Meet Louise – one of our fantastic colleagues who works as a Safety and Health Manager at Workington Mill.
Hi Louise! Can you tell us a little more about your role?
My main responsibility is to manage and develop site health and safety, focusing on driving improvements in the overall culture. I advise all levels of the organisation and serve as the principal contact for health and safety matters. Additionally, I oversee the management systems, with the management system coordinator reporting to me. My role is both broad and complex, which makes it challenging and fun.
What do you think is the best thing about your role?
Wholeheartedly, it’s the diversity of the job. I absolutely love that. To be honest, it can be overwhelming at times because you’re involved in pretty much everything. Right now, I’m working on noise exposure levels and health surveillance, emergency procedures, and coordinating with the fire brigade on joint exercises involving explosive chemicals. We also have new environmental regulations requiring us to recycle our food waste. And that’s just some of what’s happening right now. It is massively diverse.
I also appreciate having an important role in inspiring and developing these crucial areas. I enjoy being able to help others. I like when people come to me with their problems, and I can help them find solutions.
”The key is to be available, open, and approachable, but not to own everybody’s problems.”
At this stage, the most important aspect of my role in supporting safety and health issues is being visible and available. They can come to me with any question, but I also need to ensure I don’t become a bottleneck. We need to use the correct structure for reporting and completing tasks, rather than everyone coming to me for solutions. It’s a fine balance. Understanding who needs to be involved in what – you go to line management for that, you do risk assessments here, or you take that to an area meeting. The key is to be available, open, and approachable, but not to own everybody’s problems. It’s about enabling people to solve their own issues."
What do you think are the most important issues when working with health and safety at the mill?
We work in an extremely dangerous environment, like most production industries. It’s crucial to step back and ensure we do things safely. With familiarity comes the risk of overconfidence and becoming too comfortable. You need to remember that machines don’t stop for errors – safety is your responsibility. Of course, there are safety guards in place, but you cannot eliminate all risks. Machines may have been altered over time, and you need to be aware of how each machine works and what safety procedures need to be followed.
“We don’t want safety to be just something management is saying; we want everyone to be part of and aware of our safety work. “
We focus heavily on mindset to ensure safety. We try to reinforce it constantly. We discuss safety first in all our meetings. In our weekly team briefings, we review safety and safety incidents. We encourage our employees to report all safety incidents to resolve and prevent any risks. We remind and encourage each other to practise safe behaviour. Over the last six months, we’ve worked closely with the union’s safety reps to really encourage them to be safety chaperons. We don’t want safety to be just something management is saying; we want everyone to be part of and aware of our safety work.
“We’ve got to always put safety first.“
I think it’s important to stress that we want our employees to have confidence that we stand by our values and that safety always comes first. We’ve got to always put safety first. Training is a crucial step in creating a safe workplace. We need our employees to attend all the safety training we provide to foster understanding, learning, and improvement in safety. We will never be done; it’s continuous work.
Can you describe the safety collaboration between our mills?
There has always been a longstanding collaboration between all business areas within Holmen regarding safety and health issues. However, the merger of Holmen Iggesund and Holmen Paper sparked a new and stronger cooperation between the four mills at Holmen. What I'm genuinely finding in a lovely way is the deeper personal network connection between us four safety and health managers. I absolutely feel that I can go to any of these three colleagues with any question and get their input and experience on any matter. This connection is important both from a personal perspective – as a specialist, you can sometimes feel alone in your role; – and from a professional standpoint - the strength of being able to benefit from each other's knowledge and experience.
Tell us a little about your journey at Workington Mill
I have worked for Holmen for 10 years. I started out as the management system coordinator, working with ISO standards, including ISO 45001 – which was known as OHSAS 18001 until it transitioned around 2018. So, I've always been involved in the safety and health management systems and have consistently worked closely with the safety and health manager. At the end of 2022, I began taking a more active role in safety and health. Then, there was a restructure last year, and the previous Safety and health manager moved into a different role. I applied for and was appointed to the position.
How did you end up at Holmen?
I grew up here but moved away for quite some time, including living in New Zealand for ten years. Eventually, I moved back to the area because I wanted to be close to my family.
When the Management Systems job came up and I got it I was very surprised and pleased. I knew from growing up here that Holmen was known for being a good employer, with excellent standards and conditions. I never thought I could work here or that there would be a job that fit me.
What sparked your interest in your line of work?
My background is as an environmental health officer, which involves regulating health and safety. Essentially, you work for the local government and cover four areas: health and safety, food hygiene, pollution control, and social housing. So, I was on the regulatory side of these areas, an experience which amazingly linked into our management systems here at Holmen. I have also been an auditor, auditing ISO standards and food standards.
I always found that job interesting. I liked the fact that it was a very diverse role. One day, the role could involve working with health and safety in a butcher shop, the next day dealing with river pollution or a blocked drain, and the third day handling a noisy neighbour complaint.
I stopped being an environmental health officer when I started working in auditing. I didn't like being the "bad guy" regulator all the time. You go in when things are wrong rather than working proactively with people to make things right and inspire development.
I really like that about my current role as Safety and Health Manager, being a positive force and helping people.