Attractive working environment

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Implenia has worked intensively for many years to provide equal opportunities for women and men. The company is not satisfied with a 15.3% share of female employees, and it is continuing its work to attract more women across all employment categories.

Implenia is a member of «Advance», a broad-based Swiss programme established by a group of well-known companies to actively help women advance their careers. One of its aims is to increase the proportion of women in management positions through skills-building workshops, mentoring and networking events.

Implenia also works on bringing talented young people into the construction industry, directing its efforts equally at women and men. It is beginning to see the success of this approach: in 2022, four of the five students that Implenia Norway supported with their masters theses were female. In Switzerland in 2022, the company once again participated actively in National Futures Day, joining a special project run by Baukader Schweiz and the Schweizerischer Baumeisterverband: “Mädchen – bauen – los!” (“Girls – build – go!”). 

In order to implement its innovation strategy, Implenia wants to attract highly talented people and instil in them a long-term commitment to the company. It offers its employees a wide variety of training and development options, allowing them to build up their knowledge and skills and to progress within the business.

Just as employees’ personal and professional progress is encouraged, the training and development programme itself is constantly being expanded. Furthermore, training courses are subject to constant quality control. In 2022, Implenia launched its digital “eCampus” in all markets. Employees can now register for training or start an e-learning course with a few clicks of the mouse. 

Training is coordinated and delivered at global, national and local levels. The success of the training programme is due in part to the fact that it addresses all levels of the hierarchy, reaching every employee from top management to the project level.

Implenia wants to support all employees equally in their careers, and so in 2019 it tested a new standard for assessing the organisation and its talents: the “Organisation Capabilities Review”. Following its successful introduction for managers, this will gradually be applied to the whole Group over the next few years.

Implenia set up the Sustainability Academy at the same time as the eCampus in 2022. Each segment of the electronic training programme covers one of the Group’s sustainability goals, thus informing employees about the most important sustainability issues. The first four modules have been released and are now being integrated into training plans and the onboarding process for new employees. 

In order to ensure everyone shares the same understanding of what leadership is, Implenia puts its managers through the “Winning Performance” programme. This leadership development programme is aimed at middle managers in Switzerland, Germany, France and Austria. 

Winning Performance lasts for six days, during which participants acquire foundational knowledge in areas such as leadership, communication, health & safety, sustainability and financial management. Informal events are held each evening, with activities designed to help everyone get to know each other and to promote networking. 56 executives participated in the programme in 2022.

In Germany, up-and-coming managers are trained within the “Winning Potential” programme. The programme, which lasts a year, teaches key social, communications and methodological skills.  

Implenia also trains managers from all markets under the Group-wide “WE LEAD” programme, which is based on the Executive MBA Continuing Education Programme “embaX” offered by ETH Zurich and the University of St. Gallen. WE LEAD consists of several modules on topics such as change management, leadership and collaboration.

In addition to conveying common values and leadership principles, the programme promotes Group-wide networking between managers and future managers. Since 2022, WE LEAD has also been open to promising employees who may be suitable for future management roles. During the first round, 200 employees benefited from the expanded training and development offering. 400 are participating in the current second round.

Implenia prefers to fill vacant positions whenever it can with the most suitable people from within its own ranks, and uses a systematic talent management process to help it do this. The increasing shortage of skilled specialists within the industry means, however, that the company also has to recruit external talent. For example, Implenia offers graduates the opportunity to complete a 12-month trainee programme to prepare them for a commercial or technical career.

Implenia Switzerland has also been offering the “Junior Construction Management Programme” since 2022. Aimed specifically at apprentices and students in the construction field, this year-long course prepares young professionals for construction manager or technical training. Participants currently take nine modules, 90 percent of which involve practical placements on projects and construction sites. The valuable experience they gain puts them in a good position to start a further course of study as a junior construction manager.

Implenia wants to position itself as a benchmark company for promoting young talent in the construction industry. The company has always trained young professionals – to secure its own future and at the same time to fulfil its social responsibility. In 2022, around 200 apprentices finished their apprenticeship at Implenia in on-site or office-based roles.

As well as offering its apprentices in Switzerland a training place, Implenia also strengthens their professional and social skills by running regular apprenticeship projects. In 2022, for example, second-year apprentices built a wooden bridge, firewood stores and other infrastructure for a hiking trail through in Val Lumnezia in Canton Grisons (more information).

Implenia Norway saw a record high number of new apprentices in 2021. Implenia Norway has awarded its “Mentor of the Year” and “Trainee of the Year” prizes since 2019 to reflect its appreciation of exceptional achievement in talent development. Since October 2019, Implenia Sweden has run its own training programme for on-site staff called “Blue Collar Worker”. Ten of the first twelve newly trained specialists were offered a job at the end of the programme.

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Health & Safety is right at the top of Implenia’s priorities. It is a standing item on the agenda of every Implenia Executive Committee meeting. In recent years the company has launched numerous initiatives and created various structures to minimise risks on its construction sites. Almost 100% of all business units now have ISO 45001 certification.

Implenia has a well developed Health & Safety organisation with clearly defined responsibilities, regulations and processes. If accidents do occur, they are systematically recorded and investigated. Corrective measures are taken where necessary. These measures are based on an obligatory discussion between the people involved and their line managers to clarify the causes of the accident.

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An effective safety culture must include openness about mistakes. Everyone wants to avoid mistakes; but if they do happen, they should not be kept secret or played down. Mistakes need to be addressed if they are to be corrected and if lessons are to be learned. Implenia’s number one safety rule is that employees must stop work or tell others to in any situation that seems unsafe.

The Code of Conduct obliges all employees without exception to comply with safety regulations. This also applies to subcontractors working on Implenia construction sites. Implenia doesn’t just impose rules and regulations however; it also actively tries to heighten its employees’ awareness of health and safety. In Switzerland, for example, this already starts during the induction week for new trainees, where more than half of the teaching time is devoted to health and safety at work.

Regular meetings and workshops designed to identify risks, improve risk management and share experiences are embedded into everyday working life. In past years, Implenia has carried out various programmes and campaigns, most of them at local level and in the operational units. A “15-Minute Safety” internal training session is held at least once a month at all projects, for example.

At management level, the company uses leadership workshops to create an even greater awareness of the Group-wide safety culture. The guiding principle is: “safety at work is a management issue!”. Another vital component is the regular reporting that gives managers of relevant operational units an overview of the latest accident rates.  Annual goals set for top management include site inspections with a focus on health and safety. 

Implenia is continuously strengthening its international cooperation on health and safety. A regular exchange of information within the Group-wide Health & Safety organisation helps different teams learn from each other, identify potential for improvements and exploit synergies. By sharing examples of best practice from different countries, all parts of the company can help bring safety up to the same high level across the Group.

Implenia is a member of the "Health & Safety” working group of the European construction industry network encord, which allows it to exchange ideas with other companies.

Implenia’s annual Health & Safety Award celebrates outstanding achievements in occupational health and safety by three teams or individuals. The award is intended to encourage the search for innovative solutions and publicise good ideas throughout the Group.

The 2022 Gold Health & Safety Award was awarded to the Südcampus Bad Homburg project team from Germany. This team designed a wooden frame that encloses free-standing wall sections on construction sites and minimises the risk of falling parts, as well as modular wooden elements that prevent people from falling into stairwells (read more). Silver and Bronze were awarded to the Wooden Construction team in Rümlang (Switzerland) and the TELT project team in France.

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A Group-wide Health & Safety Day was held for the first time in autumn 2022. All employees in every country and every service area focused on the main topic for the day: “dilemma”. There were also site tours focused on health and safety, evacuation exercises, training in first aid and the use of defibrillators, as well as workshops on health topics.

Active participation by the entire workforce and dialogue between employees and managers were prioritised as a counterweight to one-way instructions, which are the usual mode of communication on health and safety issue. Everyone involved was very positive about this interactive approach. The Health & Safety Day will be held once a year from now on.