Kellogg on Human Rights & Employee Safety
As a responsible corporate citizen, Kellogg upholds and advances human rights. Our commitment to respecting and protecting the rights of those affected directly and indirectly by our operations is outlined in our Human Rights Position Statement and our Policy Statement Prohibiting Involuntary Labor. We also publish an annual progress report that documents our milestones and actions, including those that meet regulatory reporting requirements such as the U.K. Modern Slavery Act.
In 2019, Kellogg ranked #11 across all industries on the global Corporate Human Rights Benchmark that evaluates companies’ human rights policies, processes and practices. We also ranked #2 in the food and beverage category on the 2018 Know the Chain assessment that evaluates actions companies are taking to eradicate forced labor from their supply chains.
Across our supply chain
Demonstrating the priority we place on protecting human rights, our cross-functional team of leaders meets monthly to review our monitoring and verification processes. We also require suppliers that represent 80% of our spend and all high-risk suppliers to register in the Sedex platform and review third-party audits to monitor our suppliers, and complete Sedex self-assessments of our manufacturing facilities. In 2019, we partnered with Elevate to update our supplier segmentation process and assess human rights risks within our own operations and supply chain. We are using this information to update our overall human rights strategy in 2020.
Kellogg also serves on the AIM-PROGRESS Leadership Team and the Human Rights Steering Group and is a member of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Social Sustainability Committee. Not SSC – Is now the Human Rights/Forced Labor and the Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative Coalitions of Action.
Within our operations
Our commitment to human rights extends across our own operations as well. We strive to be a preferred employer and to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our employees.
Employee safety is addressed in our K Values™. We “embrace the belief that all injuries are preventable and that achieving a healthy and safe environment starts with ‘me.’” In 2019, we are proud to have been the first food company ever chosen as a finalist for the National Safety Council’s prestigious Robert W. Campbell Award recognizing excellence in environment, health and safety.
We continue to make progress addressing safety across our organization. In 2019, we had no fatalities and our global Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) dropped 29% to 0.40. Our global Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR) also dropped 32% to 0.22. Both rates are the lowest in our company’s history and well below industry standards.
We’re also increasing our emphasis on the leading indicators that drive these results. By identifying potential concerns in real time across our operations, we can address them immediately and prevent future incidents. One of these areas of focus is further reducing hand and finger injuries across our manufacturing facilities. As a result, hand injuries have been reduced by 14% globally since 2018.
Another area of focus is ensuring the automotive safety of our sales team. The telematics system in our fleet provides important information we use to coach driving behaviors. With this information, as well as regular training, our Kellogg U.S. sales teams’ collision rate is 182% better than the closest benchmarked company.
“Around the world, our company and employees embrace safety as a continuous improvement journey,” said Lisa VanderHulst, Vice President, Global Environment, Health and Safety. “Our mantra is ‘Zero Is Not Impossible,’” and we’re relentless in driving toward this goal.”
In early 2020, our Jackson, Tennessee Pringles facility received a Governor’s Award of Excellence for Workplace Safety and Health.
Investing in people
Our founder, W.K. Kellogg said, “I’ll invest my money in people.” More than 100 years later, we continue to put people first. For our employees, this dedication to people means that we offer competitive benefits and rewards packages around the world, and an environment where success is celebrated.
As we advance our Deploy for Growth strategy, it is imperative that our employees exhibit the skills and behaviors needed to ensure our company’s continued success. To clearly convey these expectations, we identified Growth Competencies, six for all employees and two more for people managers. The Growth Competencies complement employees’ existing functional and technical competencies and are grounded in our K Values™. For all employees they include having courage, building effective teams, being nimble learners, having a strategic mindset, driving results and focusing on the customer. Additionally, people managers are expected to develop talent and drive engagement.
To support our employees in building their skills and careers, Kellogg strives to create an aspirational learning culture. We leverage the global LinkedIn Learning platform of on-demand, online video courses covering a great variety of professional and personal development topics. Kellogg salaried employees use the platform to upskill as needed, immediately improving themselves and our business.
Providing training and development in manufacturing facilities is always a challenge, given the nature of the work and working hours. To support the career development of these employees, our Kellogg North America Supply Chain team has developed two unique training programs based on the specific needs of the operations community.
- Front-line leaders now have a standard 30-day onboarding program and additional training in team building; and,
- Talent Builders is a monthly career development conference call open to all salaried employees to help them plan and build their Kellogg careers.
Learn more about working at Kellogg Company here.
