Occupational health and safety in a global enterprise

Large companies usually operate in many countries, and this creates a challenge for the occupational health and safety (OH&S) system. The legislative basis for OH&S varies from country to country and naturally has a profound effect on the practical arrangement of the services. There are notable differences even within the European Union, in spite of all the directives and other regulations. In addition, organizational cultures and attitudes towards safety and health have their own national characteristics. Nevertheless, there are common principles and issues within the scope of OH&S which are valid in all countries and cultures.

There are different ways to organize OH&S management in a global company. In general, heavy organizational structures at the corporate level should be avoided, as they have a tendency to create bureaucracy and extra costs. When designing the OH&S organization, it is good to remember that practical OH&S activities are done in the business units, and the line organization has the legal responsibility for workplace safety. Instead of heavy organizational structures, one should utilize the networks of OH&S experts within the company for practical implementation of policies and guidelines. It is also beneficial to have a corporate-level OH&S coordination team, headed by the senior OH&S executive. The corporate management should express strong leadership, focus sufficiently on health and safety issues, and expect good OH&S performance from the units.

In a globally operating company, it is essential to have a general OH&S policy and targets, as well as a benchmarking system for follow-up. The OH&S policies and activities should be based on the mission, vision and values of the enterprise, and OH&S should be seen as an essential part of corporate social responsibility. One should aim not only at having healthy employees and safe and healthy workplaces, but also at a healthy company. This requires that one understands and internalizes the concept of corporate health.

There has to be a corporate OH&S strategy which is based on the business and human resource strategies. OH&S strategies specific at division, country, and unit level should be based on the corporate strategy. Based on the strategy, OH&S targets for the whole organization should be set by the corporate management. These general targets should naturally be challenging but not unrealistic. In addition, it is often worthwhile to set more detailed targets for divisions, countries or individual units, together with their management.

Even though common indicators and measures are used for assessing the achievement of the set targets, one has to acknowledge the challenges pertaining to these measures. For example, cultural issues and compensation rules may have a marked effect on e.g. lost-time accident rates and absenteeism, making cross-border comparisons difficult. It may also be difficult to obtain reliable benchmarking data from outside the company in a particular country, as in many countries e.g. national or industry-wide accident and absenteeism statistics are poor or even nonexistent.

An example of the above-mentioned challenges is the Eurostat statistics on work-related accidents – common to all European Union member countries – which include only those accidents which have caused at least four days' absenteeism (excluding the day of the incident). All less serious accidents are excluded from the official statistics. Such statistics inevitably have limitations for benchmarking purposes, because many companies do report, record and analyze all work-related accidents, as well as near-accidents, which would be essential for improving safety performance. Another example of challenges pertaining to accident statistics is the system in the USA, where the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has defined the national criteria and categories for work-related injuries. The OSHA category TCIR (Total Case Incident Rate) does not include all injuries that have happened at work, because the so-called first-aid cases, i.e. minor injuries, are excluded from the statistics. Thus the OSHA rates are not fully comparable with the accident rates reported e.g. by many European companies. For obvious reasons, global enterprises have therefore often developed their own internal guidelines for OH&S statistics, so that detailed-enough benchmarking is possible within the company and with external data.

Ensuring occupational health and safety should be an integral part of all activities within a company, and managing OH&S does not basically differ from managing other activities. The OH&S management systems should therefore be integrated into the other management systems of the company. Certification of the OH&S management systems according to international standards such as OHSAS 18001 is recommended, and definitely gives added value. Internal and external audits are practical tools for assessing OH&S performance. It is also essential that the corporate OH&S executives pay visits to the work sites so that they will get first-hand knowledge of the actual working conditions and OH&S practices.

There are two special concerns pertaining to OH&S in a globally operating company: operations and investments in new markets and developing counties, and contractor safety. One has to be aware that the social infrastructure, including legislation pertaining to health and safety, is in most cases not as developed in new markets and especially in developing countries as it is e.g. in western Europe and North America. However, it is prudent to implement the company OH&S policies and standards also in the less developed regions, and to set high enough targets which are often well above the minimum level stipulated by the national legislation. This means that the OH&S services provided by the company sometimes may, and should, include activities or features which are necessary for complying with the social responsibility commitment of the company in that particular cultural setting. In fact, many aspects of present-day OH&S activities prevailing e.g. in the Nordic countries are exemplary, and, when implemented in the developing countries by globally operating companies, they can be of great help in improving the health status and work ability of the local employees. Hence these activities often have a marked positive influence also on the neighbouring societies.

Contractor safety is an important issue anywhere, but especially so in the developing countries. For instance, in large green-field pulp and paper mill investments, several thousands of contractors' employees may be working at the site during the construction phase, and this understandably presents a major challenge for OH&S. However, all contractors' employees should be given at least basic safety training before being allowed to start their work, and compliance with safety rules and regulations, e.g. the use of personal protective equipment, should be diligently followed up.

In summary, providing adequate OH&S services in different countries in which a global enterprise is operating is a challenging task. Even though the main OH&S strategies and operational principles are corporate-wide, there are often specific needs for the OH&S services based on the national cultures and practices, as well as on local conditions. Diversity should not be seen as a threat, but rather as an opportunity for developing these services together with the local stakeholders, as an integral part of the corporate social responsibility.