatives are part of our transition projects towards our future workplaces.
• Employee resilience and mental health

  Building on the resources that were launched in 2020, we continued to help all DNV employees develop their resilience in these challenging times. We focus on increasing awareness of what employees can do to improve wellbeing and motivation as they cope with uncertainty. Some of our initiatives included: 

  • Launching a revamped global DNV Resilience Gateway (see case study underneath). 
  • Webinars to help maintain and strengthen employee resilience, with a focus on mental health and transitioning to a hybrid work environment. 
  • A ‘Mystery Coffee’ initiative was launched globally in March 2021 to connect DNV people online, build new networks, and socialize, relax, and prevent loneliness and isolation.
  • Maritime also continued its #staysafe campaign to encourage our surveyors to take extra precautions at work.
  • Depending on local conditions and legislation, local management has initiated measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on their employees. Examples include: recruiting and training 30 mental health first aiders in UK and Ireland; a mental health helpline offering professional psychological support in Poland; workshops on remote leadership in Norway; digital mental and physical exercise breaks, and efforts to improve ergonomic working conditions in Germany and the US. Our Pulse surveys show that these initiatives to ensure employee wellbeing have been well received.
• Case study - Global DNV Resilience Gateway

  Coinciding with World Mental Health Day on 10 October, we launched our revamped DNV Global Resilience Gateway for employees on the DNV intranet. With the new Gateway, our goal is to make the support that DNV offers on resilience more visible, unified and accessible to our employees. We believe that the more accessible our resources are, the easier it is for our employees to reach out and get the support they need. 

  The Resilience Gateway offers curated content, such as podcasts, articles and videos in each of the six pillars of our resilience framework – physical, mental and social health, and autonomy, growth and purpose. It showcases the plethora of local and regional wellbeing and resilience initiatives that DNV has to offer, as well as specific content on relevant topics such as grief and chronic illness in relation to the pandemic. 

  Our aim is for the content to be dynamic and to respond to the needs of our employees. We have created slides with trigger questions or statements that can be used to kick-start team or one-to-one discussions on potentially difficult or sensitive resilience topics, such as mental health or psychological safety. 

  We use monthly highlights on our internal social media channel, Yammer, to encourage employees to use the gateway and its resources. So far, feedback has been positive and suggestions for maximizing the benefit of the gateway show that employees are engaged with the platform. Examples of suggestions include making the gateway accessible to our sub-contractors, making presentations to show users around the gateway, and sharing one-pagers to inspire safety moments and team building meetings.

• Measuring resilience

  We use a resilience index to monitor employee resilience across the whole company. The index is based on our employee engagement Pulse survey and enables managers to follow-up issues in local business units in a timely manner. Scored out of 10, our target is to achieve a resilience index score of 8 by 2025. The survey includes the following specific questions: 

  • I’m satisfied with the amount of flexibility I have in my work schedule 
  • My manager cares about me as a person
  • DNV really cares about my health and wellbeing 
  • The demands of my workload are manageable.

  Responses to questions related to resilience have been positive and steadily improving across the organization during the COVID-19 crisis. 
• Incident reporting and learning from incidents

  In 2021, we continued to focus on identifying and reporting hazards, risks, and incidents including near misses. Significant near misses with potential for high consequences were shared with top management and are made available to all employees on the intranet. To further encourage sharing of lessons learned, we host network meetings for health, safety and environment (HSE) representatives from our business areas and Global Shared Services (GSS). Reported incidents and potential risks feed into our overall risk management system.

• Case study - Reviewing our data on employee resilience

  In March 2021, we conducted a deep-dive into our resilience data to help understand the current mental health status and resilience of our employees and identify improvement areas for the remainder of 2021. 

  We studied quantitative and qualitative data sources, including Pulse survey scores and comments; data from our health and safety software, Synergi Life; employee absence and sick leave data; COVID-19 task force feedback; country chair surveys; and feedback from resilience webinars, our future workplace pilot in China as well as external studies. 

  The findings showed some positive trends in employee resilience across DNV. Compared to industry benchmarks, our Pulse survey results show that DNV’s improvements in employee resilience have outpaced improvements in the benchmark scores. The DNV Resilience Index increased from 7.83 to 7.88 between the end of 2020 and May 2021, while the industry benchmark stayed constant at 7.85. 

  Areas for improvement include an indication that excess workload is contributing to heightened employee stress and anxiety, and that some employees have experienced loneliness as a result of working from home during the pandemic. Remote working has also put pressure on employee-manager relationships, an area that was already challenging before the pandemic. The impact of excess workload, in particular, has been noted as a concern and our business areas are working to implement mitigating actions, including support on time management in home working situations. 

  We have translated the findings from the deep dive into focus areas that target all levels in DNV: As a company, we will work to remove stigma and fear of repercussions around employee mental health; as leaders, we will improve communication and establish expectations; as teams, we will support each other in meeting resilience needs; and, as DNV employees, we will identify our own resilience needs and reach out for support. These focus areas inspired measures taken in 2021 and we will continue to refer to these areas as learning opportunities during our transition to flexible work schemes and hybrid working environments.

Looking ahead

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• Safety and resilience resources and support structure

  In 2022, we will continue to improve our safety and resilience resources and support structure to ensure we safeguard our people as we navigate through the pandemic and shift to a hybrid work environment.

• Resilience

  We expect that the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the transition to a hybrid office-home work environment, will continue to put our employees’ resilience to the test. There are many opinions about the return to working from the office and the shift to hybrid working following the pandemic. While many employees look forward to returning to the office, there are also indications that some feel anxious about returning. Others appreciate the flexibility that comes with the option to work from home. 

  In addition to improving our resilience support structure, we will continue to build our resilience resources, including updating our Resilience Gateway and further developing employee awareness and knowledge so that they can champion resilience and support others in developing theirs. 

  We will also:

  • Analyse our resilience data and implement relevant support measures 
  • Increase awareness of our resources on resilience 
  • Conduct webinars on psychological safety to reduce stigma around mental health 
  • Identify specific employee resilience needs linked to hybrid working 
  • Identify factors that lead to excess workload and discuss opportunities for improving workflows. 
• Incident reporting and learning from incidents

  We will continue to focus on hazard, risk and incident reporting in 2022, including near misses. This is an essential part of our journey to create a safety culture characterized by learning and improvement. Part of this work will be encouraging employees who report an incident in Synergi Life, our proprietary risk management tool, to analyse the root causes of the incident, and to support the business areas in offering training on risk analysis. Cases with the potential for high consequences will continue to be shared with top management and learnings will be made available to all employees on the intranet.

Approach

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• Safety and resilience management

  Safety and resilience are fully embedded in our purpose, vision and values, and our commitment to safeguarding people extends to everyone who is linked to our business. Our approach is to empower our people to make the right decisions about their own safety, health and wellbeing every day and to equip them with the knowledge and skills to thrive and perform at their best. We invest in a safe, healthy and future-fit working environment, focusing on employee wellbeing (physical, mental, and social health) and motivation (autonomy, mastery, and purpose) to contribute to their resilience. 

  Our safety and resilience policy and management system complies with all laws and regulations in countries where we operate and is certified to the ISO 45001:2018 standard. In areas where legislation is weak or does not exist, we adhere to our Group requirements, which comply with Norwegian regulations. 

  The right to say ‘no’ if you encounter inappropriate behaviour or unacceptable conditions that can pose a risk to your safety or harm your health and resilience while at work for DNV, is embedded in our safety and resilience policy. 

• Governance

  Within DNV, safety and resilience are structured across two lines of responsibility – by geography and by business area. At the highest level, the Group CEO and Executive Committee are responsible for all matters concerning safety and resilience. Quarterly safety and resilience reports are made available to all employees on the intranet. 

  Line managers are responsible for ensuring safe and healthy working conditions that protect our employees and contractors and support them in developing their resilience. They are also responsible for promoting open communication and a culture where incidents and feedback are treated as learning opportunities. 

  All our safety and resilience support resources are internal; we do not outsource any responsibilities related to safety and resilience. We conduct a management system review process annually. This is a bottom-up process and ensures continual improvement of our safety, occupational health and resilience performance. The review has a fixed agenda with elements such as risk management (including safety, resilience and quality) and information related to performance and effectiveness of the management system. 

• Risk assessment

  DNV has defined clear principles, processes and key responsibilities for hazard identification and risk assessment relating to office working, travelling, driving, conducting field work, and operations at laboratories and test sites. Occupational health and safety risks, including those related to field and laboratory work, are periodically identified, assessed and reviewed by business areas or through the global risk register. 

  We are actively using risk assessments to guide our decision making on how to operate during the pandemic. Assessments are being used to support decisions on whether to conduct work in person or through remote services and also to mitigate the risk of infection during field work, laboratory and test site activities, and travel. We have also used risk assessments to support decisions on closing or restricting access to offices and managing their reopening in a controlled way. In line with our purpose, vision and values, we take pride in our forward leaning and relatively precautionary approach in comparison to local requirements. 

  A record of common risks across DNV is maintained at the Group and regional level. These generally relate to officerelated work, travel and driving. Business areas identify and manage the significant risks associated with field work, laboratory, test site activities and events. 

• Work-related hazards

  The main hazards associated with DNV activities that increase the risk of a high-consequence injury include:

  • Line of fire hazards, in particular objects dropped or falling from height, high pressure/tension releases, contact with moving vehicles, moving parts of machinery and work equipment
  • Driving and travelling 
  • Places at height or at ground level from which a person could fall from height, including transfers at sea with a risk of drowning and/or crushing 
  • Entry into confined spaces where an oxygen deficient or toxic atmosphere may be present 
  • Working in hot work environments and high temperature environments.

  High-consequence risks are considered those where the most probable outcome is death or significant disability or impairment, including the following: 

  • Serious multiple fractures 
  • All amputations 
  • Permanent loss of sight or reduction of sight in one or both eyes 
  • Crush injuries leading to internal organ damage 
  • Serious burns (covering more than 10% of body; third-degree burns; internal electrical burns; or damage to the eyes, respiratory system, or other vital organs) 
  • Nervous system injuries with loss of function 
  • Unconsciousness caused by head injury, asphyxia, heat, electric shock or chemical exposure 
  • The person cannot, does not or is not expected to recover to pre-incident health status within six months. 

   

  We determined these hazards and risks by several means, including operational risk assessments, audit findings and incident analysis. The risks are recorded in health and safety risk registers, which include:

  • A description of the risk – the associated main hazards, as well as causes and contributory factors to the risk 
  • The risk control measures and monitoring/assurance process 
  • An evaluation of the risk, with a risk rating based on the likelihood and severity of harm 
  • Actions to reduce the residual risks to an acceptable level and ongoing monitoring activities. 
• Incident reporting

  We manage and report incidents and hazards, including near misses, using Synergi Life, our commercial software platform that has been developed in-house by DNV. Our approach complies with Norwegian regulations and is aligned with the ILO code of practice on recording and notification of occupational accidents and diseases. 

  Employees involved in, or observing, a work-related incident or safety and health related risk are required to report it through Synergi Life. Employees concerned about revealing their identity can anonymously report incidents and hazards (including near misses). 

  All reported cases with the potential for high-consequence injury are investigated and corrective actions implemented. Any cases with the potential for high-consequence injury are reviewed in the next risk assessment covering safety and health. 

• Learning from incidents

  A significant objective of incident and hazard reporting is to share experiences across the business and learn from them. Learnings are shared regularly through presentations on incidents with medium- or high-consequence injury potential in several levels of the organization, including top management. We also maintain an open-access incident and hazard database. 

• Involving employees

  We share information and consult with elected representatives of employee works councils and unions in accordance with our collective agreements and local legislation.

Metrics and data

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• Occupational diseases with lost time

  In 2021, 21 cases of work-related ill-health resulting in lost time were reported (2020: 17). Eleven of these identified stress and workload as the sole or contributing factor. The other cases were mainly due to working conditions in the home environment and fieldwork. All employees are expected to make a full recovery. 

• Absence rate

  Our absence rate due to sickness has remained low at 2.3% (2020: 2%; 2019: 2.3%). Our reporting system does not currently capture absence by region.

• Incident and hazard reporting

  During the year, 1,341 incidents, hazards and near misses related to occupational health, safety and the environment were reported (2020: 1,252). 294 cases were registered in Synergi Life as near misses, and of these 3.4% (10 cases) were reported as potential high risk.