Continental Engineering Corp (CEC, 大陸工程) yesterday said it aims to further promote the well-being of employees and migrant workers to bolster the company’s efficiency and effectiveness.
“The company has placed great emphasis on the health, safety and well-being of its employees in a five-year maturity plan that includes taking care of their physical and mental well-being,” Continental Engineering chief executive officer Simon Buttery told a media briefing in Taipei.
The company considers the undertaking a key factor in the sustainable growth and development of a modern enterprise, Buttery said.
Photo courtesy of Continental Engineering Corp
Well-being is a relatively unknown concept in Taiwan’s construction industry, which remains heavily dependent on human resources and struggles with a shortage of workers as occurs elsewhere in the world, he said.
The company last year spent 3 percent of its operating profits from a year earlier on advancing the policy, with 6 percent of staff contributing 10,000 working hours in running-related activities, he added.
Today’s resource market is highly competitive and compounded by previous restrictions on the free movement of people to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the British CEO said.
As a result, a labor shortage has hit different sectors around the world, he said.
The well-being maturity plan includes short, medium and long-term activities, and aims to help employees maintain and strengthen their physical and mental health, Buttery said.
Toward that end, the company has introduced employee benefits such as a flexible insurance program, employee assistance program, work life coach and employee recognition programs, he said.
The work life coach program is a consulting service for employees and their families provided by a third-party professional team, conducted in a confidential, one-on-one manner, he said.
The service addresses issues such as stress relief, career development, parenting, interpersonal relationships, law and finance, he said.
Stress poses a bigger challenge for the construction industry than for other businesses, because it employs a considerable number of migrant workers who have to leave their home for long periods, Buttery said.
CEC is one of the very few construction companies in Taiwan that provides consulting services, he said, adding that the ratio of employees who used the work life coach service doubled from 5.43 percent in 2021 to 11 percent last year.
The well-being plan, introduced in 2021, has resulted in a disabling injury frequency rate of 0.76 percent in the past two years for CEC, much lower than the industry average of 1.86 percent in Taiwan, Buttery said.
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