Advancing health and safety for our employees – and the communities we serve

Employee health and safety is critical at Xylem as we work to solve the world’s toughest water challenges. We’ve set ambitious 2025 health and safety goals and established a rigorous continuous improvement approach at Xylem locations around the globe.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) recently recognized our commitment by honoring Xylem with 14 Health and Safety Awards. The competition, which attracts nearly 2,000 applicants from almost 50 countries, is the United Kingdom's largest occupational health and safety awards program.

Making Waves spoke with Dr. Jay Harf, Vice President, Global Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability at Xylem, about the recognition:

Q: What steps is Xylem taking to advance employee health and safety?

A: Creating a culture of safety and well-being is key for Xylem. Safety performance is reviewed at all levels of the organization and included in management assessments and our day-to-day operational culture. Actions we take to reinforce our safety culture include employee training and engagement, frequent management review meetings, third-party compliance audits, lessons learned, Safety Week and our CEO Safety Awards. We also integrate safety into our day-to-day operations, including management performance assessments.

“Water is fundamental to human health and safety. By building a world-class health and safety practice at Xylem, we’re protecting our people who are, in turn, solving water for our customers and helping them protect the safety of their communities. It’s a virtuous circle I’m very proud to be a part of.”

Q: How is that commitment turning into positive health and safety outcomes?

A: We continue to make progress in health and safety, while looking for ways to further improve our performance. In 2022, we logged an additional +1,100,000 work hours over prior years while reducing our injury rate by 4.5% and developing more robust performance management, training systems and employee engagement methodologies.

Q: What kind of achievements do the RoSPA Awards recognize?

A: The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) awards program recognizes an organization’s commitment to continuous improvement in the prevention of accidents and ill health at work, assessing their overarching health and safety management systems including practices like leadership and workforce involvement.

Xylem received eight Gold Awards, three Silver Awards and three Bronze Awards, representing company locations in eight different countries across our global footprint. Most notably, we received gold awards for our locations in: Shenyang, China; Vadodara, India; Dubai, UAE; Chihuahua, Mexico; Bridgeport, New Jersey, U.S.; Montecchio, Italy; Emmaboda, Sweden; and Herford, Germany. 

Two of these locations – Shenyang, China and Bridgeport, New Jersey, U.S. – also won our internal CEO Safety Excellence awards.

Q: What does the RoSPA recognition mean for our health and safety efforts at Xylem?

A: At Xylem, we believe that it’s a fundamental human right to work in a safe workplace, and we’re constantly working to drive a culture of safety and well-being. The RoSPA honors reflect our dedication to ensuring the safety of our employees, clients and contractors, and our commitment to health and safety excellence and continuous improvement efforts. This was our first year entering the competition, and we’re very proud and excited to be honored – RoSPA Award-winning organizations are recognized as global leaders in health and safety practices.

For more on health and safety at Xylem, check out Xylem’s Sustainability Report.