Occupational Health and Safety
Our commitment to reducing risk and workplace injuries
We remain committed to continuous improvement in our Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) programs, delivery and results.
Our “We Care” commitment
In 2021, our global EHS We Care Standards Manual was developed and released. This document established our minimum expectations for EHS management at all Whirlpool Corp. facilities around the globe. In 2022, we took the additional step to affirm the paramount importance we place on promoting the safety of all our employees and contractors by adding the “Attitudes for Life” to our Standards Manual. These are foundational precautions, aligned directly to high-risk activities performed by employees and contractors, that act as an additional layer of defense aimed at preventing serious and life-altering injuries.
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recordable Injury & Illness Cases—Employees and Non-employees | 518 | 480 | 413 |
| Recordable Injury & Illness Rate—Employees and Non-employees | 0.76 | 0.72 | 0.68 |
| Serious Incidents—Employees and Non-employees | 9 | 8 | 2 |
| Serious Incident Rate—Employees and Non-employees | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.003 |
| Injury & Illness Fatalities—Employees & Non-employees | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Injury & Illness Fatalities—Contractors | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total Hours Worked—Employees and Non-employees | 136,921,903 | 133,773,414 | 121,807,187 |
| Lost Workday Rate—Employees and Non-employees | 0.23 | 0.28 | 0.31 |
75% reduction in serious incidents compared to 2021
EHS governance: Improving compliance and conformance to new minimum ehs standards
2022 saw notable improvements in EHS governance results. Our governance process showed strong improvement in both annually required self-assessments (L1 Assessments, required at all manufacturing operations), and our triennial “Fresh Eyes” EHS Assessment (L2 Assessment). In addition to these results, our attention on High Potential findings, which are any findings that present a serious risk to employee health, environment or reputation of the organization (introduced in 2021) has proven beneficial. The identification of High Potential findings has decreased 86% year-over-year due to increasing awareness of the High Potential concept at the site level and active management of High Potential conditions when they arise. Finally, and most importantly, across the globe we’re moving from a position of compliance with local EHS regulations (minimum standard) to compliance with Whirlpool We Care Minimum Standards (global internal standards) to raise the expectations for employee safety and environmental protection.
| 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Average L1 Self-Assessment Scores (EHS regulatory compliance) | 87% | 97% |
| Average L2 "Fresh Eyes" Assessment Scores | 87% | 95% |
| High Potential Findings Identified During L2 Assessments | 7 | 1 |
Attitudes for Life
In an effort to further protect our employees and contractor workers, we instituted Attitudes for Life in 2022; a set of critical work practices aimed at preventing serious injuries to our employees and contractors who perform high-risk activities.
10 Global Attitudes for Life aligned to high-risk activities
Confined space
Hazardous Substances
Driver Safety
Electrical Safety
Crane, Hoist & Lifting
Powered Industrial Vehicle
MachineSafety
LockoutTagout (LOTO)
Work AtHeight
Hot Work
The Attitudes for Life establish and communicate vital guiding behaviors and elevate employee awareness for activities with a high-potential severity outcome. These non-negotiable foundational precautions are brought to life by the conscious choices we make each day, and adherence is critical to keep our employees and contract workers safe.
Our shared responsibility is to promote the Attitudes for Life and lead by example. All employees are empowered to make a personal commitment to safety and are entrusted to demonstrate “Actively Caring,” which encourages employees to be more effective at intervention on behalf of others when faced with high potential at-risk situations. If at any time an Attitude for Life is not able to be followed, employees and contractors should stop work and use their help chain.
We all share in the responsibility of preventing serious injuries by being stewards of the Attitudes for Life and speaking up, for ourselves or on behalf of a co-worker, when faced with high-potential at-risk situations.
EHS and Technical Experts
Create policies, procedures and tools that enable employees to perform tasks safely and raise EHS concerns
Leaders
Understand the risks, foster a climate of trust and promote Safety as Value
All Employees
Demonstrate Actively Caring and Stop Work when an Attitude for Life can't be followed
Global Machine Safety evaluation and remediation
Our Machine Safety initiative was designed to enhance safeguarding of machinery and equipment through machine safety threshold evaluations which prioritize remediation. In 2022, we achieved our internal goal to assess 35% of High Priority machinery and equipment resulting from the machine safety threshold evaluations conducted by EHS personnel and Machinery Safety Site Champions who have been recruited from site engineering.
The Machine Safety program contains process steps and safety requirements for newly purchased or modified machinery and is aligned with World Class Manufacturing (WCM)—Early Equipment Management (EEM) so that safeguards are integrated prior to delivery at our operating facilities. Launched in 2022, our global Machine Safety Procedure includes standardized tools and assurance processes, including the Machine Safety Risk Assessment, Functional Machine Safety Verification, EEM and Functional Safety Life Cycle.
An example that showcases machine safeguarding integration in EEM is at our new facility in Pilar, Argentina, where incoming purchased machinery arrived on-site and was installed to meet global machine safety standards.
For more information, check out the Whirlpool Environment, Health and Safety Policy
Contractor safety
A new Global Contractor Management Procedure includes minimum health and safety requirements for new and existing contractor worker companies. Whirlpool Corp. has partnered with Contractor Compliance to assist with our contractor safety program. Contractor Compliance monitors contractor health and safety compliance requirements on behalf of the company for those contractors that may perform high-risk activities such as working at height, confined spaces, LOTO, work on live electrical, critical crane lifts, etc. as part of their work scope. As a result, our Whirlpool EHS organization can pre-qualify contractor worker companies based on their performance against Whirlpool Corp. minimum health and safety pre-qualification criteria to perform high-risk activities at our manufacturing locations.
Leveraging ergonomics to improve safety
As part of the Risk Reduction journey, Whirlpool Corp. is leveraging best practices across the globe to implement and standardize robust controls to mitigate risk. One important way we are addressing risk is by leveraging ergonomics to improve safety. Our Rio Claro, Brazil, facility was the first location to achieve the Management in Ergonomics certification from the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards and is the basis for our revamped Ergonomics Management Global Procedure.
The ergonomics process structure aligns every location to manage local ergonomic-related aspects with the same level of detail globally to reduce workplace injuries, improve employee health and well-being and drive productivity in a stronger workplace culture.
