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The future of data centers demands advanced cooling
What do we have in common with the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development? Our goals. We have aligned our own goals to those outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The safety goals we have set as part of our Flex 20 by 2020 initiative contribute to SDG# 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth focused on protecting labor rights and promoting safe and secure working environments for all workers. Our efforts directly link to the United Nations Global Compact, which we recently joined. Our commitment includes supporting and integrating its 10 principles, the first of which ensures safe and healthy working conditions.
Our Flex 20 by 2020 goals aim to promote a zero-injury culture and achieve a reduction in the global incident rate of at least 10% from 2015. As of December 2017, we have achieved a 12% reduction (0.57 to 0.50*) and remain committed to sustaining this improvement.
Keeping our safety goals on track
*Incident rate defined by the number of employees per 100 full-time employees that have been involved in a recordable injury or illness
Cultivating a culture of safety
We know that our people are our number one asset. We’re working to improve our culture of safety by promoting accountability in all business areas, establishing technology that streamlines our processes, integrating safety into daily operations, and appointing safety excellence leaders throughout our organization.
Real-time technology for incident prevention
In January, we launched an online incident reporting tool enterprise-wide to capture real-time incident information. This tool enables us to initiate a more consistent, effective root cause analysis, preventing repeat incidents and sharing lessons learned throughout all levels of our organization. Later this year, we’ll launch a mobile app that will simplify and enhance our ability to capture first aid incidents and near hits (i.e. incidents that didn’t lead to an injury, but given slightly different circumstances could have).
Home-grown apps for compliance management
Our Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) teams in Brazil and Mexico have partnered with internal IT resources to develop applications that improve our ability to manage compliance, chemicals, and various safety inspections. These apps track completion of compliance requirements, provide streamlined processes to automate inspections and action management, and provide sites with Safety Data Sheets (SDS’s) and automated chemical labeling. We are extremely excited about these internal efforts and we’re working to leverage this technology throughout Flex.
Integrating safety and efficiency with lean processes
At Flex, safety has been incorporated into Kaizens, Gemba walks, and standard work processes at various locations within our business. In FY19, we are establishing and executing plans to standardize the integration of safety into Lean processes throughout the organization. This not only provides an opportunity to further integrate safety into business processes, but to increase active participation in safety.
Virtual assistance for all your health and wellness needs
We encourage a lifestyle that promotes good health among employees through exercise, a healthy diet, and access to quality medical services. A culture of health and wellness benefits the employee, both personally and professionally.
We developed a Flex Wellness program in the U.S., through which employees enrolled in a Flex medical plan have access to HealthTap, a hub for virtually managing all your healthcare needs. Over 80% of eligible employees have an active HealthTap account. It is available on a mobile device or personal computer and allows eligible employees to explore wellness tips and communicate with top physicians through live video consults anytime, anywhere.
“Over 80% of eligible employees have an active HealthTap account.”
Our employees making a difference around the globe
Our sites around the world have been recognized for their active participation in health and wellness activities. For example:
- Our Wuzhong, China site was awarded Demonstration Enterprises for Work Safety Responsibility Enforcement by the Suzhou government.
- Flex Brazil received the Best Company in Health and Safety Management Award – Electronic Industry Category from the ABINEE (Brazilian Association of Electronic Industries) due to its incident rate reduction and to having no major accidents that caused death or serious injury.
Every day, our employees continue to set new examples of health and safety around the globe. Our Tczew, Poland manufacturing site built an outside chemical storage facility and chemical stands for employee workstations, allowing chemicals to be easily identified and decreasing the risk of spills or accidents.
The Senai-Industrial site conducted a Health and Safety Week last year with one main objective: to promote safety and enhance wellness among employees. 109 employees engaged in activities including fire extinguisher hands-on training, identification of all emergency exit locations plant-wide and knowledge sharing by medical staff.
Sites in Jaguariúna and Sorocaba continue their wellness programs, in which thousands of employees set out to be more active and lose weight through a healthy diet and physical activity, among others.
Just like the United Nations, we are committed to promoting safe and secure work environments around the world. We believe that healthy employees are happy employees, and remain dedicated to creating a culture of health and wellness in the workplace. This commitment requires all levels of the organization to be informed of and involved in safety processes. Our greatest tools are our values, innovation, and commitment to continuous improvement. We continue to move closer to our ultimate goal of ensuring every one of our Flex team members is happy, healthy, and safe.
