Providing security for our people and business

ABB recognizes its duty of care and information to employees and contractors, and has built up security capability accordingly in recent years. One of the cornerstones is regular and mandatory security training to ensure that teams of people at Group, regional and national level know how to act and react in the event of a natural or man-made crisis.

In 2013 alone, about 500 senior managers in 25 countries were given training to help them ensure the safety and security of employees and contractors in a time of crisis and the ability of ABB to continue carrying out business. These day-long sessions introduce managers to different kinds of crisis scenarios, both generic and specific to their countries, placing emphasis on the Group-wide tools to be used and the processes that need to be followed.

Management teams in countries where ABB has operations and major projects receive crisis training every three years. Complementing these sessions is ongoing training on a wide range of other security tools and processes which are designed to standardize and simplify working during challenging and stressful situations. This minimizes the need for judgment on peripheral issues and allows managers to concentrate on the key impacts and mitigation measures.

These tools and processes include: Travel codes of conduct for individual high-risk countries which are detailed advisories, as well as processes for potential emergencies; an online travel information sheet which every traveler to a high-risk area must complete prior to departure, permitting greater visibility on their location in the event of a crisis; and e-learning tools which are available and widely used by travelers familiarizing themselves with new environments.

Project security plans are mandatory for countries or parts of countries assessed to be high-risk. For example: If ABB is bidding for a contract in an area deemed to be high-risk, the customer’s security arrangements will be reviewed by ABB Corporate Security experts who will then decide whether and what additional measures need to be taken and factored in to the overall costs of the bid. Understanding and pre-empting such risks, as far as is possible, is core to the safety of our people and business resilience.