Well-being and occupational safety

We promote our personnel’s health and safety, as well as their well-being and its management, by means of information and preventive work. We are aiming for zero accidents: an accident-free Kesko.

We take care of our employees’ work ability throughout their careers, ensuring support in different situations.  With proactive management of personnel wellbeing and work capacity, we ensure our employees’ work capacity and functional capacity, manage sickness absences and prevent workplace injuries and retirement due to disability. Key means include solutions for people with partial working capacity to return to working life or to find and remain in employment.

The personnel survey is one of the key tools for improving practices and managerial work and one way of listening to the views of the personnel. In addition to the personnel survey, we use the Our People sustainability survey to measure the achievement of the sustainability strategy goals related to employee wellbeing. Kesko Group's most recent wellbeing index score based on the K Voices survey 2024 was 83 (on a scale of 0–100). 

Towards an accident-free workplace 

We attach great importance to complying with Kesko’s current occupational health and safety policies, legal provisions and industry standards, and have incorporated them into the K Code of Conduct. Occupational health and safety is a key element of good leadership. 

We consider health as a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing. Work can be a key source of satisfaction and therefore health. For us, a healthy workplace is one where managers and employees work together to promote the wellbeing of all employees as part of the social sustainability of the workplace. We support and encourage our managers and employees to promote safe and healthy working conditions to prevent work-related accidents and illnesses. Every six months, we carry out a risk assessment of significant risks to occupational safety.  

Each of the Group's divisions has its own organisational and management structure focused on occupational safety. Topics covering different divisions are discussed by the Occupational Safety Steering Group, which is made up of directors of the divisions and is chaired by Kesko’s Executive Vice President of Human Resources. The steering group is also responsible for the management and development of the occupational safety KPIs in line with the sustainability strategy. 

Kesko Group's Occupational Safety Steering Group enables dialogue and cooperation between occupational safety experts from different divisions. It develops appropriate prevention measures and shares best practices. Kesko’s employees have plenty of opportunities to influence working conditions and occupational safety. Representatives of both the employer and employees are involved in the labour protection meetings. 

We regularly evaluate our occupational safety practices and seek ways to improve them. This may include, for example, the purchase of new equipment or tools that improve safety, or training or a re-assessment of the risks in the workplace. 

We also have a system that allows us to report employees’ near misses and safety issues. This helps to identify potential problems and find solutions to fix them. Training and evaluation, as well as continuous improvement, are key factors for improving occupational safety. In Finland, internal audits are regularly carried out in different business units. In 2023, audits were carried out at 63 different sites.   

The development of labour protection and occupational safety management is important to us and we are boosting this, for example, by harmonising our occupational safety management models. Onninen Finland's operations are compliant with the ISO 45001 standard and we comply with the ISO 45001 standard in other operations where applicable.  

Occupational health services supporting the health and occupational safety

At Kesko, occupational health services are organised according to the local legislation and practices of Kesko's operating countries. We provide comprehensive occupational health services for all of Kesko's employees, and as entrepreneurs, retailers arrange the corresponding occupational health services for their own employees. In occupational healthcare, the priority is on preventive measures and early identification of risks in terms of the employee’s health and work capacity.

Kesko provides its employees in Finland with medical care that is more comprehensive than required by legislation. Kesko’s employees are also covered by leisure time accident insurance.

Principles of occupational safety:

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