Observe and report

The ACCO flash report system comprises a one page report on an incident or near miss that is designed to get safety information out quickly.

The reports cover the type of incident, root causes and findings, with the names of employees left out.

ACCO Director EHS & Facilities Europe Lee King explains: “This has to go out within 24 hours of something happening, and it often is sent out within hours.”

One recent incident that had immediate far-reaching impact on the organisation was a forklift related incident at an ACCO operated facility in the USA.

Lee continues: “It was probably our most serious incident ever. A forklift operator was carrying a paper load via clamp attachments that obscured his vision. 

“A pedestrian did not stop at T-junction, he was looking down and carried on walking as the forklift approached. There was a good response on-site that potentially saved the employee’s life, but his arm and hand were de-gloved.”

OSHA (the US equivalent of the HSE) investigated the incident and was satisfied with the robust systems ACCO had in place.

That said, ACCO took immediate action to boost warehouse safety globally.

“We had a team meeting after the incident,” says Lee. “We reviewed it and decided to roll out Blue Spot technology as a result, across all sites. All countries have either implemented it, or have it in the budget to do so.”

Blue Spot is a warning system on the forklift that shines a light on the floor warning pedestrians of approaching forklifts. ACCO has tried to segregate pedestrians and forklifts, but it’s not always possible. It uses barriers where it can and trains staff to make sure people stick to walkways.

Rack damage

In the past ACCO tends to buy material handling equipment, which means the trucks can run for a very long time. While this brings significant benefits, it has downsides. 

“We had rail-based VNA MHE in our Halesowen DC. It was good kit, but as it aged it would come off its rails more frequently and damage racking.”

ACCO has responded to this in two ways. It has turned to SEMA (The Storage Equipment Manufacturers Association) for best practice guidance on managing rack repairs and it further upgrade its forklift fleet to a wire guidance system.

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“In the end, we went for SESS in terms of rack inspections,” explains Lee. “I personally recommended them – as they are independent from the line managers – because we wanted to make sure we were getting an independent report, and I’ve made sure the company inspecting racking is different from those doing the repairs.”

Long-serving staff

ACCO in Halesowen benefits from an experienced and long-established workforce. But an ageing demographic also brings its safety challenges.

Lee says: “It’s great to have experienced workers but from a safety point of view it poses the question – should we have a 70 year old HGV or forklift driver? We can’t really answer that. Maybe yes, as people stay fitter longer.

“We have an occupational health nurse attend site monthly. We run initiatives for staff like know your numbers. We check blood pressure, cholesterol etc. Hopefully people make lifestyle changes if needed, but it's up to the individual.”

The average tenure for staff at Halesowen is 20-25 years. 

Darrol Masefield, H&S & Facilities at ACCO adds: “We pay for HGV drivers’ CPC, they are doing a job for us. We are looking at long term investment in staff.”

Corporate culture

The company’s safety initiatives are part of a concerted drive on safety, backed from the boardroom. The ACCO global chairman takes an active and vocal lead on safety personally attending every lost time accident review meeting. One of the key company-wide programmes is See Something, Say Something which was rolled out in 2012.

“With See Something, Say Something the idea is for everyone to speak up if they see a safety failing or a potential incident. We all have bad days, if we can encourage all employees to lookout for each other and remind each other of their responsibilities for safety then this can help improve the safety environment. If required, the most senior person in the operation can be told by the most junior person if they're doing something un-safe without ramifications.

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All drivers are required to carry out a pre-operations check of their vehicle. That was difficult culturally to start with. It’s not just about the technical checks,” says Lee. “It is also getting the person to think about safety before they get on that truck.”

It is a big challenge, as it is very difficult to direct criticism upward in most organisations.

Lee continues: “One of the key things is employee involvement. So we will talk to people as we carry out audits. Some of the questions relate to how often staff raise safety concerns. Initially when we started doing this, we didn't really get answers.

“I can honestly say we’ve got more as time has gone by, because we've dealt with feedback in a relaxed atmosphere. We’ve been able to say to managers ‘you need to encourage this a little bit more’.

“It’s also important that we don’t have name and shame culture. We speak to people on-to-one if there is an issue to be addressed.”

The audits have proved key in boosting safety, but it has been an evolving process.

“The audits started out as a deep dive into the safety culture and compliance of a facility, but management were disappointed with low scores,” says Lee. “So instead we looked at compliance to start with. Facilities scored higher and there was more engagement. This gave us something to build on and we have increased results every year and I think we're at a really good level. It has proved better than starting with very high expectations and achieving low scores, which disengages everyone.”

ACCO also emphasises collaboration throughout the group. The company gets teams together in North America and in Europe to educate staff around its Comprehensive Environmental and Safety Management Plan (CESMP). The company also uses staff from sites to help audit other sites. For example, the safety coordinator may help audit a Netherlands DC, and vice versa.

Safety is an ongoing project at ACCO, with the leadership team always on the lookout for improvements. 

Darrol explains: “We’re always learning. We read Handling & Storage Solutions, highlight articles, and discuss them in health and safety meetings. 

“We have attended and spoken at recent SEMA safety conferences and we were really impressed. It is great to see an organisation that is focused on warehousing.”

ACCO demonstrates the benefits a dedicated team can provide, particularly when driven by active boardroom involvement, coupled with encouraging all staff to voice their health and safety concerns.