At Grands Moulins de Paris, safety is at the heart of our culture and is one of our top priorities, supported by the entire team.
Learn more about all this in our profile of Sophie Schut, who oversees the coordination of safety initiatives.
Sophie, could you introduce yourself and tell us about your background?
I am the safety coordinator at Grands Moulins de Paris and am based in Ivry-sur-Seine.I’ve been with the company for 12 years!
I started with a first-year master’s degree in QSE (Quality, Safety, and Environment), having gained two years of professional experience as a work-study student in Quality. After taking a gap year in Ireland, I resumed my studies at AgroSup Dijon, pursuing a second-year master’s degree in “Agri-Food Industry Management.”
I did my final-year internship atthe Bordeaux mill, wherethe director was none other thanPierre Garcia 😉[Editor’s note: now CEO of Grands Moulins de Paris!]. My internship was supposed to last six months, but I ended up staying there for two years.
In 2014, after joiningthe Quality, Safety, and Environment (QSE) department in Ivry, I went back to school—in addition to my work responsibilities—to earn a specialized master’s degree in Industrial Safety and Risk Management.
What are your responsibilities as the safety coordinator at Les Grands Moulins de Paris?
I define the roadmap and implement the CARE initiative across the entire Grands Moulins de Paris scope.
I also work with theCARE VIVESCIA Excellence Committee, with whom we are developingashared safety approach. This committee is composed of QSE and/or HR representatives from the VIVESCIA Group entities.
I assist sites in ensuring their compliance with regulatory requirements. To this end, we work closely with theMilling Technical Department(DTM) based on our safety and environmental guidelines. We also use this opportunity to align with our internal requirements, such as the implementation of CARE VIVESCIA standards and the incorporation of insurers’ recommendations, among other things.
I support the implementation of the various communication initiatives that drive our Safety Culture. In particular, Itrain our employees insafety dialogues and sharemonthly reports and safety updates on workplace accidents and best practices.
Every year, in collaboration with our sites, we organizeSafety Week. It’s an opportunity to offer all employees engaging workshops that encourage discussion, the sharing of experiences, and reflection.
What are the most rewarding aspects of your work, and what challenges do you face on a daily basis?
What motivates me is the variety of tasks I’m assigned and the challenges I face. You wouldn’t believe how many different areas are connected to CARE—a word I’ve come to be closely associated with at the company 😉.
There are many challenges. These include:
• Getting everyone on board. It’salways a real pleasure when a website or service shares security initiatives or best practices with me. After all, it’s impossible to achieve tangible results without the teams’ buy-in and commitment.
• Anticipating risks.Our entireCARE approach and safety culture are based on this principle: taking action before an accident occurs. We meet this challenge thanks to the participation of a large number of employees who report near-misses and hazardous situations to us. The lessons learned shared across the VIVESCIA Group are also a great help in identifying and anticipating other risks.
• Continuousimprovement : a daily challenge in safety, and above all, aimed at achieving our shared goal: “Zero serious or fatal accidents”
• The successful integration of newcomers, as well as the selection and monitoring of the service providers with whom we collaborate.
Which other departments do you interact with most often?
I work closely with the QSE teams at the production sites. Every week, we meet via video conference to discuss current issues, align our understanding, and learn from each other’s experiences.
I also work with the Human Resources and Marketing departments.
Every month, I chair several committees, including the Safety Steering Committee with members of the Grands Moulins de Paris Executive Committee, which allows me to involve all departments in the decision-making process.
How do you view the evolution of the safety culture at Grands Moulins de Paris since you joined the company?
I had the opportunity to help launch it in 2014 at Nutrixo, alongside consultants from DuPont de Nemours.
And 10 years later, I can say that we’ve come a long way and that many things are now firmly established! I’m thinking in particular ofthe life-saving rules,safety discussions, and opportunities to come together around safety, such asSafety Week.
And I am convinced that CARE will continue to evolve in a positive direction, and that we will achieve interdependence (excellence in safety culture according to the Bradley curve).
Can you tell us about a particularly rewarding moment you’ve experienced as a safety coordinator at our company?
For me, it was the VIVESCIA Group’s adoption of our CARE approach in 2016. Together, we developed a shared approach based on the one we had already implemented at GMP.
The creation of the CARE Excellence Committee has been particularly rewarding, allowing us to pool our knowledge and broaden the range of skills needed for this initiative.
For me, 2016 was clear proof that CARE is a robust initiative, designed to endure for both GMP and the entire group.
To wrap things up, how would you sum up your experience working at GMP?
It’s a caring and attentive company. Every day, I’m fortunate to work with kind-hearted people whom I enjoy interacting with. The environment has been conducive to the development of our CARE culture, which everyone can embrace and to which everyone can contribute in their own way.
