Fostering a Safety-Focused Culture:
Skanska’s Digital Transformation Journey with Microsoft 365 Power Platform
Skanska Commercial Development Unit in CEE is a multinational construction and development company headquartered in Sweden. It is the fifth largest construction company in the world, and is renowned for notable large-scale projects such as the United Nations HQ.
Skanska Property is one of the companies within the Skanska group and is an innovative developer of green, timeless office buildings that create an excellent environment for business development, are healthy and comfortable for their users, and fit well into the surrounding urban fabric.
Skanska commercial development business unit in Central and Eastern Europe uses knowledge and foresight to shape the way people live, work, and connect. Together with its customers, partners and the collective expertise of its team, it creates innovative and sustainable places and solutions that support healthy living beyond our lifetime.
Safety is a paramount concern for Skanska throughout their project development process. The company found that knowledge of occupational health and safety incidents remained limited to those individuals who were directly involved in them. There were significant issues with the distribution of information.
To streamline incident reporting and improve communication, they began to use SharePoint. However, they found that users, who were mainly construction workers, couldn’t easily replicate the incident report format. Summaries were written in various styles and were inconsistent. There was a distinct lack of awareness of how the technology worked. As a result, the incident reporting approval process was lengthy and convoluted.
Skanska embarked on a collaboration with IT-DEV to leverage the capabilities of Office 365 and develop a comprehensive solution. They began by conducting audits to understand the existing incident reporting process.
The resulting solution centered around a user-friendly form that enabled first-line workers to quickly report incidents during their working day. The data collected through the form was automatically transformed into reports with a standardized structure, categorizing incidents and highlighting their origins, results, and learnings. This streamlined the reporting process and eliminated repetitive activities.
The process also contained embedded Occupational Health approval. The report was sent directly to the responsible Health & Safety Officer. Teams facilitated communication with participants in the approval process, sending notifications and reminders to ensure a smooth workflow.
The implementation of the incident reporting and knowledge sharing solution brought several benefits to Skanska.
The solution significantly improved the user experience for first-line workers, making it easier for them to collect incident data. By simplifying the reporting process and automating article creation, Skanska reduced the time and effort required from area managers, who now only needed to review and approve the articles.
The company was also able to successfully build a fully functional knowledge base that facilitated the sharing of best practices, contributing to the safety and well-being of their employees.
Inspired by the success of the initial project, Skanska extended similar solutions to other areas, such as best practices for construction sites and the legal department. This demonstrated the scalability and adaptability of the solution.
Skanska’s journey with Office 365 showcases the power of digital transformation in enhancing safety practices, promoting knowledge sharing, and driving cultural change within an organization. By leveraging innovative technologies and empowering employees, Skanska achieved significant improvements.