Building a “circle of confidence” with employees and customers

Trust and confidence are vital to the water sector, where so many different stakeholders come together to deliver a life-sustaining resource to the public. One important way to build trust with employees and customers is through health and safety programs that protect and empower workers, while continuously improving processes, accountability and performance. 

In 2022, Xylem launched a three-year environmental, health and safety plan with ambitious goals to strengthen our EHS program. Since that time, we’ve worked across the organization and with customers to reduce our total recordable incident rate (TRIR) by more than 14%. This has led to considerable savings in workers’ compensation costs in the U.S. These improvements have not gone unnoticed. Highwire, a leading contractor success platform, recently has honored Xylem’s Evoqua business with a Platinum Safety Award in 2024. 

Xylem’s Dr. Jay Harf, Vice President, Global Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability, shares insights on building a robust EHS program and the link between employee health and safety and creating customer value. 

Q: What is Xylem’s approach to health and safety? 

A: Xylem is deeply committed to the safety of our employees, customers, communities and the environment. We believe that it is a fundamental human right to work at a safe workplace.

Our strategy focuses on three pillars: people, process and performance. When talented, informed people follow good processes, you'll have good performance. 

On the people side, our safety management program includes safety trainings and programs for employees, leadership training and communication. On the process side, we concentrate on risk mitigation, continuous improvement, and tracking and measuring safety results to increase accountability and improve performance. These are all key factors in creating a safe work environment and high-impact culture.   

Q: How does having a health and safety culture deliver value for customers?  

A: Having a health and safety mindset and culture creates what I call a Circle of Confidence with employees and customers. First, employees feel safer, more informed and more motivated knowing that their employer is looking out for them. 

In turn, customers feel more confident because they know they are being serviced by competent individuals who are well-trained, understand their responsibilities, and know how to protect themselves and the customer’s employees.

Customers can also see how focusing on health and safety makes our processes stronger and more efficient, enabling us to continuously improve the value we deliver.

The Circle of Confidence creates the ultimate customer relationship. It’s a mutually beneficial dynamic focused on getting the job done well and done safely that can lead to partnerships that last for decades.  

Q: How is Xylem turning our safety commitments into day-to-day practices? 

A: Health and safety are engrained in our standard work to solve water. We’re constantly doing risk assessments at job sites, and our EHS teams are always talking to colleagues about what’s going on in the field, on the factory floor and beyond. In addition, we continue to advance our comprehensive three-year EHS plan. Among its focus areas: 

• Strengthening EHS leadership capabilities through our leadership safety training program.
• Upgrading and simplifying our data management system to create insights, measure performance, and ensure accountability and action.
• Providing constant training to our employees to build knowledge and awareness of safety issues.
• Engaging employees in EHS through new hire orientations, our CEO Safety Excellence Awards, and events like Xylem Safety Week.  

Our customers also play an important role in how we advance health and safety. Every day we send safety-trained professionals from Xylem to customer sites. Before, during and after these visits, we work closely with customers to ensure that our employees uphold rigorous safety practices (training, communication and education) that meet both of our organizations’ standards and protocols. We also share learnings and best practices.  

Q: What does the Highwire recognition mean for Xylem and our customers? 

A: We’re very excited about receiving a Platinum Safety Award from Highwire.  The contractor success platform said we’ve done “a remarkable job implementing a strong safety management system resulting in exceptional safety performance and results.” I told my team to frame that quote! 

This honor, which is based on an assessment of historic and current safety performance, really underscores the fact that we care about our colleagues, and we understand that protecting our people enables and inspires them to go the extra mile for our customers.

Learn more about Xylem’s Health and Safety Program in our latest Sustainability Report.