Society. We Care.

Towards ‘Zero Harm’

Health and Safety (H&S) continues to be the overarching value for Ambuja Cement and is top priority for all of us. Providing a safe and healthy workplace assumes maximum importance in our agenda. We have made significant progress in our H&S transformation journey through our ‘We Care’ initiative that was launched across the Company in 2014. ‘We Care’ is an umbrella initiative which covers all stakeholders. It has made a visible impact on the ground as it drives H&S improvements in all areas of our operations. It has transformed not only operations but also attitudes towards safety.

The ‘We Care’ initiative has led the way in training and capability building, and is spearheading the Company’s efforts to achieve ‘Zero Harm’. Our focus was on participation, involvement and sensitisation of our people. Individuals and teams were encouraged to contribute to H&S improvements through sensitisation about safe behaviour, training, building capability about risk assessment and reward & recognition schemes.

All our manufacturing units are certified as per OHSAS 18001 world standard.

H&S is reviewed monthly at ExCo level and quarterly by the Board. Any onsite fatality is critically reviewed by the Group Company ExCo, followed by root cause analysis (RCA) and preventive action. Management is mandated to undertake a specified minimum number of safety observation tours (SOTs) each year to demonstrate its ‘visible felt leadership’ (VFL) commitment.

Each function has a specific H&S KRA linked to an employee’s individual performance appraisal; H&S is given 25% weightage in their overall performance.

The data consolidated at the corporate level includes: (i) monthly Lead Indicators Reports covering SOTs, hazards identified and near misses; (ii) monthly General Management Report (GMR) which includes all the H&S incident data; and (iii) Online H&S data management system (Click2Safety) having 14 modules on various aspects of H&S. Incidents are classified into various categories like lost time injury (LTI), medical treatment injury (MTI), critical incident, etc. Experiences from different plants across the Group are shared with employees. The Ambuja Cement safety management system was integrated with that of LafargeHolcim during the second half of 2016, for greater synergy and better management.

The leadership team developed an effective Health and Safety Improvement Plan (HSIP) for 2016. The plan included five strategic objectives and one mandatory objectives of fatality elimination control:

  • Lead to create a healthy and safe environment;
  • H&S management systems;
  • People capability;
  • Effective execution; and
  • Road safety.
  • Electrical earthing assessment

This strategy has enabled us to establish systems and processes to understand risks clearly, implement risk mitigation processes, learn from previous incidents and encourage appropriate behaviour. Efforts were made to develop a system of leading indicators to proactively detect inconsistencies as well as potential incidents.

The VFL safety visits of senior leaders and managers add impetus to the safety culture within the Company. The managers observe the employees at work, and discuss operational as well as safety issues with them.

Behaviour-based safety (BBS) programmes and HIRA (Hazards Identification and Risk Assessment) have helped us to improve hazard identification and risk awareness, and encourage employees to take personal responsibility for managing and mitigating these risks.

Yet, we have some distance to travel before we reach our goals of Zero Injury and Zero Harm. The immediate focus for 2016 was on fleets which are under our control (in-plant movement, truck yards and dedicated fleets). Risk assessment capability at all levels and road safety also continued to remain focus areas.

For a safer workplace, it is imperative to build on the health and safety competencies of people. We initiated and implemented training frameworks to improve the safety performance of workers. In 2016, we spent 4,57,989 man-hours in safety training for our personnel that included various technical and behaviour-based programmes. Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA) workshops were organised for Senior Management to enhance competency. The training helped them recognise the hazards associated with different tasks, identify risks, and assess their likelihood and consequence. Later, these workshops were extended to more than 900 line managers across plants and offices. Sixty four Health and Safety team members attended NEBOSH (National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) training. Twenty seven of them also participated in IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health) training. Both NEBOSH and IOSH are internationally recognised certification programmes which will help Health and Safety professionals deal with H&S aspects by seeking out effective solutions in their day-to-day functioning. Around 9000 front line employees were trained through tool box talks on the do’s and don’ts of critical operations such as working at a height, vehicle and traffic safety, electrical safety and lockout procedures.

We have adopted the ‘Safety Hero’ concept to acknowledge outstanding contributions by individuals in establishing and maintaining high standards of safety and health. The Safety Leadership award is conferred on individuals to recognise and encourage their efforts to sustain or improve safety standards and culture at the plant and business levels. In 2016 about 200 ‘Safety Heroes’ and 30 teams were recognised for their performance.

After a good performance run of 13 months, two unfortunate onsite fatalities occurred in 2016. One occurred in a plant and the other in a cement warehouse. From ten onsite fatalities in 2013, our onsite performance improved significantly. This improvement can be attributed to ‘We Care’ that changed the mindset of our people and transformed H&S into a line responsibility from a functional obligation, with standardised processes and increased involvement of people on the ground.

We are also focussing on industrial hygiene sampling and risk-based health assessment of all employees.

Workers in cement packing and loading sections have a relatively higher risk of occupational health issues. We have launched drives such as ‘Clean Packing Plant’ to impart training about the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), technology upgradation, automation, better housekeeping, etc. Formal agreements with local trade unions cover health and safety at all locations. The focus on safety aspects, especially traffic and third party safety issues, initiated by the India Chapter of the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) of World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), of which Ambuja Cements Limited is a part, will address the challenges facing the cement industry. GRI 403 (3, 4)

Logistics Safety

Vehicular and traffic (V&T) safety are a concern especially in offsite areas where we do not have much control. We have improved our performance within the plants. Our overall safety management places strong focus on offsite V&T incidents. Drivers have to undergo a ‘defensive driving course’ (DDC) that examines and encourages them to alter their behaviour. The new Company motto is ‘No DDC, No Load’. It is being implemented in a phased manner, with initial focus on controlled fleets. Presently around 44,000 drivers are covered by it. Eventually, emphasis will shift to all outbound movement, culminating with attention to vehicles. Implementation of ‘We Care’ in marketing and logistics progressed well in 2016. Sensitisation, BBS workshops, DDC and reward and recognition programmes for controlled fleet drivers as well as model warehouses were conducted under the initiative. A paper on ‘Logistics Safety Vision - 2020’ that takes a hard look at on-the-ground implementation, replete with a roadmap and milestones, has been prepared and circulated. Other initiatives such as GPS installation and e-passports were also implemented in 2016. Over 400 drivers were recognised with ‘Safety Hero’ and on-thespot awards; over 1,000 sales force employees were trained in DDC with practical on-road evaluation.

Safety workshops were conducted for over 6,200 personnel of our warehouses and branches. During the year, the Model Warehouses project was kick-started to convert 50 warehouses. Our senior leadership team has taken ownership of the project; each team member owns one warehouse. Over 2,500 warehouse workers have been sensitised through tool box talks. More than 1,000 school children from nearby communities were also sensitised through the Road Safety Awareness programme. We are working on having seat belts fitted in all Company and contract vehicles.

2016: Key H&S Performance, People Engagement, Capability Building Based on the 2016 Focus Areas of H&S

  • Lead to create a healthy and safe environment:
    • About 240 individuals and 30 teams rewarded;
    • Uniform reward and recognition scheme for drivers;
    • More than 690 VFL/SOT conducted by leadership team;
    • A total of 77 consequences initiated against 156 onsite applicable incidents to date;
    • About 2,800 consequences initiated against V&TS violations to date.
  • H&S management systems:
    • Alignment with LafargeHolcim’s H&S management systems and e-learning modules;
    • Sensitisation workshops for line managers: 6,000 people connected;
    • Simplification of work permit / standardisation of PPE’s done;
    • Animated training modules: isolation and lockout animation HSIP: developed do’s and don’ts for isolation and lockout, working at a height, lifting and supporting loads, electrical safety and V&TS;
    • H&S review modalities and cross assessment plan: audit protocol developed and peer reviews conducted.
  • People capability:
    • IOSH(27) and NEBOSH(65) training completed;
    • HIRA training for more than 840 people including more than 85 senior leaders;
    • Function-specific KRAs (25% H&S) prepared and communicated with all ExCo members, unit and function heads, and HR;
    • Organised workshop for Ambuja Cement doctors to clarifyroles and responsibilities in accordance with LafargeHolcim incident reporting, classification and investigation standards.
  • Effective execution:
    • FPE Implementation — action taken on level-1 assessment observations;
    • Critical findings of electrical safety audit, fire adequacy survey, lightening arrester study, rail safety audit addressed;
    • MSR (hot meal handling) — 95.7% points were attended to and closed;
    • HSIP: improved implementation of electrical safety FPE by better earthling of electrical installations at five ACL plants in 2016.
  • Road Safety:
    • Around 700 Safety Ambassadors covered through two days’ Behaviour Based Safety (BBS) training programme;
    • More than 45,000 drivers covered through Defensive Driving Course/standalone modules. Implemented ‘No DDC No Load’ policy from September 2016;
    • Implemented Driver reward and recognition (R&R): 203 drivers rewarded as Safety Heroes and 330 spot awards distributed under this scheme for drivers and transporters across Ambuja Cement;
    • Developed 30 in-house trainers to deliver DDC training;
    • Completed DDC training with on-road practical assessment of 1010 (93%) for sales/marketing/ technical services people;
    • More than 6,200 branch and warehouse workers engaged through sensitisation workshop;
    • Initiated Model Warehouse Programme at 25 warehouses (each sponsored by a top management leader);
    • Clean Branch and Clean Warehouse drive launched and self-assessment started.
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