Health and safety

We are committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for everyone. We have adopted global policies, mandatory procedures, and incident and information reporting systems across the organisation that reflect our core values and are aligned to international standards.

Our global health and safety performance is subject to ongoing monitoring and assurance to ensure we are compliant with relevant laws and regulations.

Our chief operating officers have overall responsibility for engendering a positive health and safety culture and ensuring that global policies, procedures and systems are put into practice locally. They also have responsibility for ensuring all local legal requirements are met.

HSBC is committed to the effective delivery and continual improvement of our health and safety management system and will ensure that:

• HSBC develops a culture where all our people and stakeholders take responsibility for the health and safety of themselves and others
• Appropriate resources will be provided to meet our health and safety commitments
• HSBC’s leaders, managers, employees and third parties are responsible for ensuring they proactively identify, manage and eliminate hazards and reduce risks in the workplace
• All health and safety risks will be assessed, managed, recorded, monitored and reported according to the HSBC Operational Risk Management Framework and 10 key controls for Workplace Safety
• Appropriate information, instruction, training and supervision will be provided to employees and contractors
• HSBC is committed to consultation and participation on health and safety matters with employees, third parties (and their representatives)
• Employees can raise safety issues and concerns through their line managers or HSBC Confidential
• Non-HSBC employees can raise safety issues and concerns either with their line manager, the HSBC office or branch manager, or any HSBC employee
• Health and safety performance goals will be set and met annually to promote continuous improvement
• HSBC will provide an effective OHS management system that drives continual review and improvement, in accordance with ISO 45001

Putting our commitment into practice

We delivered a range of programmes in 2023 to help us understand and manage our health and safety risks:

• We reinforced our advice and risk assessment and control methodology on working from home for employees adopting a hybrid work style, providing more awareness and best practices on good ergonomics and well-being
• We delivered health and safety training and awareness to 235,000 of our employees and contractors globally, ensuring roles and responsibilities were clear and understood
• We completed the annual safety inspection on all of our buildings globally, to ensure we were meeting our standards and continuously improving our safety performance
• We maintained measures in our workplaces globally to minimise the risks from the spread of respiratory disease, including through the provision of hand sanitiser, improved ventilation, and guidance on good hygiene practices
• We continued to focus on enhancing the safety culture in our supply chain through our SAFER Together programme, covering the five key elements of best practice safety culture, including speaking up about safety, and recognising excellence
• We continued to provide our guidance and training programme for our construction partners, focusing on our key markets globally to reduce the likelihood of accidents occurring by helping them understand and deliver industry-leading health and safety performance. More than 7,500 construction workers received safety passport training across 20 countries
• In 2023, our Eat Well Live Well programme continued to promote healthier and more sustainable diets among our colleagues with 30 per cent of global food sales from HSBC catering outlets comprising healthy options. We also extended the reach of our programme through the launch of increased plant-based offers, monthly events dedicated to Eat Well Live Well, and virtual teaching kitchens accessible to all our employees
• Protection of our colleagues and operations is of critical importance, and we have effective controls in place to protect our people from natural disasters (such as storms and earthquakes). In 2023, there were 27 named storms that passed over 2,010 of our buildings, resulting in no injuries. Only five buildings in Mexico were affected with minor business impact following Storm Otis