Encounter with Marc Sallebert, Safety Leader of ADEO companies

Safety first, a commitment that guarantees the safety of all

A real enthusiast of the Safety Leaders community and passionate about his job, Marc Sallebert works with the various business-lines and the other Safety Leaders.
His mission? To strive daily to reduce the risk of accidents and occupational illnesses, both at ADEO, but also for all our stakeholders.
The “safety” component is taken into account throughout the entire value chain: from the mining of raw materials to the delivery of finished products to our customers, right through to product end-of-life.
“At ADEO, the Safety Leaders are the guardians of our teams safety, even if safety is everyone’s business: we are all responsible for our own safety and that of others”,,says Marc Sallebert; “We want safety to become a daily and automatic reflex of the job, while taking into account the regulations in each country where we are present”.

Safety is a lasting commitment, and not a temporary priority

Throughout the year, Marc interacts with his counterparts in the different companies. And thanks to their joint efforts, they were able to establish governance and a shared reference framework for safety.
“Experts in the field escalate the problems, the risks, and together, we identify the best practices to remedy them”, clarifies Marc. In fact, the Safety Leaders have created the “Safe Place to Work” label, which every year, rewards the stores where no accidents have occurred over 1 year, 2 years and 1,000 days.

« Safety is a lasting commitment, and not a temporary priority »
Marc Sallebert, Safety Leader ADEO

The foundations of the safety first strategy

Marc Sallebert considers safety to be just like any other activity in the company. It needs a process of its own and it needs to have a positive impact on each manager. “This implies a safety process that is targeted, budgeted, managed and communicated to the various stakeholders”, he confers.
With the ambition of making ADEO the reference player on the subject of safety in the home improvement sector, Marc and the community of Safety Leaders have set up a number of key basics:

• A legal framework and written rules;
• A locally and globally coordinated strategy with clear performance indicators;
• The permanent inspection of operations;
• Safety First communication for all the stakeholders.

A strategy with strong markers deployed in 2022

Since the end of 2021, the Safety First strategy promotes 4 aspects :

• Management that is 100% Safety First: training our collaborators and managers, and integrating a “Safety” component in their progress bonuses;
• A Safety posture: involving our 150,000 collaborators in their safety and that of others, by training them and raising awareness every day;
• An organisation: A dedicated Safety Leader, committed full-time in each ADEO company;
• A flow of goods with zero accidents: reducing the risks from the design phase through to delivery to our customers, with a focus on packaging, rules for palletisation, circulation and cohabitation between humans and machines, etc.

This strategy is proving successful with an increased drop in the number of accidents and the severity rate in 2022.“We often consider safety as a constraint, but I consider it an opportunity to serve our human relations, our operational excellence and which generates pride in belonging to an organisation that strives for our protection”, concludes Marc Sallebert, who is counting on the commitment of each of the 150,000 ADEO collaborators to reach zero accidents.

For ADEO, being a safety first company means:

• Objective zero accidents at work and zero occupational illnesses;
• Linking performance to conditions that ensure a safe and healthy working environment;
• Making safety the first item in our reportings;