Occupational health and safety
Providing a safe, healthy, and environment-friendly workplace is one of the prerequisites for conducting business responsibly.
Ozone -Health, Safety and Environmental Management System (HSEMS)
Our Health, Safety and Environmental Management System (HSEMS) is certified to ISO 45001:2018 standard l. The scope of HSEMS is all activities, which are a part of our operations and employees working for and on behalf of the company including deputees at client sites. Safety and well-being of our employees is accorded the highest priority
HSE POLICY
The Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) Policy enunciates our philosophy and commitment towards management of key HSE aspects.
ELEMENTS OF HSEMS
Risk Management
We identify occupational health and safety risks proactively, for all existing/new/modified activities, process, products or services, and regulatory changes including routine and non routine activities. Risk assessment also includes quarterly evaluation of incidents that have occurred. Hazardous conditions present are identified and prioritized for elimination and control. Once the identified hierarchy of controls are implemented, the risk assessment is revisited to assess the residual risks. As Infosys is an IT/ITES company, there are no product risks but those related to the provision of services like ergonomics in work as well as those associated with operation of utilities and employee commute. Participation and consultation with relevant personnel involved in the activities is ensured during process of risk assessments. HSE subject matter experts across our locations enable day to day management of the requirements. The information on the incidents during the year is covered in the Annexure
Risks are also assessed prior to and post the development of new buildings. Experience from previous projects and current operations are also considered. We continually monitor our construction sites where infrastructure is being established. During the year, there was one fatality on our construction site and 3 minor incidents. We have evaluated root causes for the incident and actions to avoid recurrence have been established.
Well equipped Occupational health centers are established at our campuses in India with physiotherapy facilities as well. All relevant norms are ensured including competent Medical Staff being provided by the hospitals who are associated for operations of the OHC and physio centers. Health risk assessments are conducted, which enable identification of areas for specialist consultations/interventions. These are then managed through the Health Assessment and Lifestyle Enrichment (HALE) initiative. We are working on tackling the rising concerns of employee stress, health and overall wellness through workshops, awareness communication, health checks, online chat sessions and focused communication campaigns. In compliance to GDPR and other data protection laws, the specific health information of employees are available only with doctors. Only trends are made available to HSE teams for analysis. Through this, we also ensure the information is not used for any favorable or unfavorable treatment of workers.
Incident Management
A process for Incident management exists including Incident reporting, investigation and implementation of appropriate correction and corrective measures. Employees, contractual staff, visitors are all expected to report incidents including near miss and potential hazards in addition to accidents. Mechanisms have been implemented to report incidents.
Safety at the workplace is accorded one of the highest priorities at Infosys. We have always focused on building a culture of safety, emphasizing individual responsibility. Systems have been established, including work permits, trainings, LOTO (lockout/tagout), safety inspections, audits, operational controls, monitoring, audits and assessments and others. Gaps, learnings, deviations, findings if any are identified, controls implemented and tracked for effective closure.
OH&S Committees
OH&S committees are established at each campus/office. The committees are chaired by respective center heads with representations from employees, senior management and cross-functional teams. The committees function in line with local legislations, globally. The representation of employees in the committees is 100%.
The OH&S committees are responsible for conducting investigation of reported incidents, assisting in the development and implementation of the OH&S best practices to minimize risks, and providing an opportunity to raise concerns and recommend solutions for various OH&S-related issues.
There are also benefits provided to employees with options of health checks, interventions through our extended tie up with hospitals to benefit employees and dependents for addressal of non-occupational related illness too. Insurance coverage is ensured for employees and contractual staff. Specific programs for contractual staff like mandatory health checks are conducted, along with interventions based on analysis of the risks or hazards.
Training and Awareness
Embedding a safety-first culture in the organization necessitates competency development. Training needs are identified based on the nature of jobs, which may pose OH&S risks. Training includes awareness-building, mock drills, classroom sessions and periodic demonstrations. It is also a part of our employee induction programs. E-learning module is available globally as a continuous learning platform for employees. Job-specific trainings are regularly conducted for contractual staff during induction and later through refresher courses.
Comprehensive interventions under the following major themes have been in progress. A total of 44500+ employees have taken part in these programs directly.
- Physical wellness
- Emotional wellness
- Safety
- Leisure
Physical wellness: Includes Expert talks, web chats, myth buster awareness, budge programs for physical exercises, wellness podcasts, Campaign of Healthy Eating & its importance, yoga day programs, how to make home fitness studio etc.
Emotional wellness: Programs includes initiates to encourage employees to connect with their emotional buddies, expert education series on quarantine, leader stories on emotional well-being, emotional wellness podcasts, peer counselling support, formal psychological counselling support, positive stories, mindful Mondays which is a meditation program etc.
Safety: These programs included constant communication on continuing need for safety precautions during pandemic situation, Work from Office Etiquettes, Stay Safe in the New Normal, Wearing reusable masks, social distancing importance, hygiene requirements for safety etc.
Leisure: Programs included Lockdown Takeaways Campaigns, Virtual fitness events, Workshops by various employee’s clubs on Healthy Cooking/Dance Fitness/Photography & Guitar/Quiz Contests/E story telling contests etc.
This year with work from home being the new normal transport services for employee commute was drastically reduced and there have not been any accidents reported during the year. However to tackle the pandemic scenario we came up with innovations in our cab commute by introduction of certain automation like online self declaration for drivers, mask recognition where cabs were programmed not to start if the driver was detected without a mask. There were many in house innovations like foot operated sanitizing dispensers, water dispensers, sensor based operations of lifts etc., bringing out the creative best in our employees.
