One thing is certain: safety is at the top of Xella's list of core values. It is a crucial part of our culture. It encompasses every aspect of how we do business, across all functions and at every level. Keeping our people safe and ensuring that they return home to their families safe and sound at the end of each working day is central to the way we do business.

Fortunately, our safety efforts resonate with our employees: in our most recent employee engagement survey, the statement 'My safety comes first for my direct manager' was the highest ranking. 

Equality is key to our future

Our non-discrimination and diversity policy and our Code of Conduct set out our commitment to equal opportunity and respect for all. We do not discriminate on any grounds: race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion or any other status. To achieve equality not only in gender, several initiatives are followed.

Prioritizing our people

We offer fair and attractive wages in a non-discriminatory working environment. Employees can also take advantage of a range of benefits, including healthcare and flexible working options, to maximize work-life balance and family-friendly support.

Five examples:

• We expand the scope of the Total Safety Leadership program.
  We have established and invested heavily in training leaders with our Total Safety Leadership program, with measurable and positive results over the past three years. Drawing employees from line managers, maintenance managers and shift leaders, as well as managers from sales and administration, the training is provided in several local languages.

• We extend the schedule for ‘Let’s talk safety’ days.
  The introduction of safety days at all our locations has shown that interactive dialogue is essential to raising awareness and managing risks in a work environment that values safe production over production volume. For our ‘Let’s talk safety’ sessions, production at a plant is halted for a day or a shift. It includes practical presentations and experiences about real-life safety risks such as fires, forklifts, distractions, and impairments.

• We continue implementing a safety culture in our locations.
  For example, in 2023, we trained 409 leaders in safety walks. Empowering leaders to take personal responsibility brings the topic of safety into the workplace and encourages dialog and feedback. 2,077 safety walks in 2023 involved touring a plant, observing, and engaging with employees to praise good behavior or highlight behavioral risks, always in an appreciative manner as an impulse to get employees involved in managing their own safety and that of their colleagues.

• Xella France realizes equal treatment for women and men
  We are focusing to increase the percentage share of female managers at Xella to 25 percent in 2025. Xella France is leading the way on gender equality at Xella Group, achieving an exceptional 94 out of 100 points on the ‘Index de l’egalite entre les femmes et les hommes’, a national index based on five measures that make existing gender inequality quantitatively verifiable. Xella France not only improved its position by three points in 2023, compared with the previous year, it has already exceeded Xella’s Group target with 31% of its managers being female.

• Training people and recruiting future talents
  Due to a decline in the working age population and a general lack in skills required for the transition to green and digital technologies, labor shortages are real in the construction industry. This reinforces our focus on retraining, reskilling and upskilling our employees, which is critical to managing our future talent. In 2023, €1.8 million was spent on training in 2023, and €5.3 million over the last three years. We exceeded our target to provide 12.8 hours of annual training per employee in 2023 as we reached 20.8 hours. In 2024, the focus on developing our people by providing technical and soft skills training is stronger than ever.

We are working hard to instill a cultural change around safety, and the aspects of our safety culture do not end here. Read more about the core of our sustainability strategy in our 2023 ESG Report.