What responsibility means to us...

Creating a safe and pleasant work environment for our employees is a high priority.  For us, this incorporates not just the physical aspects of our employees work environment, but also the promotion of healthy lifestyles and behaviors and the prevention of injury and accidents.  We have very high standards in this area, and a strong track record of achievement, because we believe that exceptional occupational health and safety performance is a key component in employee performance and engagement, making Shire a world-class organization.  In addition to high expectations within our own organization, we evaluate the health and safety performance of our partners and suppliers as well, and their performance is taken into consideration when choosing new partners and suppliers.

In 2011, we improved the physical space of a number of our main sites.  In Basingstoke in the U.K., we embarked on a significant re-design of our facilities including new open plan office and meeting space, better use of indoor and outdoor space, improved lighting and air quality, and a new restaurant and catering facility with a wide variety of fresh and healthy food and drink options.

Our Lexington, MA site in the U.S. underwent a partial renovation.  In addition to having world-class environmental sustainability qualities, the new campus boasts an array of state-of-the-art office and manufacturing facilities.

We strive to help our employees and their families stay healthy and safe. To do this we have a team of occupational health nurses that run onsite clinics at our major facilities and implement an extensive wellness program.

The program includes organizing health fairs that are held annually at our biggest sites and every two or three years at smaller facilities. In 2011 we held health fairs at our HGT Massachusetts and Chesterbrook, PA, sites as well as in the UK, Ireland and Canada.  The fairs offer employees free health screenings such as for cholesterol, blood pressure, bone density, lung function, prostate cancer, visual acuity and body fat. Individual results are provided to each employee. Data trends are analyzed internally by Shire’s nurses to monitor wellness and develop our wellness and health programs. To help raise awareness and provide information concerning a variety of health, safety and wellness issues, a wide range of vendors are invited to participate in our fairs to share information on nutrition, healthy lifestyle, stress management, sleep management and many other issues.

In addition to the health fairs, our occupational health nurses hold walk-in clinics, provide routine screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, and offer flu vaccinations.  The nurses provide health counseling and follow-up referrals as appropriate.  Each month, a specific health topic is featured such as diabetes, nutrition, weight management, heart health, cancers, travel health, stress management, and more.

We have also built fitness centers at our major facilities which we provide at no cost to our employees. These centers provide a variety of cardio and strength-training equipment and classes. Shire’s Health Safety & Environment department teams up with the fitness centers to host fitness activities, nutrition and weight loss programs and competitions.

For our smaller sites we promote wellness and health issues through our health care providers and our intranet site, and use of global email and newsletters. Further, we provide incentives for staff to undertake health risk assessments and to adopt a healthy lifestyle such as joining a gym, participating in sports teams, etc.  Through our health benefits providers we have a robust stress management and a global mental health program (our Employee Assistance Program).

• Ranked 6th in the Philadelphia Inquirer Top Workplace program, in a large part due to our wellness programs and our free onsite fitness center. 2012 wellness programs included heart health, weight loss, smoking cessation, Shape up for Shire, Stress reduction and sleep hygiene.
• Received a nomination for “Healthiest Employers” award for our Lexington onsite fitness center, wellness programs and onsite occupational health clinics.
• Were recognized by The American Heart Association as a Fit-Friendly Company in January 2012. The award honors employers who make employee health and wellness a top priority.
• Used the data collected on workplace incidents to fully analyze them and determine and address root causes. The data showed that our most common incidents are slips, trips and falls, overexertion (sprains and strains), repetitive motion (ergonomic) injuries and motor vehicle accidents. These were focus areas for safety campaigns in 2012. The number of recordable slip trip and fall injuries was cut in half in 2012 compared to 2011.
• Rolled out a new driver safety policy to our sales folks. Classroom and behind the wheel driver training is being provided across our sales organizations at regular intervals. Training was conducted in 2012 in Brazil, Colombia, Spain, Italy and Germany.