Why is this important?
Our vision is to promote health as an essential value, protected through individual responsibility, but powered by OMV Petrom as a responsible employer. The wellbeing, physical and mental health of our employees are the foundations for a successful company, since they affect the performance levels of our Company’s core asset, our human capital.
Our commitment
As stated in our HSSE Policy, the Group commits itself to the continuous improvement of the quality of our activities while protecting people, environment, assets and reputation. The Group´s HSSE Vision “ZERO Harm – NO Losses” guides behaviors, actions and decisions focusing on the health of our employees by improving working conditions and delivering medical services and programs based on the World Health Organization definition, that health is not only the absence of disease or infirmity, but also the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being of an individual. Through health services, programs and promotion campaigns, we address the most important health impact issues, customized according to our employees’ health profile.
To monitor health, the group owned company PetroMed Solutions SRL provides services which mainly consist of legally required occupational health examinations, general medical consultations, medical emergency support, as well as preventive medicine consultations for our employees. Over the past years, we have increased the number of preventive medicine consultations, providing our employees with specific screenings and vaccination campaigns. A Private Health Insurance program is available for all OMV Petrom employees; the program is one of the most desired benefits among Romanian employees, especially in the context of decreasing quality of public health services. This benefit has proven useful since 2014, financially supporting many colleagues in difficult medical situations. OMV Petrom’s health insurance program remains one with the most complex medical coverage and the most competitive cost in Romania.
The Health Management Department is responsible for developing the Health Strategy and the integration of health services, as well as for managing all health-related issues. Moreover, we are assisted by PetroMed Solutions SRL, an in-house health service provider, responsible for the operative delivery of health services through a network of 24 workplace clinics.
There is an ongoing identification of occupational health (OH) hazards, assessment of OH risks and implementation of necessary control measures according to the HSSE Risk Management Standard. We have developed guidelines – based on international guidelines from IOGP/IPIECA – for risk assessment that cover such health risks as harm from chemical agents, psychological strain, physical injuries, and others. The medical team supports the HSSE Team to develop and maintain at each site complete and updated occupational risks records. Risk assessments are carried out on a regular basis, at least once in every three-year period, as well as when new work procedures are implemented, or new products are used.
Group Health Standard
We have established a Group-wide health care standard to ensure a high level of care for our employees’ health. The standard includes preventive initiatives such as targeted health promotion campaigns, a systematic assessment of health risk mitigation, and curative care. The Group Standard for Health describes the main principles, roles and responsibilities, and lines of communication. The Standard provides a framework for managing preventive health measures and curative health care, as well as collaboration among HSSE specialists, and regulates work of service providers.
Health: ON! Stress: OFF!
In 2021, all health programs and initiatives offered by the Company were gathered under our Health: ON! Platform, which has been active since 2014. With its attractive and interactive communication, the platform aims to change the employees’ attitude from consumers to co-producers of health while encouraging the voluntary utilization of the health programs according to their specific needs. The Health: ON! Platform covers services and benefits related to occupational health (delivered by PetroMed), prevention (health promotion and awareness campaigns as “Passport for health” or discounted medical subscriptions with the main private medical networks), curative health (covered through PetroMed clinics and OMV Petrom Private Health Insurance), emergency health (medical first aid).
Within the Health: ON! Platform we also focused, in 2021, on stress management and psychological support initiatives for our employees. Through our partnership with a specialized clinic, we continued to offer OMV Petrom employees’ access to individual psychotherapy sessions. We also developed a campaign, which involved a series of short videos in which a psychotherapist offered us useful tips for stress management and talked about the causes and consequences of stress.
The health audit program serves as an evaluation tool to ensure that our common corporate health care standard is implemented and followed throughout the Group. The program stipulates that all clinics and medical partners be audited every three years, and clinics also report on a self-conducted audit every year. Audit results serve as the basis for identifying areas for further improvement and analyzing the effectiveness of our health management approach.
First Aid training is coordinated by the Health Management Department and delivered through the Training Product Management Department. In this process, the Health Management Department’s role is to set the necessary agreement with the training provider (the Romanian Red Cross organization) and provide all information required to organize and deliver the training to employees on each location as legally required.
Our Annual HSSE Plan includes health targeted actions and programs related to health promotion and awareness. In addition, a major focus is on our response to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure a healthy and safe work environment for our employees, contractors and partners, and maintain OMV Petrom’s system-critical business activities, and to cope with various challenges and limitations of the pandemic, in alignment with our COVID-19 vaccination policy, where we:
- do not compel any individual to be vaccinated against any specific disease (this includes COVID), respecting an individual’s right to choose not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as much as possible in accordance with local legislation
- support equitable access and distribution as per the local authorities’ requirements and vaccination strategy, giving priority to vulnerable employees with pre-existing health conditions
- provide employees with reliable information to facilitate an informed decision and minimizes the possible influence of misinformation
- take over costs to enable vaccinations, which are approved by local and/or international health authorities
Pandemic response and health awareness
In 2021, the PetroMed team continued to respond to the emergency situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed daily the evolution of the number of cases, the results of the latest research, the recommendations of international agencies and decisions adopted at the European and national level to update and develop the action plan both at PetroMed and the entire OMV Petrom Group. Thus, in collaboration with the other departments within OMV Petrom, we have been able to adopt the most appropriate measures for the employees’ health and implement the Company’s activity in the best conditions. We developed and distributed communication materials on coronavirus prevention measures. We also developed a COVID-19 vaccination campaign, by offering support in registering on the national vaccination platform, providing information materials and organizing online events with medical experts.
Throughout the pandemic period, our medical staff carefully monitored the health of the people while providing personalized information and advice. For their own safety, OMV Petrom employees in high-risk groups (e.g., people of certain ages and with chronic illnesses) have been instructed to work from home.
We continued to provide psychological support service consisting of remote, fully confidential counseling sessions and aiming to help our colleagues who may experience any form of distress or anxiety. In addition, we have delivered specific webinars addressing main concerns in relation to the pandemic context, which registered a high participation rate among our colleagues.
Another special service that we used is the PetroMed Call Line, with the support of the Doctors’ Caravan Association. The call line was available to all OMV Petrom employees who needed advice and recommendations related to COVID-19 as well as other medical issues.
Passport for health
Organized on a yearly basis by the HSSE Health Management Department with the support of PetroMed, the campaign aims to set prevention as a proactive approach within our community, to encourage employees to participate in voluntary health programs and adopt a healthy lifestyle, and to strengthen identity towards a culture of healthcare in OMV Petrom. The Passport for Health is a personal tracking system where employees can keep score of all healthy lifestyle activities (e.g., participation in screenings, vaccinations, general practitioner check-ups, sports events, health hours, filling in questionnaires on various health topics, choosing healthy company canteen menus, smoking cessation, etc.). Passport for health continued in 2021 with its 6th edition, in a hybrid format. The competition was open to both colleagues with intranet access and those without access with the support of local PetroMed clinics and we registered around 1,700 participants.
Our accomplishments in 2021 include:
- COVID-19 response: we managed to ensure a healthy and safe work environment for our employees, contractors and partners, and maintain OMV Petrom’s system-critical business activities.
- We positioned Health as a business asset, including awareness for individual responsibility of own health via the Health: ON! Platform (implementation of the 6th edition of the Passport for Health campaign, screenings, vaccinations).
- We provided sustainable health services (occupational, curative, emergency health services).
First Aid trainings and legally required health and safety trainings were carried out. In 2021, 208 people completed the First Aid basic training and approximately 290 employees received refresher trainings. Health related aspects in context of pandemic were included in the periodical legally required training for health and safety.
Looking forward, our HSSE Plan includes:
- Pandemic management: COVID-19 response and implementation of the vaccination campaign against COVID-19
- 2 health promotion campaigns: Mental health (Increase awareness among OMV Petrom employees and managers regarding work-life balance and develop basic skills for stress resilience) and Passport for health, 7th edition (promote prevention as a proactive approach in our community)
- Continuation of First Aid and Medical Emergency Care