Henkel employs company-wide instruments aimed at preventing occupational accidents. They are based on the worldwide corporate standards for safety, health and environment. Their implementation is checked by independent auditors from Henkel headquarters. All accidents are registered centrally and analyzed as part of a worldwide reporting system. In 2008, 98 percent of Henkel employees were covered. Since 2007, employees of external companies who work at Henkel sites and are directly contracted by Henkel were included in our reporting:

In 2002, a standardized worldwide reporting system was introduced to gather data on serious accidents. In 2006 and 2007, no fatal occupational accidents were suffered by Henkel employees or employees of contractors carrying out work for a Henkel company at a Henkel site.  Unfortunately, in 2008, a sales employee in Russia died in a traffic accident on his way to a customer.

Considerable efforts are still needed to integrate contractors and their employees who work at our sites. The basis for this is the provision of information to the companies and their employees about Henkel’s health and safety requirements, and monitoring to ensure compliance with these requirements. In addition, we involve contractors’ employees to a greater extent in existing training courses and address them through targeted programs. In order to be able to assess the success of the measures, we began, in 2007, to integrate contractors’ employees who work at Henkel sites into the accident reporting system as far as possible, recording days lost due to accidents. Accidents concerning directly contracted employees of external companies are recorded in accordance with the same criteria as for our own employees.

Leadership performance and the training and awareness of employees play a crucial role in focusing our activities on sustainability. In a special training program we therefore coach all plant managers around the world in managerial approaches to safety, health and environment concerns. The courses are based on Henkel’s health and safety requirements. The course content ranges from risk analysis and managing emergencies to stakeholder dialogue. Besides imparting skills, the plant manager meetings foster better networking among the sites and provide an ideal opportunity to share examples of best practice from the various regions. Since 2007, we have trained more than 140 site and production managers from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas in these special topics. We regularly assess the training needs of our employees and integrate appropriate environmental protection and health and safety seminars in our basic and advanced training programs.

In addition to our company-wide standards and programs, our site and production managers initiate local projects to reinforce their employees’ awareness of occupational health and safety. Due consideration is given to site-specific circumstances and employee needs: