Health care at Lenzing production facilities
[GRI 403-3]
Lenzing gives employees at almost all production sites access to an in-house primary care system and is working on implementing it at all sites in 2023, complementing the existing health systems of the individual countries. This also applies to our new plants in Brazil and Thailand. The sites and their Health Care facilities are visited by an occupational physician from the Lenzing Health Care & Wellbeing department at irregular intervals to ensure the quality of those services.
Lenzing draws on the services of medical partners in the regions around the sites to offer its employees a diagnosis and therapy service tailored to local needs. The range of medical services extends from several medical examinations and therapy sessions per week at the sites in Mobile (USA) and Grimsby (United Kingdom) through to health care services for family members at a clinic in the vicinity of the production site in Purwakarta (Indonesia).
The large production plants in Lenzing and Purwakarta also have their own outpatient clinics with qualified medical staff for quick, competent outpatient treatment of acute conditions and injuries as well as their own ambulances to ensure prompt follow-up treatment at special medical facilities.
Lenzing facilities have first aiders trained in certified basic and regular refresher courses.
Occupational medical care
In 2022, Lenzing continued to work on the gradual development of a coordinated network for occupational medical care that exceeds the minimum standards required by the individual countries. By enhancing competence in occupational medical care, Lenzing will ensure that employees and managers have the best resources available to protect themselves from and deal with risks in the workplace.
The COVID-19 pandemic was also a challenge for occupational medical care at all Lenzing sites. Additional tasks such as COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and staff information were incorporated into daily activities. Thanks to the well-coordinated teams at the various sites and the excellent preparation for global crisis management, Lenzing Group has been able to manage the pandemic well so far. To date, there have been no major outbreaks at the sites.
Occupational health protection during the pandemic – one example
Construction site in Brazil
It was very important for the Lenzing Group to be able to continue construction work in Brazil. An extremely dedicated external company (with several doctors and medical support staff) was contracted to provide medical care for personnel. A physician was also hired to manage and coordinate all COVID-19 issues. In addition, extensive rapid antigen testing and PCR testing was carried out in Brazil at a very early stage in collaboration with an external laboratory. In 2022 this medical service was converted into a suitable offering for permanent employees at the meanwhile regular production site in Brazil.
Occupational health and safety
[GRI 403-1, 403-5; ESRS S1-1, S1-14]
The vision of Lenzing is to “leave home healthy, come home healthy”. The aim is to provide a working environment and culture where people actively engage and drive health and safety excellence. At Lenzing, it is recognized that all employees can influence the health and safety performance and, through individual ownership and engagement, employees can contribute to a safer workplace.
Leadership is critical to engagement, and this is the central theme of the safety webinars, which were developed specifically for leaders. The webinars outlined the journey in relation to “Accidents to Zero”, which commenced in 2021, and continued in 2022 with the aim of maintaining momentum in pursuit of this. In total, seven webinars were held in 2022 covering topics such as safety as a core value, unsafe acts, safety communication, culture and leadership. In sum, more than 450 people participated from different functions including members of the Managing Board.
Lenzing also ensures that all employees receive adequate training on occupational health & safety topics, which is determined in line with the specific hazards to which employees are exposed while carrying out their tasks. Training schedules are prepared for each calendar year alongside refresher schedules in accordance with regulatory and compliance requirements. Additionally, induction training is given to both contractors and visitors to the various sites.
Lenzing’s Safety Management System governs its approach to minimizing health, safety & environmental risks and, is based on standards by the International Organization for Standardization. Within this context, the company remains focused on its ongoing measures with regard to occupational health and safety performance as well as monitoring leading and lagging indicators. The safety dashboards ensure that the teams have access to daily reports on key safety performance metrics as part of their management dashboards.
For more information about Lenzing’s SHE policies, please visit the Lenzing website.
Health promotion
[GRI 403-6, 403-7]
In addition to numerous regular activities at the company’s sites, fitness training has been the focus of the Lenzing Group’s health-promoting measures since 2019. These programs are designed to motivate and support employees in adopting a healthy lifestyle at work and during their leisure time. Due to the pandemic, activities were still restricted in 2022.
A healthy living app specifically tailored to companies (Moveeffect®) was adapted to meet the needs of the company and the various countries in which Lenzing operates. It was then distributed to all employees for voluntary use. The app aims to encourage employees to become more active via features such as feedback tools on the user’s own exercise habits, personal and group targets, ranking options, and small-scale competitions. It also offers a platform for communicating about personal fitness activities and initiating group activities. In the last two years the company used the app’s appointment booking feature to offer COVID-19 vaccinations and “COVID-19-safe” health checks to employees at the site in Lenzing.
“Lenzing, We Care!” initiative
The COVID-19 pandemic and countermeasures taken by countries to protect their health care systems put a lot of stress on many people. In addition, COVID-19 protection measures put in place at companies were perceived to be stressful by some employees. During this time, Lenzing intensified its efforts to provide easily accessible psychological help for employees in need at all sites and established regular digital information meetings, at least at some sites. In autumn 2022, the company restarted the program with a broader focus on the various simultaneous crises and their impact on its employees. As the crisis takes different forms in different countries, Lenzing defined and prepared some key elements at a corporate level, and all sites rolled out a program adjusted to the specific needs of their employees. Elements of the program include hotlines and/or experts to provide help in cases of personal psychological, social or financial crisis, basic information on how to deal with a crisis and the creation of internal information channels.
A large number of workers who are not employed by Lenzing work at Lenzing operating sites and premises. As a result, contractors are carefully selected, with due consideration given to the strict occupational safety criteria that Lenzing set for its own employees. Most have certified management systems for occupational health & safety. Where this is not possible the company expects its contractors to be part of the regional contractor competency schemes or will put in place additional controls to monitor occupational health & safety when this is not possible. There is also a Lenzing nominated person as a direct contact for these contractors working under its control. When it comes to landlord and tenant health & safety, responsibility is shared and managed appropriately.
Health Climate Index (HCI) survey
Since 2021, all employees have been surveyed twice a year about their psychosocial working conditions. An index is compiled based on 17 questions on the topics of “health, social capital, effort, reward, control of work tasks, recreation, meaning, support, respect and development”. The trend in this index over several survey rounds reflects the evolution of the working climate at the individual company sites. While each employee received personal feedback on its stated working conditions, which can be discussed with its manager, the survey results are anonymous for evaluation and reporting purposes. A summary of the results and the trends at the individual sites are discussed at Group management level and, based on these discussions, areas on which to focus are drawn up with a view to improving or optimizing the internal working climate. The goal is to create an as positive and attractive work environment as possible for all employees at the Lenzing Group. In four survey rounds, the HCI was pretty much stable at a good level of around 67 percent. An HCI of 100 percent would mean optimal working conditions for all participating employees. The participation rates in both survey rounds in 2022 increased versus 2021 to 54 percent and 50.4 percent, respectively.