Our responsibility in the workplace

Learning and development

We attach great importance to providing challenging career and personal development opportunities to our employees. Training programs not only include technical and function specific training, but also leadership modules that help our people develop and cooperate in a global business environment.

In order to stimulate high performance, commitment, and continuous development of all employees, the group targets are deployed into team and personal targets for everyone. Bekaert’s performance management system enables the evaluation of teams and individuals as they relate to the set targets, as well as their way of working. In 2016, we have further improved the performance management process including two-way personal development reviews, transparency, feedforward and leadership behavior.

Employee related data

On average, more than 37 hours of training per employee took place in 2016. ⁽¹⁾
Percentage of employees who received a performance review: ⁽²⁾

⁽¹⁾BBRG excluded
⁽²⁾Ex-Bekaert entities within BBRG included. Ex-Bridon entities are in the process of implementing similar reporting data by 2017.

BeCare: no harm to anyone @Bekaert

In 2016 Bekaert started the implementation of a new global safety excellence program, BeCare. We want a no-harm, risk-free work environment for all our employees and for anyone working at or visiting our premises. The BeCare program, which is partly integrated within the manufacturing excellence program, has been designed as a roadmap to realize our safety objectives. This roadmap helps us define and implement the safety practices that will benefit all employees, contractors and visitors in all Bekaert locations worldwide.

The program is working on several dimensions, such as safety practices and tools to reduce risk exposure and behavioral safety.

In the course of 2016, the BeCare program has been rolled out in 2 pilot plants. It will be further deployed in all regions in the current and coming years. To facilitate and speed up this further worldwide roll-out, a BeCare Academy has been established that will act as a center of excellence.

A healthy workplace

Because we attach great importance to a healthy working environment, we continued to invest in automated handling equipment and other workplace ergonomics in 2016. Spool handling logistic pilot projects are running in our plants in the USA, Slovakia and China.

Special attention is also given to of the handling and storage of chemicals. A central database records all chemicals used in our plants and provides strict health and safety guidelines for our employees.

International Health and Safety Week

Bekaert has a long tradition of organizing an annual Health & Safety event worldwide. The central theme for the 2016 edition was “No-harm to anyone @Bekaert”. Bekaert plants worldwide were encouraged to share their best practices and learn from each other. A set of standard safety tools and techniques were deployed in all plants and we organized safety audits and Gemba walks (observation and feedback tours) in all locations. Moreover, all employees worldwide were invited to watch the video message from the CEO.

Safety related data

Bekaert has a group-wide OHSAS 18001 certificate. In 2016, 66% of all Bekaert employees were covered by this standard. Of the on average 37 hours of training per employee in 2016, 7 hours were safety-related.

Bekaert_recordables 2016

^{(1) BBRG included (Ex-Bekaert entities full year 2016, ex- Bridon entities as of third quarter 2016).}

Bekaert_RI2016

Repeatability Index = Number of lost time accidents (LTA) per million worked hours.
^{(1) BBRG included (Ex-Bekaert entities full year 2016, ex- Bridon entities as of third quarter 2016).}

Severity Index = Number of lost days due to occupational accidents per thousand worked hours.
^{(1) BBRG included (Ex-Bekaert entities full year 2016, ex- Bridon entities as of third quarter 2016).}
In 2016 both the repeatability and severity index increased, compared to 2015. The worse overall results are due to higher incident levels in certain plants. The BeCare roll-out schedule takes into account the incident history of the locations so that appropriate actions are taken to improve the safety performance overall.

Safety champions in consolidated plants
In 2016 2 plants celebrated more than 6 years without recordable safety incidents. 3 others achieved more than 3 years without recordable safety incidents and 6 plants were more than 1 year incident-free.