Case study: How KONE promotes employee safety and well-being
Serving approximately 500,000 customers across the globe, KONE is a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, providing elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for modernisation and maintenance to add value to buildings throughout their life cycle. At KONE safety is a top priority Tweet This!, and it means making sure all employees, subcontractors, and partners have the necessary competence, tools and instructions to perform their work professionally and safely.
This case study is based on the 2019 Sustainability Report by KONE published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
KONE fosters an understanding and caring safety culture by promoting open communication and active participation at all levels, regularly recognising and rewarding safe behaviour and sharing best practices. In order to promote employee safety and well-being KONE took action to:
- implement a safety management system
- improve safety performance
- apply a global programme for employee well-being
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) KONE has identified;
- How KONE proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by KONE to promote employee safety and well-being
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2019 Sustainability Report KONE identified a range of material issues, such as product and service quality, resource efficiency, fair employment practices, supporting local communities. Among these, promoting employee safety and well-being stands out as a key material issue for KONE.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups KONE engages with:
To identify and prioritise material topics KONE engaged with its stakeholders through the following channels:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| Customers
| · Customer meetings and events · Constant dialogue through solution support · Seminars and conferences · Company reports · Marketing materials, website and social media channels · Annual customer loyalty survey |
| Employees
| · Performance discussions · Continuous face-to-face dialogue between employees and managers · Training events · Global learning solutions · Innovation creation through innovation tool · European annual Employee Forum · Internal social media channels · Compliance Line · Company intranet and internal employee publications |
| Shareholders
| · Stock exchange releases · Financial and other company reports · Management meetings with investors and analysts · Annual general meetings · Capital markets days |
| Suppliers | · Continuous one-to-one dialogue · Annual supplier day for selected strategic suppliers · Trade fairs · Steering group meetings · Supplier workshops |
| Distributors and agents
| · Continuous dialogue through daily contacts · Regular country visits · Distributors’ meetings and various support tools |
| Media | · Press releases · Interviews · Background briefings · Visits · Press events · Publications · Company website and social media channels |
| Educational institutions | · KONE international trainee programme · CEMS global alliance of academic and corporate institutions · Thesis opportunities · Local internships · Participation in recruitment fairs · Common projects · Guest lectures · Participation in research programmes and social media platforms |
| Local communities | · Company website · Stakeholder relations · Reports · Social media channels |
What actions were taken by KONE to promote employee safety and well-being?
In its 2019 Sustainability Report KONE reports that it took the following actions for promoting employee safety and well-being:
- Implementing a safety management system
- KONE Way for Safety, KONE’s safety management system, guides KONE in continuously improving safety in all its workplaces and tasks. It defines KONE’s safety policy and objectives, and how it manages and promotes safety. It is applicable to the management of KONE employee, subcontractor, partner safety as well as promoting equipment user safety. KONE Way for Safety is based on the ISO 45001 Occupational health and safety management systems standard. Safety is a key criterion in the risk assessments across the KONE core processes, from new projects to day-to-day operations. KONE’s Health and Safety Policy empowers all workers, whether employees, subcontractors, or partners, to stop work and ask for support should they identify a suspected safety risk. KONE takes into account employees’ suggestions regarding safety. Every leader is responsible for leading by example and providing their team with a safe working environment. They are also responsible for ensuring that the team is adequately trained for their respective roles. KONE carries out audits among employees as well as subcontractors to measure compliance with policies, rules, and defined working methods. Corrective actions are taken on any identified deviations. Each year, KONE also organises a global safety week. The week presents KONE employees with training, events and activities. Many countries also organise events and trainings together with customers and subcontractors during the week. The theme of the 2019 safety week was safe work environment. It focused on being prepared for sudden changes in the work environment, such as extreme weather conditions. During the week, emergency preparedness and response activities were organised globally to train employees to stay safe while continuing to help customers and the users of KONE’s equipment.
- Improving safety performance
- KONE employees receive health and safety training relevant to their role. KONE also sets requirements for subcontractor training. Depending on local practices, subcontractors participate in safety training and toolbox talk sessions arranged by KONE. During the reporting year, the focus was on strengthening safety competencies using interactive learnings and mobile tools. The global roll-out of KONE’s interactive safety learning application, Safety in Mind, was completed in 2019. Safety in Mind reminds the field personnel about the main risks in their roles and the ways to mitigate them. In addition, KONE produced and shared globally two new toolbox talks on entrance protection on construction sites and elevator brake maintenance. During 2019, all employees were invited to enrol in a new safety training regarding KONE’s safety management framework, and KONE’s Health and Safety Policy. Together they present KONE’s safety objectives, commitment and responsibilities applicable to all KONE employees. The completion rate among the 59,000 KONE employees that were assigned the training was 87%. The e-learning is available in 36 languages, and KONE also organises classroom trainings. KONE’s global mobile safety reporting tool, KONE Safety Solution, is used for reporting and managing employee, subcontractor, third-party and equipment user related near misses and incidents. With the roll-out of the mobile reporting tool the number of near miss reports increased by 21.3% (2018: 4%). In 2019, KONE focused on improving the quality, analysis and investigation of incident and near miss reports. KONE continues to encourage near miss and incident reporting, as it provides valuable information for improving workplace safety. Local safety personnel analyse the reported data and use the results to improve safety. Incidents, lost days per injury, and near misses are part of each unit’s monthly reporting to global functions. Lessons learned from incidents and near misses are shared in quarterly organised safety network meetings. In addition, safety managers discuss concerns and share best practices on a monthly basis.
- Applying a global programme for employee well-being
- KONE has a global framework and programme for employee well-being. KONE’s Elevate your health programme is in place in all its units. It covers topics ranging from taking care of joints and muscles to weight loss initiatives, the importance of sleep, nutrition, increasing physical activity and strengthening your mental well-being. The programme is structured around a global calendar with regular intranet news articles and suggested activities for countries to deploy. The aim is to increase awareness of actions which maintain and improve well-being. KONE has introduced a learning package for leaders to increase their competence in managing the well-being of their teams. This includes an e-learning, a toolkit and short guides. During 2019, KONE set up a network volunteer well-being champions in selected pilot counties. The purpose of the champions is to raise awareness on well-being topics and make sure all employees know what support is available for them. KONE monitors medical insurance data and carries out in-depth reviews on specified locations. The objective of these reviews is to benchmark existing well-being programmes and provide recommendations that will improve the well-being of employees.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:
1) Disclosure 403-9 Work-related injuries
2) Disclosure 403-10 Work-related ill health
Disclosure 403-9 Work-related injuries corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
- Targets: 3.6, 3.9
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Targets: 8.8
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
- Targets: 16.1
Disclosure 403-10 Work-related ill health does not correspond to any SDG.
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by KONE, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:
http://database.globalreporting.org/
2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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