Scania: A health conscious company

"Our concern is the whole person. We take responsibility for the work environment, but we must also make sure that those who work here feel well outside of work", says Gunnar Hedlund.

"That's why we've gone from thinking work environment to thinking health. Today's greatest challenges aren't accidents and occupational injuries, but mental stress because you have too much on your plate. The job is part of it, but it is also about creating a balance in life.

Gunnar Hedlund has started a journey together with the others in the management group – the leadership journey. There are no external teachers, we are our own teachers, he says. 

"It's an inner education, with no beginning and no end. It is an ongoing journey, where you meet at regular intervals, talk about assessments, about attitudes, how we regard each other, how we treat each other and so on. It's all about creating common values, and gaining common attitudes. We are trying to build a shared picture and continuously move forward." 

Scania Production System is based on development though continuous improvement. That involves moving from a reactive to a proactive way of working. Management has its leadership journey, the machine operators have their improvement groups. The core activity is production. This is where the product is created and developed further. Teamwork is the engine of the development. The task of the leadership is to provide support and add competence. At the bottom of it all lies a triple philosophy: The customer comes first, respect for the individual and eliminating the waste of resources.

Where the engine is born 

Scania worldwide employs more than 29.000 people. There are 7.000 people working at Scania in Södertälje, 550 work on Transmission Production, out of whom 450 are machine operators working in three work shops, in four times three shifts.

Thomas Westerlund at Human Resources-Transmission Production shows us around the production hall. Enormous machines help produce parts for an engine, which will be put together at another unit in the company. The machine operators are responsible for the smooth running of the production. Not only for the particular machine they're working at, but for the optimal running of the production which their work team is responsible for. 

The unit, Transmission Production, consists of 81 improvement groups, meeting weekly to discuss experiences and share knowledge. Each improvement group has a big board in the area where they work, showing routines, objectives, improvements and suggestions. That way everybody can keep up to date on how their group is doing compared to the goals that are set. The improvement work is all about identifying what must be done, when it is to be done and who is responsible for making sure it is done. The machine operators Stefan Bäck and Martin Classon show us how the whole thing works. 

"We have been given more responsibility, more to do, but our salaries haven't gone up to reflect it", argues Martin Classon.

 "Yes, there is the problem that the salary system was created before we got going with the new production system", says Thomas Westerlund, but underlines that they are working on that now.

Stefan Bäck and Martin Classon have been working at Scania for ten years. Both have vocational further education, paid for by the company. Although they are not on the same team, they seem to agree: 

"The best with working at Scania? The mates."

"The experience with the new production system?" 

"Well, there is more order and it's more tidy." 

That is good, they feel; it makes the work place both nicer and safer, and it is easier to keep it clean and tidy when everything has its place. A complete scrub down of all the machines makes it easier to discover a possible oil leak and to do something about it. Thus there is less wastage. And they'd rather work for Scania than for a competing company. 

"At Scania we have more freedom and better salaries", says Martin Classon.

"But look here", he says and points at the board. "This is the goal, this is how we're doing. To reach that goal we're dependent on other units doing their job. We must know what the customer wants, before we can start."

Healthy presence 

Among the 550 employees in Transmission Production, four are on long-term sick leave. Sick leave is not really a term which is much in use anymore. It is a healthy presence that counts. 

"It is so huge when we talk about health and work environment at Scania, that I usually say its like an amoeba because it involves so much," Gunnar Hedlund says.

He is not so keen on talking about the fact that money is also being saved. But of course, when the fight for employees gets tougher in a few years time, it is important to have a good reputation. The customers are also beginning to make new demands. They have already won a large contract because of a good work environment.

 A proactive attitude has consequences also for the perception of how leadership is carried out, he says: 

"If we say we want the employees to feel well, leaders must also contribute to that. The leaders' task is to be observant enough and be sufficiently engaged in their co-workers to offer them help before they actually need to go on sick leave." 

There are a range of tools to choose from, depending on where the problem lies. One offer open to employees is a large "health ward", which is visited by 5-6000 people every week. Another and more unique offer is the health school. Gunnar Hedlund explains: 

"If a person is repeatedly on short-term leave – which almost always precedes a long-term leave – the leader can offer this person time at a health school. The health school takes up half the working time for a period of six weeks. After that, you're given a personal mentor for a year.

 Everybody who goes through that education gets back on top. That means they will not go into longterm sick leave. The whole idea is to move away from fixing things that have gone wrong, towards detecting signals and work preventatively.

"Our saying goes: 80% is top and 20% is body. So it isn't enough to run around in the forest, it is a process which must start up here," he says and points to his head. 

"Our experience is that if you strengthen the healthy bits, the bad might not disappear, but it becomes such a small part that you can actually handle it." 

Good dialogue 

"Health is the result we get when we work with all the other things", says Tommy Bäcklund. 

He is the union rep in Metall (Scania Metalworkers' Union), the main safety deputy at Scania in Södertälje since 1986 and employed by the company since 1978.

"Our basic philosophy about respect for the individual creates demands for leadership. It´s necessary to follow things up", he claims. "We do that by running coworker vox-pops among other things, where questions are asked about the things we've decided to do – about leadership, about clarity, about communication which touches on the basic demands you have to meet as a leader. The results indicate what we think we must work with in the future. This is the kind of continuous improvement work which runs through the entire organisation. We have principles, supported by methods which then give results. No matter the question at hand, the thinking should be the same. There is no micro leadership, but a way of looking at things which we're about to include into everything we do. 

"About the leadership, I'd put it this way: Yesterday we hired for skill and trained for attitude, today we hire for attitude and train for skill. That's the big difference," says Gunnar Hedlund.

"Yes, these are ambitions we agree on," comments Tommy Bäcklund. 

"But it takes time to carry through. I've been in this game for long enough to know that if you are to work with these kinds of things, you must work hard at it, be clear and have stamina. We've got much left to do, but it is important to have a good dialogue. And we do have that," Tommy Bäcklund confirms.