EPV invests in its employees’
- well-being
- occupational safety
- professional development
Employee surveys show that EPV is an inspiring place to work. Our personnel consists of professionals and experts in their fields who have diverse experience of the energy sector spanning more than four decades. Our competent and skilled employees are our most important resource.
It is EPV’s responsibility to care for its employees in a number of different ways:
- We invest in developing the skills of our employees
- We train managers
- We encourage all our employees to take good care of their health
The goal is to ensure that our employees are highly committed, motivated and engaged in continuous development. We strive to guarantee a healthy and safe working environment, while nurturing a culture of doing things together.
Occupational safety improved significantly in 2019
EPV Energy strives to take exemplary care of occupational safety matters. The company’s goal is to build a working environment in which occupational accidents do not occur.
Occupational safety was monitored through the usual methods in 2019 in all of the Group’s companies, including all external personnel working with EPV. Safety is monitored in several different categories:
- occupational accidents
- serious occupational accidents
- accidents on the way to and from work
- dangerous situations
- safety observations
The frequency rate of occupational accidents is calculated, the result showing the number of accidents per million hours worked, excluding accidents on the way to and from work. In calculating the statistics, service providers working with EPV have also been taken into account.
In comparison to the previous year, significant improvements were achieved in 2019 in both the number of accidents and their frequency.
- the number of accidents fell to 4 (from 10 in 2018)
- the accident frequency rate halved to 8.59 (from 16.29 in 2018)
The accident frequency rate of EPV’s companies is lower than the average for the energy sector and the rate for all sectors; according to a report published by the Centre for Occupational Safety, the frequency rate for all sectors in 2017 was 29.4.
Two of EPV’s achievements for the year were that its own staff only suffered one occupational accident that led to absence from work and that the last quarter passed without any occupational accidents.
Improved work culture, in which occupational safety is increasingly affected in a proactive manner is partially responsible for the improvement. Anticipatory occupational safety declarations, e.g. warnings of dangerous situations and observations regarding occupational safety, doubled in comparison to the previous year.
Good examples from 2019 of the development of safety measures are the safety orientation for Seinäjoen Voima’s grid, which all those working in the area are required to undertake, and the move to electronic safety observations on the part of Seinäjoen Voima and Vaskiluodon Voima.
In addition to occupational accidents, there were unfortunately two accidents on the way to and from work suffered by EPV’s own employees.
EPV developed the skills of its personnel
The points of emphasis for EPV’s personnel development in 2019 included:
- continual development of supervisory and managerial skills
- continual development of social interaction skills
- development of internal communications
- more effective use of electrical tools
As a responsible operator, it is of paramount importance to make sure that we maintain top-level cyber security skills. In 2019, EPV Energy published data security and data protection training videos on a regular basis for the use of its employees. In addition, EPV Energy introduced a data security simulation program for the use of all personnel in their email applications.
The redefinition of job roles was completed
EPV Energy made it one of the Group’s primary goals for 2019 to create a clear role division for professional and managerial employees, as there was no existing categorisation or structure similar to that of clerical and professional staff. The project moved forward by describing the current duties of various roles and comparing pay to Finnish Energy’s 2018 level of pay.
The comparison can be considered comprehensive and substantive for professional and managerial employees. A similar comparison was carried out for clerical employees. The level of pay of EPV’s professional and managerial employees was found to be comparable to Finnish Energy’s level of pay.
Systematic efforts to improve well-being
Occupational health and well-being is approached in a proactive way at EPV Energy. The company regularly inquires into the state of the working environment and community with various different surveys and studies and develops its personnel policy and workplace atmosphere based on their results.
Supervisors and workers also regularly hold performance appraisals where they discuss matters relating to well-being and coping at work. EPV Energy sees well-being at work as a broad concept that includes both mental and physical well-being.
Job satisfaction is monitored regularly with Group-wide job satisfaction surveys. The job satisfaction survey is taken each year by the company’s whole staff. Response rates in the survey have been good. The 2019 survey was completed by 82 per cent of staff.
Staff were very satisfied with:
- the conduct of their immediate superiors
- their own work
- EPV as an employer
Areas to be improved included internal communication and more effective announcements regarding changes.
