Two years into his term as chief of Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco, Chairman Choi Jung-woo continues to stress the company’s priority on safety, according to the firm on Sunday.

This is highlighted in the business management as well as policy and systems developments, the company said, citing a three-year, 1.1 trillion-won ($894 million) investment plan to enhance safety control.

“Just a little carelessness can lead to an accident. We should have caution every moment we work,” Choi told employees when he visited one of the company’s steel mills last year.

“Having an ownership mindset and cooperating to improve the work environment will naturally lead to better communications, which will in turn create a happy workplace and a competitive company.”

Posco in 2019 launched a safety innovation task force in which the company, labor union and subcontractors participate. With the task force in place, associates operate various events to raise and spread the sense of safety among workers, according to the firm.

The company currently operates a training course providing financial support for its engineers to study abroad to obtain master’s degrees in safety engineering.

On sites, the company mandates employees run safety audit sessions at least twice a day, and encourages management supervisors to obtain Engineer Industrial Safety licenses from the Human Resources Development Service of Korea.

The budget is also being used to replace old equipment, introducing new devices and technology for smart work environments, such as automatic monitoring systems for gas leaks, to prevent human error and ultimately secure the value of safety as a norm for the whole company, Posco said.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)