Health Management
The health of our workforce is very important to us. That’s why one of our corporate goals is to protect it. But our care for our employees goes much further than that. Demographic change entails longer working lives. We want to help our employees remain healthy and productive throughout. WACKER has signed the Luxembourg Declaration on Workplace Health Promotion in the EU. In doing so, we have undertaken to promote health and to encourage employees to improve their health.
Health protection focuses on avoiding adverse influences on employees at the workplace, for example due to hazardous substances. Health promotion focuses on five fields. We seek to avoid spinal disorders and cardiovascular diseases in our workforce, increase mental resilience, enable age-appropriate work and find suitable jobs for staff with health restrictions.
Instruments for Prevention
Two of the most important strategic instruments for ensuring occupational health and safety are medical checkups and health-promotion programs. Health Services at our Burghausen site advises employees in all health matters, particularly concerning availability for work and reintegration. Risk groups such as diabetics and employees with back problems or psychological problems receive in-depth care and are thus kept fit for work in the long term.
We opened our new health center in Burghausen in 2015: a modern, efficient facility for providing occupational and emergency medical care to about 10,000 employees. In the same year, a company doctor started practicing at WACKER Greater China’s Nanjing site for the first time.
We offer preventive checkups to third-level management (“FK3”) employees over 45 years of age at all locations in Germany. In addition to organ examinations, the FK3 checkups focus on giving employees advice on how to deal better with mental stress situations. The offer is being well received: in 2016, half of the managerial employees affected took part in the checkups.
Pandemic-Preparedness Plan
Our pandemic-preparedness plan minimizes health risks and business disruption in the event of a crisis. The plan defines how and when a central management team should coordinate all emergency-response measures worldwide. It includes regulations on how to deal with employees who have fallen ill or have been exposed, as well as guidelines on business trips to affected regions, and rules concerning site-specific access checks. WACKER has a supply of influenza drugs and special equipment (such as face masks, gloves and disinfectants) to hand out to employees in the event of a pandemic.