Dekra Industrial is proud to announce its 10th consecutive NOSCAR Award, reflecting the company’s dedicated and consistent commitment to safety excell
Dekra Industrial is proud to announce its 10th consecutive NOSCAR Award, reflecting the company’s dedicated and consistent commitment to safety excellence.
The NOSCAR award is only conferred after an extremely rigorous verification audit. The annual NOSA audit took place against the requirements of the CMB150 protocol. Scores obtained need to be above 95%, with a disabling accident frequency rate of less than 0.8%, no fatal accidents, no occupational health issues and no major environmental incidents.
This significant milestone for Dekra Industrial coincides with the highest score the company has ever attained in all the time it has been audited by NOSA, alongside the successful completion of the company’s 2024 ISO 45001:2018 surveillance audit.
Johan Gerber, Managing Director of Dekra Industrial, expresses pride in this achievement: “Winning our 10th consecutive NOSCAR award is not just a number; it signifies our relentless pursuit of safety in all aspects of our operations. This achievement distinguishes us as a leader in industrial safety – and highlights our commitment to creating a safe working environment for our valued employees, suppliers and clients,” he states.
This year, Gerber was also honoured with an Excellence Award from NOSA as the winning Managing Director of the Year for the NOSA Mpumalanga region.
“This award is not about me, rather it reflects the hard work and dedication of our entire team,” Gerber points out. “I am very proud to be part of a company which prioritises safety and empowers its people to excel in their roles, growing in their careers and as individuals too! Dekra Industrial’s dynamic and ingrained safety culture provides an excellent foundation for this development,” he adds.
Six million serious-injury-free man-hours
Carina Kleinhans, Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) Manager at Dekra Industrial elaborates on how the company’s safety culture has evolved over the years: “We started with a vision to unite our branches by means of a common safety ethos. Management commitment and leadership have played pivotal roles in this transformation,” Kleinhans enthuses.
“When our leaders really believe in safety, employees follow suit – creating a strongly cohesive, family- like culture which embraces Dekra’s Vision 2025 to be the ‘global partner for a safe, secure and sustainable world’.”
She emphasises the importance of the recent ISO 45001:2018 audit in enhancing Dekra Industrial’s health, safety and environmental goals. “ISO 45001:2018 is a global standard for occupational health and safety. As such, the audit not only confirms our compliance, but also provides us with recommendations for improvement, which we actively implement,” she notes.
The company’s impressive track record is further evidenced by the recent achievement of six million serious-injury-free man-hours, demonstrating the effectiveness of Dekra Industrial’s ingrained safety practices – even when working in space-constrained, challenging or dangerous industrial environments, which is often the case when doing non-destructive testing and inspection.
Dekra Industrial’s 0.00% Lost Time Injury Frequency Rates (LTIFR) and 0.00% Disabling Frequency Rate (DFR) further underscore its safety achievements. “You can never be complacent when it comes to safety: we continuously discuss and evaluate our performance to set new targets. Our ethos of continuous, incremental improvement ensures that we are always adapting to meet new challenges and achieve higher standards,” Kleinhans highlights.
Employee engagement
Gerber and Kleinhans both agree that individual employee engagement is crucial in fostering Dekra’s Industrial’s dynamic, ‘living’ safety culture. Initiatives such as the ‘#Why I Work Safe?’ internal campaign encourages employees to share their personal reasons for prioritising safety: “Employees develop their own slogans and posters for our walls,” Kleinhans explains. “When our people feel seen and valued, they are more likely to proactively and willingly engage in safety practices.”
Gerber echoes this sentiment: “Safety is not an ‘island’ or isolated department – it is an integral and integrated part of who we are as an organisation. By integrating safety into our daily discussions, we enhance morale and productivity.” He also compliments Kleinhans on her approach, noting that her daily, dedicated involvement alongside her team demonstrates true leadership.
Kleinhans shares a personal highlight from the 2024 NOSCAR Awards ceremony, noting the pride she felt as part of a diverse team, some members of which have been part of Dekra Industrial’s safety contingent since its first NOSCAR award ten years ago: “Being recognised by a respected external industry body for our achievements is a powerful demonstration that our commitment to safety truly pays off,” she says.
Focused and holistic
As Dekra Industrial celebrates these accolades, the company remains committed to and focused on its goals. The integration of health, safety and environmental practices is key to its future strategy. “We have digitised our safety systems, minimising time-consuming and wasteful paper trails, and allowing us to access information rapidly and improve efficiency,” Gerber explains. “This enhances our safety protocols and aligns with our environmental responsibilities.” This digitisation also assists Dekra
Industrial with a holistic view of its employees, as safety and human resource information is integrated to provide a 360 degree picture, and creates on online repository of company culture and knowledge for the future.
Dekra Industrial’s commitment to safety and quality continues to set the standard for industry, ensuring that safety remains a core value and ‘golden thread’ underpinning and running through all its operations.
In closing, Gerber expresses gratitude to the entire Dekra Industrial team for their ongoing contributions to safety excellence: “Stringent safety, prudent financial management and meticulous quality control all make up the ‘glue’ and foundation that holds everything together in a successful business – and safety is certainly one of these essential foundational pillars at Dekra Industrial. I am incredibly proud of our team and look forward to continuing this journey together,” he concludes.
About DEKRA Industrial and DEKRA Institute of Learning
With 99 years in the industry through its global parent company Dekra, Dekra Industrial SA has established a formidable reputation as a leader in inspection services, non-destructive testing (NDT), material testing, laboratory services, Advanced NDT, and asset integrity services, and offers industry training through the Dekra Institute of Learning (IOL).
As part of Dekra, which has a presence in more than 50 countries on five continents, DEKRA Industrial RSA provides safety solutions across a multitude of industries, including power generation, oil and gas, construction, petrochemical, manufacturing, fabrication, pulp and paper, rail, mining, steel industry and foundries, within South Africa and pan-Africa.
DEKRA Industrial SA is a holistic services provider of NDT inspection and corrosion control with rope access and lifting. DEKRA Industrial SA has 51 percent black woman ownership and has achieved a current overall Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) status of Level 1.
The company is also RD 0034-compliant – a nuclear safety compliance standard – and is one of the few NDT companies locally to hold the ISO 45001:2018 certification; as well as DNV certification, giving DEKRA Industrial access to many inspection opportunities in the maritime sector. The company also offers comprehensive vendor inspection and expediting services.
The Dekra Institute of Learning (IOL) is a leading adult-based education and occupational skills training provider, and a division of Dekra Industrial RSA, which focuses on making a tangible difference – by enhancing employability through adult-based occupational skills development and full qualifications.
As such, Dekra IOL is QCTO-accredited and delivers online learning across all industries, in both public and private sectors, with training pitched to all levels of competency, focusing on HSE, ISO and continuing professional development (CPD)-aligned courses. Classroom-based and distance learning are also available. Dekra Industrial and Dekra IOL strive to be recognised as the ‘heroes of safety’.