Health and Well-being
The global trend Health and Well-being
has an important role to play not only in DSM’s markets but also in the life
of the company’s management and employees. Recognizing that the company’s
ability to change, organizational performance and safety performance are
directly linked to the health and well-being of its employees, DSM rolled out
two important new initiatives in 2007. These are intended to increase employee
engagement, retention and productivity as well as to support DSM’s positioning
as an employer of choice.
New initiatives
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The first was the implementation of a health promotion program for executives,
which emphasizes health as a key factor in the sustainable performance of
DSM’s leadership population.
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The second was the launch of the DSM Vitality Checkpoint, a web-based tool
allowing employees to assess their current health risks and set themselves
some healthy lifestyle goals. In 2007, 93 employees participated in the
Vitality Checkpoint. For 2008, we aim to roll out this program to 5,000
employees.
Occupational illness
Efforts to increase the awareness for
occupational health have been continued. In 2007 in total 19 Occupational
Health Cases were reported (in 2006: 15). Reported cases feature physical
problems (14), allergic reactions (4) and permanent hearing loss (1). All
business groups have checked the completeness of risk assessments with regard
to exposure to chemical substances and ergonomics. Based on the findings we
are now working on improvement of practices, e.g. by standardization of
methods and documentation.
Safety
The 2007 Employee Engagement Survey has shown very high
scores on Working conditions/Safety: Unfortunately accidents still happen.
On 11 April 2007 a fatal accident occurred at the DSM Nutritional Products
Premix site in Argentina. A contractor was fatally injured during cleaning
activities in a mixer. The investigation showed that the safeguarding
procedures, in particular regarding disconnecting the electrical power, had
not been applied correctly. The fatality has triggered a global initiative to
check and improve our practices on safeguarding of equipment during e.g.
maintenance and cleaning. 10 key practices were selected that will be reviewed
and implemented worldwide in 2008 and 2009.
DSM has set itself the target of reducing the number of total recordable
injuries by 50% between 2005 and 2010. This target includes both DSM personnel
and personnel of contractors that work on DSM premises.
The number of total recordable injuries per 100 employees was 0.82 compared to
0.95 in 2005, a reduction of 14 % in two years. Several Units have
demonstrated that our programs on compliance, behavior-based safety, training
and learning from incidents deliver. By continuing our attention and
consistently executing our programs, we expect to achieve our ambitious 2010
target of 50% reduction.
The most serious accidents are
described in detail.
