SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT BY TRADITION AND CONVICTION

The members of the Health Circle are responsible for the implementation of our vital@kuhnrikon. We take various measures to cultivate our corporate culture and to express our appreciation to our employees. We are convinced that a good team spirit and healthy, committed employees are decisive for the overall performance of the company.

Tobias Gerfin - CEO Kuhn Rikon AG

Kuhn Rikon - the name stands for a fourth generation family firm firmly anchored to its location. It also stands for high quality cookware and innovative kitchen aids sold worldwide. Ever since the founding of the firm in 1926, we have placed great value on social responsibility (e.g. taking in refugees from Tibet in the 60s, our very own pension fund introduced before the introduction of the one under the Swiss Occupational Pensions Act). The entire management team as well as the administration board and the owner's family set great store in creating and giving our employees a (working) environment, in which they feel supported and at ease. Since structured Occupational Health Management (OHM) was to become an established part of our company culture and also a further sign of our appreciation of our employees, in January 2006 the management decided to introduce a comprehensive OHM based on the "KMU-vital" programme of Health Promotion Switzerland under the title "vital@kuhnrikon". With the support of the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine of Zurich University we collected the stresses and resources of our employees in a comprehensive, anonymous employee survey. Based on these results, which were made transparent for all employees, and a second situation evaluation in spring 2008, in the last ten years an internal team, the so-called Health Circle, has conducted various campaigns, informative events, measures and organisational changes, in part with the support of external partners.

For us it is not a matter first and foremost of measurable results, but of the working atmosphere, the identification of the employees with our company and our appreciation of them. Thanks to the 100% commitment of management, we are convinced that our commitment in the OHM contributes to this. The results from the surveys confirm that to us. With our structured absence management we do record absences caused by sickness and accidents, but in so doing it is not our intention to reduce the absence rate but, above all, to actively look after the long-term sick and support them in coming back into the work process.

With the label Friendly Work Space®, as the first small to medium firm in the canton of Zurich to be awarded this in 2009, we have taken a further step. The label honours companies for their systematic and enduring OHM and is based on 6 criteria and 26 sub-criteria. In a one-day assessment, neutral assessors, trained by Health Promotion Switzerland, inspect various aspects of company policy, human resources, work organisation, the planning of OHM, social responsibility and the implementation and overall evaluation of OHM. In the meantime we have already been recertified three times and are proud that we have achieved the label each time with improvements. The manifold, structured and sustainable measures in the context of "vital@kuhnrikon" have become a firm feature in our company and have met with wide acceptance in workforce achieved by virtue of the optimum and widely based composition of the Health Circle.

With the Friendly Work Space® label we are not only demonstrating to the public at large that OHM is well established, organised, planned, implemented and evaluated in Tösstal. Above all, the label also shows our active and future employees that we are a firm in which:

• Team members and line managers cultivate respectful interaction.
• Professional and personal appreciation is a part of our company culture.
• Part-time working and flexible working hours are possible.
• Career and private life can be combined.
• Being family-friendly is a part of our company culture.
• The work is varied and do-able and also involves challenges.
• Care is taken of resources and stresses do not have consequences for health.

We remain "on the ball" and are continuing with our social responsibility, not only out of tradition but also out of conviction. Only with engaged, healthy and loyal employees and an inspirational, motivating environment can we master the future, multifaceted challenges and achieve economic success.