Safety from the inside out this World Day for Safety and Health at Work

Safety starts at home

“Safety and health at work go deeper than just giving your team a bowl of fruit, offering a yoga class or issuing safety guidelines,” says Ellen. “It is about how your company is organized: from internal processes to practical working conditions, and even how team members and leaders interact. I am glad to say that at Kiwa we genuinely care about each other and our health and safety.” That’s why, in 2024, we established the Kiwa Safe Together framework. “We want to get people back home, every day.”

“Through these steps, we can empower people to put safety first – which is not always easy to keep top of mind,” says Ellen. “For example, if a team member has had a difficult night looking after their child and arrives at work exhausted, something as simple as a colleague reminding them to put on a hard hat, or having the courage to stop a task if everything is not in place, is vital for day-to-day safety.”

We also recently launched Safe Together: The Podcast, connecting listeners with some of Kiwa’s 12,000 specialists through real stories about safety and teamwork. Hosted by Ellen, each episode takes a deep dive into a particular topic, including ‘Designing safety into the lab’, featuring a tour of a Dutch technology lab, and ‘Safety leadership that people can feel’, exploring how to create a reporting culture without blame. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Boosting psychosocial wellbeing with the ‘15-Minute Challenge’

This year's World Safety Day theme puts psychosocial wellbeing at the center of the conversation, another area in which Kiwa is putting principles into practice. “At Kiwa, the psychosocial aspect is key,” says Ellen. Our organization offers staff webinars and training sessions on holistic health, covering areas such as sleep, nutrition, and social connection. All of these contribute to day-to-day performance – as well as health and safety – at work.

One example is the ‘15-Minute Challenge,’ launched in the final quarter of 2025. Through a dedicated app, groups of colleagues joined together with the goal of adding at least 15 extra minutes of movement to their day, whether by stepping off the bus one stop early, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or simply going for a short walk at lunch. Beyond the physical benefits, the initiative fostered connection: colleagues motivating one another, sharing progress, and building relationships across teams.

Over 1,000 colleagues took part, collectively logging two million minutes of movement across the six weeks. Participants reported improvements in sleep, energy levels, and mood, as well as a stronger sense of connection with their colleagues. For those participating, feedback showed that:

• 81% saw an increase in overall health 
• 68% felt improved team morale
• 51% indicated they would make long-term lifestyle changes

“It was an effective way of boosting overall wellbeing at Kiwa,” Ellen reflects. “And it shows that small, consistent actions can make a meaningful difference.” 

Keeping the world safe with Kiwa’s services

Beyond keeping our own people safe, our work looks outward: creating safer environments around the world. Kiwa’s services span a large range of sectors, but a common thread runs through all of them. Every inspection, test, and certification is grounded in established norms, from ISO standards to national regulatory frameworks, and carried out by specialists trained to apply them with precision.

Here are some examples of the health and safety-related work we do:

• Product testing and certification: Before a product reaches the market, Kiwa tests it to ensure it will not break or harm the people who use it.
• Construction safety services: Kiwa inspects and certifies the structural integrity of construction projects, including concrete quality monitoring on major infrastructure such as flyovers and bridges.
• Fire safety: Kiwa tests and certifies fire detection, protection, and evacuation systems to keep buildings safe.
• Food safety: Kiwa provides certification, inspection, and verification services across the food and agriculture supply chain, helping producers, retailers, and logistics partners ensure the safety and quality of what ends up on people’s plates.
• Safety management system certification: Kiwa helps organizations build genuine safety cultures from the inside, certifying management systems to international standards such as ISO 45001, and supporting continuous improvement across sectors.
• And much more  

Much of this work is invisible to the people it protects. Nobody steps into an elevator wondering whether it has been certified, or pauses at a fire exit to question whether the detection system has been tested. That invisibility is a measure of success. “Safety is like a silent hero: it’s so present in everyday life that people simply expect things to be safe,” says Ellen. “Our role is to make sure that expectation is always justified.”

Looking ahead, Ellen sees significant opportunities in the digital domain. Kiwa’s growing drone expertise enables inspections in confined spaces or at height without placing personnel in harm’s way. High-resolution cameras and AI-assisted analysis can detect material deterioration or structural issues that the human eye would miss, shifting safety work from reactive to preventive. As regulatory frameworks continue to evolve globally, the demand for rigorous, independent certification will only grow.

Stay safe. Stay connected. Stay together

World Safety Day is a reminder of a theme that at Kiwa is a daily and collaborative practice. "None of us can achieve safety alone," says Ellen. "It is a communal effort. It takes all the different players, from colleagues on the factory floor to those in leadership positions, and the wider organization, to have the tools to work safely. Keeping ourselves and each other safe requires a joint effort."

It’s an effort that Ellen finds energizing too: “Turning our safety ideas into reality, watching new habits emerge, and seeing the results is very fulfilling. For me, it’s all about moments when a team member says to me: ‘I always knew I could stop something at work, but would have struggled to actually do it. Now, I really feel it, and am ready to do so whenever necessary.”

By caring for ourselves and each other, speaking up, stopping when something feels wrong, and following our Safe Together principles, we continue building the safer and more sustainable world we believe in. That work begins with each of us, every single day.