by Brianna Crandall — June 10, 2015—As multinational corporations continue to expand around the world, facilities managers need to comply with changing health and safety regulations in various countries, and keep up with company-specific programs and requirements.
UL Workplace Health & Safety, a division of global independent safety science company UL, just released groundbreaking research that provides benchmark insights on the health and safety programs of multinational corporations. The findings are the result of an independent survey targeting global companies with 1,000 or more employees conducted by Penton, parent company of EHS Today. The data includes responses from more than 100 multinational corporation leaders with operations spanning 30 industries in nearly 200 countries worldwide.
“Building effective training programs becomes increasingly complex as companies expand their operations to multiple countries,” said UL Workplace Health & Safety General Manager Mark Ward. “Many organizations want a high level of global consistency for their overall safety initiatives while tailoring aspects to local business regulations, safety standards, and language. This research is an important step toward bridging the gap between the current state of safety programs and what companies could be doing to ensure employee health and safety globally.”
Findings include:
* The data shows that multinational corporations are placing a greater emphasis on workplace health and safety training, and virtually all survey respondents (95%) agree that a consistent safety message is important globally. Instructor-led training is still the preferred method for those outside the United States, while eLearning has been slower to catch on.
* More than 70% of respondents said that they create original content in relevant languages and incorporate local laws and regulations for that specific country. But a somewhat surprising 20% do not require country-specific training, and the remaining respondents allow their locations to develop their own training or contract third-party trainers or content providers.
* The majority of respondents (78%) reported that their organizations require localized training, and another 14% said they were considering doing so. A quarter of organizations update international safety training content only when regulations change, while almost 40% update content on a regular basis (every 6 months, annually, or every other year) whether regulations change or not.
“These data provide us a unique window into the priorities of multinational corporations and the associated challenges with complementary global and local safety initiatives,” Ward added. “This kind of perspective is vital as more corporations expand globally and consider how to implement effective health and safety programs across many borders, languages, and cultures.”
Survey respondents fell into three main industry categories: manufacturing (60%), service (30%), and construction/industrial (10%). The majority of responding companies had 1,000 or more employees worldwide while nearly half had 10,000 or more. A full 79% of respondents who had operations across multiple countries were headquartered in the United States. China and Canada topped the list as countries for international operations, with the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany and Mexico following closely behind.
For an Executive Summary of the research findings, visit the Executive Summary: Multinational Survey on International Safety Programs Web page.
