Safety is a key element of Almarai’s culture, influencing every facet of our operations. We utilize Almarai’s Health and Safety Management System to safeguard our employees, contractors and third parties. This system is designed to guide our programs, procedures and workplace culture, ensuring safety across all levels of the organization. It guarantees protection for our people and assets. It ensures that Health and Safety objectives, targets and expectations are clearly articulated, along with specific roles and responsibilities. Additionally, the system is designed to facilitate noticeable enhancements in how we measure performance and gather feedback.
Our Health and Safety Management System, which was developed drawing upon industry-respected standards such as ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational Health and Safety) and ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management System), sets out our requirements and standards for implementing the commitments and expectations for driving continuous improvement in HSE performance.
Visible safety leadership and commitment from our management cultivates a robust safety culture within our organization. Our leaders exemplify this principle through their daily actions, which helps to instill a 100% Health and Safety mindset and implement effective safety measures. Our employees are also regularly updated by our Corporate Health, Safety and Security Forums. These forums play a pivotal role in ensuring adherence to international best practices and guidelines, facilitating knowledge sharing and promoting a unified commitment to safety across all Business Units. Health and Safety awareness programs are made available for all staff members and printed materials are continually distributed. By actively involving employees at every level, we promote a collective responsibility for ensuring a safe, healthy, and secure workplace.
ISO 45001:2018 compliance for all our divisions
We take pride in obtaining the ISO 45001:2018 certification for all our Business Units, highlighting our commitment to upholding the highest standards of OHS. We are actively focused on maintaining this certification across all our Business Units for ISO 45001:2018 certification.
By implementing this certification across all our manufacturing and supply chain locations, we strive to create a strong foundation for a safety culture, ensuring that international best practices are consistently and transparently integrated into all our Business Unit operations.
At the heart of our safety culture are three core components: Safe Person, Safe Place and Safe Practice.
Our Health, Safety and Security (HSS) committee, as of 2024, has integrated 22 female employees into roles as fire marshals and first aiders. Before 2022, the committee lacked female representation, highlighting our dedication to enhancing the presence of women within our workforce. This initiative is in line with our commitment to gender equality, fostering talent development, building capabilities, and creating opportunities for all employees.
To improve our monitoring and analysis of incidents related to health, safety and security, we have established an accessible incident reporting system for all employees. This system empowers workers and stakeholders to report near misses, unsafe behaviors and hazardous conditions without fear of retaliation. The data collected is carefully tracked and analyzed to identify trends and issues, supporting evidence-based decision-making. The insights derived from this analysis allow us to implement targeted interventions aimed at preventing future incidents. Furthermore, the system enables us to assess the effectiveness of our control measures, ensuring continuous enhancements to safety protocols. Through this comprehensive approach, we are committed to safeguarding the health, safety and security of our employees and stakeholders in the workplace.
Technology plays a crucial role in our efforts to manage and mitigate risks, promote best practices and enhance training accessibility. In 2024, Almarai continued its commitment to digitalization projects, ensuring that our employees have access to cutting-edge resources. We expanded our near miss reporting web form, enabling employees to easily report incidents such as near misses, unsafe acts and hazardous conditions. Additionally, our cloud-based online incident reporting system is accessible to all employees via smartphones. Digital awareness channels and events are also employed to keep everyone updated with the latest health and safety information. These digital systems are integral to Almarai's pursuit of achieving our sustainability goals.
Employee Training: 231,299 hours dedicated to enhancing employee health and safety.
Contractor Training: 6,985 hours committed to ensuring contractor safety.
The competence and capability of our workforce is critical to our ability to keep our people safe. With this in mind, we have established a range of HSE training initiatives for both employees and contractors, aimed at enhancing skills across all levels and functions. These programs and initiatives helped us promote a 'safety first' culture and rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of our safety controls. By nurturing a proactive HSE mindset, we empower every individual to identify and respond effectively to unsafe or hazardous situations, ensuring swift and decisive action to maintain a secure working environment.
From 2019 to 2024, Almarai successfully provided 1,499,128 and 22,824 hours of training to employees and contractors in health and safety. This includes 231,299 hours of training to employees and 6,985 hours of training to contractors for 2024.
Almarai has partnered with IOSH to enhance worker protection standards. This collaboration, which began in 2022, aims to develop occupational safety and health (OSH) awareness among our employees. The IOSH for Business team has helped us become an IOSH-approved training center, supporting 16 of Almarai’s OSH professionals in achieving IOSH membership and completing a “train the trainer” course. As our partnership with IOSH expands, we plan to introduce two IOSH courses: "Leading Safely" for senior leaders and "Working Safely" for all staff.
In conjunction with managing our safety processes, we are also developing a tailored occupational health and wellbeing program for our employees. This initiative includes training modules that address various mental health topics, equipping individuals to recognize early signs and symptoms of mental health issues and implement preventive strategies through a variety of digital resources. Additionally, we are in the process of launching an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that will enable our staff to access psychological support 24/7 from anywhere in the world, in multiple languages, allowing them to discuss personal matters confidentially. Our mobile occupational health unit is just one aspect of our comprehensive efforts to deliver an accessible occupational health and wellbeing program for all employees. Since 2020, we have consistently implemented additional health and safety measures, prioritizing the physical, emotional and economic wellbeing of our workforce.
Almarai has been awarded the Gold Award in the "Employees are at the Heart of Everything" category at the Saudi Customer Experience Awards, recognizing our "WE Care" program that supports employee health and wellbeing. The award was presented at the Saudi Customer Experience Forum in Riyadh on 13 November 2024, with participation from 327 projects across 109 organizations.
We set key performance indicators to systematically track our progress in ensuring the safety of our employees and the communities we serve. Our monitoring efforts concentrate on several critical areas that align with industry benchmarks. These include the number of lost time injuries (LTIs) for both employees and contractors, the lost time injury rate (calculated per million man-hours) for both employees and contractors, and the employee absenteeism rate across all regions, including the GCC, USA, and Argentina. This comprehensive approach enables us to maintain a strong focus on safety and continuously.
One of the positive trends in 2024 was the decrease in absenteeism across all our operating regions. This was found to be positively correlated with a significant reduction in lost time injuries (LTIs), indicating that enhanced safety measures and a strong safety culture are effectively improving employee attendance. Key contributing factors also included a safer work environment, increased employee engagement, better health and wellbeing, effective training programs, and proactive monitoring of safety performance.
We recognize that enhancing our occupational health and safety management is an ongoing journey. We aspire to improve our practices continuously and foster a culture of health and safety excellence. We are exploring innovative ways to incorporate technology, such as virtual reality simulations and online courses, to make our programs more accessible and engaging. Additionally, our commitment to sustainability and health aligns with the broader goals of Saudi Vision 2030, enhancing the health and wellbeing of the Saudi population.
Target
Progress
Achieve ISO 45001 compliance for all our divisions by 2025
Institute an occupational health and wellbeing program accessible to all employees by 2025
