A proactive health and safety effort

We invest in the health and safety of our workforce and we employ a Group-wide system that is closely tied to risk management. The system includes, for example, our Corporate Health Award, with which we recognise exemplary health initiatives within the Group each year. In 2010, targeted programmes allowed us to help improve the health of our workforce, from early disease detection to stress prevention. At 7.4% (previous year: 6.9%) we again managed to keep the illness rate in Germany at a low level. The increase compared with the previous year corresponds to the general development in the country, when the age structure effect is taken into consideration.

In the area of occupational safety we implement Group-wide traffic safety measures, which help to raise awareness amongst employees about dangers and to prevent accidents. In March 2010, we renewed our commitment to the European Road Safety Charter, reinforcing our devotion to this cause.

Our corporate health management system received awards again this year: the European Commission and the BKK Bundesverband (German association of company health insurance funds) presented us with the German Corporate Health Award and the special Mental Health award. The German-language business newspaper Handelsblatt and the market research institute EuPD Research gave us the Corporate Health Award for integrating our corporate health management system into all of our principles and processes. Certification and testing organisation TÜV Rheinland renewed the ISO 9001:2008 certification of our occupational health and safety organisation’s quality management system yet again in the reporting year.