Shell

Systematically Promoting the Raw Material "Employee Health"

Shell treats health, safety and environmental management like any other business activity. The Group also works on continuous improvements in this field too.

And, as in other areas, the oil company also measures, assesses and communicates its performance, regarding the issues of health. For this purpose the Shell Group has introduced a management system which puts occupational safety and health and health promotion in the focus of corporate policy.

The oil company, which is represented in the EfH network by the French "Raffinerie de Petit Couronne", introduced the so-called "Minimum Health Management Standards" (MHMS) in 2000. These standards consist of seven sectors and comprehensively regulate how the company deals with the health of its employees: Starting with determining possible causes of risk through programmes offered to maintain and increase physical fitness down to informing all employees about work-related illnesses which occur in the company.

The "Health Risk Assessment", for example, calls for the provision of management programmes to survey, review and document the health risks which stem from a wide range of hazards in interaction with the working environment.

A second tool is used for monitoring health performance and incident reporting and investigation. Every year data on all incidents and illnesses which are verifiably related to work are reported to the company's employees, classified according to illness categories. Other tools deal with optimum ergonomics at new workplaces and with the assessment of the safety of Shell products. Moreover, the MHMS tools are aimed at maintaining and increasing the physical fitness of the employees and ensuring rapid first aid in emergencies.

 
"Shell recognises its responsibility to provide its employees with healthy and safe conditions of work, to observe the laws of the countries in which it operates, and to give due regard to health, safety and the environment consistent with its commitment to contribute to sustainable development. Shell companies have a systematic approach to Health, Safety and Environmental management in order to achieve continuous performance improvement. To this end Shell companies manage these matters as any other critical business activity, set targets for improvement and measure, appraise and report performance. Good health management is good business; it meets the requirements of Shell’s policy and the expectations of Shell’s staff and of society and helps to make the world a better place."

Bernard Huisman, Chief Health Adviser, Shell Group