Safety Game – FSP For Surface Protection Oy

The Goal
The goal of the game was to ensure that each employee understands the risks specific to their own area of responsibility and how the work environment can be developed to be safer.

Game design
In the design phase, three meetings were held with HR, the occupational safety manager, and representatives of occupational safety. For FSP’s project group, the design process was quick and painless.

The design group decided to include the following three perspectives in the game:
• Broadly building and promoting a better occupational safety culture.
• Specific safety risks included in the everyday life of all employees.
• General wellbeing and ergonomics.

All of these aimed at improving occupational safety and wellbeing at work, which were to be developed through playing.

Implementation of game workshops
At the start of implementation, 15 supervisors were trained to run the game themselves in their own teams. After this, an information session about the game was held for the entire staff, after which physical game boxes were delivered to each location.

Supervisors ran the game with a good attitude and also with their own styles. Muutostaito organized checkpoints every two months to support the progress of the process and the improvement of occupational safety in everyday life. At the end of the project, a final workshop was held to review successes, key follow-up actions, and to reward achievements related to occupational safety.

Experiences and benefits
The experiences were positive, even though it was a “guys’ group.” A key factor here was gamification. In many locations, the game was played flexibly while still maintaining the everyday work rhythm.

The game was also translated into Polish, Estonian, and English. This made it possible for every single employee in all countries to understand the importance of occupational safety and to bring their grassroots-level experiences into the discussion in their own language.

The game helps to discuss
The most important thing in the entire method is that through the game everyone can participate in the discussion better than in ordinary meetings. Employees can influence and participate in the development of their own work.

The questions and answers were compiled in such a way that they acted as a catalyst for discussion. In the game there are no right or wrong answers, and it helps bring new perspectives into the conversation.

“The game acted as a tool for the safety discussion… That this is a kind of bigger safety discussion session where safety is reviewed in different areas.”

“What’s nice about this game is that even the quietest ones bring out their opinions.”

“It was good that there were ready questions and ready answers, so we got that as a bridge to start the discussion, about how each one sees the questions and answers. – A few employees even said that this was actually really very good, that it enabled opening up the discussion.”

“The different options also brought the fact that they were all correct, but correct in different ways, so you saw how much someone agreed with you and how differently someone else saw it…”

“Things get thought through a little more deeply, and then of course we discussed afterwards, and then the supervisors listened a bit more closely and took notes.”

 

From the perspective of FSP’s management team, the project proceeded very smoothly and easily, and they did not have to spend their own time pushing things forward.

With the help of the game, changes have been achieved that have reduced workplace accidents – and at the same time absences, costs, and the impact of workplace accidents on employees’ health.

FSP aimed to reduce workplace accidents. The goals were reached, and the long-term impact is still ongoing.