What should a company pay particular attention to?

Beside the mandatory annual occupational / fire / environmental / quality management and safety training, many other useful interesting programs took place this month.

Fire protection was the priority.

"Our first practice concerned fire in buildings and specially designated employees could train extinguishing a 2m x 2m controlled fire. Additionally, anyone could take advantage of using a 6 kg or 12 kg fire extinguisher in a firefighter suit. Our goal is to get as many people as possible to experience the successful elimination of a fire-related emergency, whether it's working environment or just their home. We not only talked about fire extinguishing techniques in theory, but we also organized the practice of how to evacuate in smoke, and how an emergency call should look like," said Teresa Horváth, the Operations Excellence Manager at Raben Hungary.

Another aspect of fire drills was a stress management training for workers led by a psychologist, who also explained how people normally react to danger. This was followed by two fire alarms, the first being a "false alarm" where the observers recorded  how fast we left the building, how efficiently the fire marshals and responsible leaders performed their tasks. After that, a brief analysis was made to answer the question: "What could have been done better or differently?" During the next alarm, a fire alarm was triggered again in several points (office and warehouse) using smoke generators.

"The experience has taught us a lot of useful lessons - during the second alarm, the evacuation proved to be much more effective; more conscious behaviour was observed among the staff. The more we practice, the more people will remember what is the most effective behaviour to protect our lives," said Teréz Horváth.

In addition to our own safety, protecting our environment is essential. This was also included in the training topics this month. Raben - via various internal communication channels - has provided a more detailed insight into the subject, such as the decomposition time for various types of waste to ensure that the staff better understand why it is important to pay attention to waste segregation.

This not only protects the environment but also has a cost-saving effect. In a playful manner, the company drew attention to the rules of collection, since many people, for example, do not know that a used plastic box can only be thrown into the plastic waste bin cleaned, or that the used tissue is considered mixed waste. Raben wants to continue this topic in July, when there will be a whole week dedicated to environmental protection.

The final theme of the month was the Health Week, which was arranged for the seventh time by the freight forwarding company. Health surveys, professional lectures, sports competitions, blood donation, relaxation activities helped the staff to understand the importance of their own health.

"It is more and more fashionable to pay attention to healthy eating and active sports, but my experience is that the fast-paced, busy days of everyday life steal the focus from health preservation. There are very few people who consciously pay attention, so I think it is necessary to emphasize this topic as well," said Ágnes Bolyki, PR, Marketing Expert and CSR Coordinator at Raben Hungary.