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.

In health management, the focus is 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.

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 like diabetics, employees with back problems or psychological problems receive in-depth care and are thus kept fit for work in the long term. The construction of the new health building in Burghausen was completed in 2014. This means we have a modern, efficient infrastructure for providing occupational and acute medical care to about 10,000 employees.

Since 2012, we have been offering preventive checkups to management-level 3 (“FK3”) employees over 45 years of age at all locations in Germany. In addition to organ examinations, the FK3 checkups also focus on giving employees advice on how to deal better with mental stress situations. The offer is being very well received: in 2014, 87 percent of the relevant managerial employees took part in the checkups.

Our Health Services surveyed the Group’s management employees and executive personnel in Germany on mental and social stress. Applying a standardized, internationally recognized surveying method, we wanted to identify potential sources of stress and their consequences, as well as recommended courses of remedial action. The survey showed that, compared with a representative reference group, managerial employees at WACKER see themselves as being subjected to higher quantitative and emotional demands. These types of stress are, however, offset by a substantial range of flexibility in their own work areas.