Case study: How HAESL ensures occupational health and safety

October 17, 2017 case studies 828 Views

As a maintenance organisation providing first-class aero engine and component repair services to airlines across the globe using Rolls-Royce engines, HAESL (Hong Kong Aero Engine Services Limited) regards employees as its most important asset and workplace health and safety as highly important, in all company operations.

This case study is based on the 2015 Sustainable Development Report by HAESL published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate that CSR/ sustainability reporting done responsibly is achieved by identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment and stakeholders and by measuring, managing and changing.

Abstract

HAESL strives to provide first-rate engine repair and overhaul services to customers while protecting, at the same time, the physical wellbeing of employees, monitoring safety performance in all daily activities. In order to ensure occupational health and safety HAESL took action to:

implement safety policies and initiatives through the Occupational Safety & Health Work Group
reduce accidents through the I Care I Report mechanism
identify potential risks through the Senior Management Safety Walk
provide safety training to employees
identify, assess and manage workplace hazards through the Job Safety Analysis programme

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2015 Sustainable Development Report HAESL identified a range of material issues, such as quality performance, employee engagement, economic performance, employee development and succession planning, customer satisfaction and responsibility, compliance. Among these, ensuring occupational health and safety stands out as a key material issue for HAESL Tweet This!.

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:

“The organization should identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations.”

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 HAESL engages with:

Stakeholder Group

Employees

Customers

Government bodies

Suppliers

Business partners

Shareholders

Local community

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify material issues, HAESL conducted a materiality assessment and asked both internal and external stakeholders to rank issues according to importance. Internal stakeholders included employees (front line staff, supervisors, assistant engineers and engineers) and external stakeholders included suppliers, shareholders, business partners, government bodies and the local community.

What actions were taken by HAESL to ensure occupational health and safety?

In its 2015 Sustainable Development Report HAESL reports that it took the following actions for ensuring occupational health and safety:

Implementing safety policies and initiatives through the Occupational Safety & Health Work Group
The Occupational Safety & Health Work Group (OSHWG) helps HAESL ensure that its Safety Policy and Occupational Health & Safety (OSH) initiatives are properly implemented. The OSHWG also suggests initiatives for improving OSH performance, carries out site inspections, offers advice on compliance with OSH rules and organizes OSH promotional activities and campaigns.

Reducing accidents through the I Care I Report mechanism
The I Care I Report (ICIR) system enables employees to report possible health and safety concerns or issues, which are dealt with through the I Care I Report + I Resolve, whereby employees are encouraged to collaborate to resolve safety problems. In 2015, 1028 ICIR submissions were made.

Identifying potential risks through the Senior Management Safety Walk
Carried out weekly by HAESL’s senior managers, responsible area managers, the Safety & Improvement Manager and Health & Safety team members, the Safety Walk is intended to identify potential hazards in company operations. In 2015, over a thousand hazards were identified through the Senior Management Safety Walks.

Providing safety training to employees
All new HAESL employees are, within their first three months at the company, provided with basic safety training, to be made aware of potential workplace hazards and of their role in ensuring a safe and healthy work environment. Additionally, safety management training, mandatory safety training and job specific safety training are also provided.

Identifying, assessing and managing workplace hazards through the Job Safety Analysis programme
The Job Safety Analysis programme (JSA) involves the risk assessment of various workplace practices and processes by trained risk practitioners. Hazards evaluated as high or medium risks, are to be mitigated within a specific time frame.

Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?

The GRI indicators/Standards addressed in this case are:

1) G4-LA5: Percentage of total workforce represented in formal joint management–worker health and safety committees that help monitor and advise on occupational health and safety programs – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-1 Workers representation in formal joint management–worker health and safety committees

2) G4-LA6: Type of injury and rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and absenteeism, and total number of work-related fatalities, by region and by gender – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-2 Types of injury and rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and absenteeism, and number of work-related fatalities

3) G4-LA7: Workers with high incidence or high risk of diseases related to their occupation – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-3 Workers with high incidence or high risk of diseases related to their occupation

References:

1) This case study is based on published information by HAESL, 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) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page

3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

4) https://www.globalre porting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

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